I seriously hope that a good candidate primaries Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. WTF is wrong with her?

[themaguffin]

It's already terrible for her to be so backward on minimum wage, it's worse for her to theatrically vote against it today.

JFC.

[Demsrule86]

1. What are you talking about...Arizona is a red state and there were only 42 votes in favor. The

The parliamentarian ruled it could not be done in reconciliation. We will need a stand alone bill when we get the votes and it isn't going to be $15.00 although it should be. Without Sinema, we have no majority and Biden barely won there you know it is a red state still turning purple.

[themaguffin]

5. Sorry, but her display was appalling. Truly disrespectful and careless.

[Demsrule86]

51. Mitch would be worse...you do get we have a 50 50 majority and if we lose anyone, were are toast.

[Trueblue1968]

56. i agree, i just can't believe her unprofessional behavior. that "thumbs down" was beyond childish

[dsc]

8. She flounced up to the dais with a handbag that cost more than most people's rent for the month

to cast a vote against raising the minimum wage to 15 an hour and then posted a sanctimonious statement to twitter about how she thinks no worker should live in poverty. It is one thing to be against raising the wage, it is quite another to behave like that while being against raising the minimum wage. On edit I am wrong about the handbag was thinking it was something else.

[hatrack]

11. Flounce - thank you, precisely . . .

Flouncing, prancing, showing off that she clearly enjoyed voting to make sure that people in shitty jobs keep on making shitty money.

Well done, Senator Strutmuppet.

[Irish_Dem]

20. Her happiness, flaunting it, bring cake, prancing, expensive hand bag says it all.

This was not politics, this was a personal win of some sort.
Something changed recently it appears.

[smirkymonkey]

30. +1000

Her little display made me absolutely furious.

[madaboutharry]

15. Her display was childish and appalling.

But I don't think her bag was all that expensive. It isn't the brand you might be thinking of.

That said, I really don't get what she believes in.

[marybourg]

18. When I first met her, she was a Green Pary member.

[dsc]

35. sorry you are correct

I added an edit. I was thinking of a different company.

[BradAllison]

19. Big Karen energy there

It's like when they get into it with a minimum wage worker at Target.

[radius777]

49. +1. She exhibits the telltale Karen traits.

She was once much more liberal but now has moved in a conservative direction, as many white women did after 9-11 and after Obama was elected.

She portrays herself (in her style of dress etc) as hip and modern, but has many rightwing traits under the surface... basically a libertarian (freedom for me but not for thee).

[BradAllison]

50. She's such a rebel

She supports the filibuster but she has purple hair!!!

[Maru Kitteh]

34. How many men have you accused of "flouncing" whilst worrying about

the expense of their garments or accessories?

Guessing none. We shouldn't do this. It's sexist.

[kcr]

38. Oh, stop

There is nothing sexist about criticizing her little dance and thumbs down gesture. Or her let them eat cake stunt.

[Maru Kitteh]

44. Oh but there is. You can criticize her actions without

resorting to bad-girl tropes.

[kcr]

45. Okay. How would you describe what she did?

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flounce

Definition of flounce (Entry 1 of 4)
intransitive verb

1a: to move with exaggerated jerky or bouncy motions
flounced about the room, jerking her shoulders, gesticulating
— Agatha Christie
also : to move so as to draw attention to oneself
flounced into the lobby
b: to go with sudden determination
flounced out in a huff

[dsc]

39. If a man went up in the way she did wearing expensive loafers

or carrying an expensive briefcase you bet your ass I would be on that. I will admit I was wrong about that particular bag but I don't take back anything else about her utterly disgusting display. On edit, 3/7 of the Democrats who voted against the increase were women but I only criticized her since only she decided to make that disgusting display.

[Demsrule86]

52. Typical attack on a woman.

[dsc]

60. Three Democratic women opposed the minimum wage

but only one gave a performance that narcissus would be proud of. Any opponent of hers who isn't an idiot will be using that little performance in ads for elections to come. While I don't like any of their votes on this, at least the rest were able to act as if they were dignified representatives of their states and not as if they wandered into the set of the hunger games. Add in the utterly sanctimonious tweet and frankly it was sickening. The absolutely infuriating part of that is assuming it took her 5 minutes to engage in her performance, she made almost as much in those 5 minutes as a minimum wage worker makes in an hour. ($174,000 per year/ 2000 hours per year / 60 minutes per hour = $1.45 per minute). that comes to $7.25 for five minutes. On edit, I am actually wrong, it is exactly the same amount as the minimum wage person makes (I thought the minimum wage was $7.35 but it is actually $7.25)

[vsrazdem]

37. Arizonans already voted to increase the minimum wage by ballot initiative.

It is currently 12.15/hr. She does not represent her constitutuents. There was no excuse for this and I just sent her an email telling her so.

[applegrove]

2. Maybe Roger Stone visited her one stormy night? Seriously maybe

the GOP has put pressure on her knowing they needed to control her.

[TheBlackAdder]

36. McCain 'thumbed down' to save the ACA and help common folk, she emulated McCain to hurt them.

[Demsrule86]

3. If you primary Sinema, kiss the seat goodbye...no one to the left of her will win.

You all have to understand we need a big tent which unfortunately requires both conservadems and moderates.

[themaguffin]

7. I get that, but she didn't "quietly" vote no, she put on a display.

[onecaliberal]

9. She also made voters believe she would support it.

[dsc]

10. you mean like Senator Kelly who won a larger victory than she did against the same

opponent and voted for the increase?

[Irish_Dem]

24. Kelly had a big victory, exactly. I am not buying she is afraid.

She is happy, very happy.

[kcr]

43. Yep. Exactly why I'm not buying the scare tactics against primarying her

Sometimes a primary is necessary, and this is clearly one of those times.

[BradAllison]

21. How did Mark Kelly vote?

I guess he's done in 2 years.

[marybourg]

23. +1

[radius777]

28. False. Biden won AZ on a liberal (but not far left) plaftorm.

Any solid regular Dem can and should primary her - she's too conservative out of touch with what AZ is now. Someone like Rep. Ruben Gallego or SoS Katy Hobbs can (IMO) easily beat her in a primary and do better in a general election than she would. Sinema has no 'natural' constituency and seems to think it's still the 90s when people cared about 'balanced budget' type of mindset when we're in the middle of a pandemic and should be going big - especially as Democrats.

[hlthe2b]

4. She has said prior she is in support of the minimum wage, so there is some explanation pending...

Thus, I'm trying to figure out what she was thinking in casting that vote.

Still, it sounds like her "no" vote gesture may have been similarly designed (as her hair) to attract attention. If so, it seems to have (or will?) backfire. sigh...

We are lucky we got a second Senate seat in AZ though. I don't want to lose it.

[Mike 03]

29. It's kind of depressing seeing all this Kyrsten Sinema hate

I was so proud of Arizona for putting her into office. It was one of the happiest days of my life.

I'm disappointed too that she won't take more risks. I'm way more concerned about the filibuster and HR1 than this because I think they are going to move the minimum wage up via other mechanisms.

[hatrack]

57. It's kind of depressing seeing Krysten Sinema pull this kind of shit, too . . .

.

[kcr]

6. She brought cake, too

Along with her ridiculous little dance as she voted. She can get primaried. I'll donate.

[dutch777]

12. Need to consider how to "win". Maybe a stair step to $15 an hour can get enough votes.

Go $12 like Sept 1 and a $1 a year add thereafter up to $15 Gives the argument that businesses have time to adjust, the economy time to recover and still help millions of workers soon. It's a shame, but we don't have enough of a majority to be absolutist about this stuff and win the day and win more of a Dem majority sorely needed in 2022. If it were up to me I'd make it $20 and hour yesterday but too many won't go there and we will lose more than we will gain if we are in an argument that ultimately leads to no progress at all AND eats up precious legislative time from other priorities.

[SharonClark]

16. Isn't the $15 in the bill stair-stepped already?

[leftieNanner]

17. My understanding is that stair-stepping was the plan

It would bring minimum wage up to $15 by 2025 (I think) with incremental increases between now and then.

I may be wrong about the vote taken today though.

[vsrazdem]

42. This already was a stair step. It started at 9.50 an hour and did not go up to 15 for

4 or 5 years.

[Mike 03]

13. Commentator on MSNBC just now:

Paraphrasing: I wish I could tell you there is some deep philosophical reason Kyrsten Sinema has voted the way she has on this, but it's pure survival... She is looking over her shoulder... She's not particularly afraid of being primaried, she's afraid of the moderate Republicans, people in the center right who would ordinarily have supported Martha McSally who came over and voted for her in 2018...

[BradAllison]

26. In four years.....

Profile in courage.

[kcr]

31. I'd believe it if

She hadn't flounced with the cake. There is something wrong with her.

[Mike 03]

40. Yes, that was a ghastly little flourish.

I mentioned it in a letter I sent to her office earlier.

Who was that intended for? Her constituents were almost certainly mortified by it.

[radius777]

41. Poor political analysis by Victoria Defancesco Soto.

She grew up there and is going by 'what it was in the 90's'. AZ is no longer a deep red state but a purple one. Polls tend to show that voters support higher minimum wages and Biden's more liberal economic plans overall (he did win the state, along with Mark Kelly who ran in the same election).

Moderates and independents are hurting as well, and nobody wants austerity and penny pinching in a pandemic. Nobody is going to vote against a politician who put more money in people's pockets in troubled times. As I said, it's crap political analysis but unfortunately there's alot of it on TV.

[Mike 03]

46. Thank you! I didn't catch the name or know how seriously to take

her analysis.

[redstatebluegirl]

14. All of you who have the urge to primary Democrats

who do not pass your litmus test for being progressive need to channel those urges to beating republicans. Going after our own will get us beat to pieces in 2022.

[moonscape]

22. This.

[marybourg]

25. Correct.

[BradAllison]

27. I'm glad Mark Kelly doesn't feel the same way.

You know, a guy who's actually up in 2022.

[demmiblue]

32. +1

[kcr]

33. I rarely advocate for primaries.

But I'll make an exception for her. She earned it.

[themaguffin]

59. Wrong, I'm not one of "those." Context matters. Arizona is

trending more blue.

Again, it's just that she voted no. What the fuck was that gleeful shit?

And does she understand how cruel that looks?

[radius777]

47. Lots of struggling workers in her state (especially of color) who would benefit

greatly from minimum wage increases. Suburban voters would benefit from a higher elgibility threshold (100k individual, 200k family). Sinema is against both provisions, and thus is screwing both ends of the Biden coalition. It's just dumb politics and she should be primaried as a better mainstream Dem (such as Rep. Ruben Gallego or SoS Katy Hobbs) can easily beat her in primary and do better in the GE than she did. Sinema has no natural constituency and apparently thinks it's still the 90's when moderates and independents cared about austerity/balanced budgets - which nobody in the middle of pandemic cares about. AZ was once a deep red state but is now a purple state where several Dems (including Biden) have recently won statewide.

Manchin is someone we likely have to live with because of how deep red WV is and his unique popularity there (former governor). But not some of these other conservative Dems who are out of touch.

[Demsrule86]

53. They already did it in her state.

[budkin]

48. SHE IS JUST AWFUL

Lost all respect for her today.

[FlyingPiggy]

54. I think Sinema is making a big bistake and reading the tea leaves all wrong.

She is voting out of fear and not out of conviction. The fear is clouding her rational thought. Moderate republicans will not be jumping ship to vote for another crazy Q, trump, or fascist apologist bc I think that is who they will put up. State GOP is under the helm of whackjob Kelli Ward. Sinema needs a reality check.

[no_hypocrisy]

55. She should have voted in favor and risked losing re-election.

[Politicub]

58. The thumbs down was a slap in the face. I'm not shocked by

congressional stunts, but this one made me so angry.

Who did she do that for? It’s an insult and pretty sickening.