You have to marvel at the staying power of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. How long can she keep up this magical mystery tour, this brilliant burst of light and color?
This week she was at the alpine headquarters of Specter, the global confab of the World Economic Forum, where Klaus Schwab, the Ernst Blofeld of our times, strokes a white feline and spreads his tentacles across the globe.
Davos is the meeting place of the beautiful people, the correct thinking, center-left doyens of Silicon Valley and Wall Street and Brussels – the internationalists who want all mankind singing from the same hymnal of colossal windmills and laboratory meat.
Into this colorless throng of left-wing conformity came Sinema with an invitation from some WEF functionary who no doubt today is dropping through Schwab’s trap door.
Was it sheer chance, or some sly impulse that made Sinema dress the way she did? Because she was the only one who came dressed for the occasion.
She dressed as a sheep.
Sinema stands out in the Davos crowd
The pictures are a revelation. Virtually all of the Davos acolytes on her panel are wearing the uniform – the dark suit jackets, dark slacks, dark shoes.
Sinema, by contrast, is in a white vest made from the long wool of some unruly Highland animal that spends its day flipping off the herd dog.
Her white snow boots smartly complete the outfit that is enflaming the American left all across social media.
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But it was her high-five with Joe Manchin, the only other panelist to violate the uniform with brown shoes, that drove liberals to full flame.
Sinema and Manchin were celebrating their rescue of the legislative filibuster in the U.S. Senate that led to bipartisan compromise on infrastructure, microchips and guns. Their refusal to remove the filibuster stopped the Democratic Party from its very bad impulse to spend even more lavishly just when inflation was about to strike.
It also exposed the modern Democratic Party as an iron-fisted dictator that demands that U.S. senators from Arizona and West Virginia march in lockstep with those from New York and Massachusetts. Any deviation will be punished with condemnation and primary opponents.
Her nonconformity enflames the new left
Thus, Sinema, especially, has become the most despised politician in Washington.
The new left is an Orwellian vision of strict compliance, total control. At Davos this week they gabbed on about “disinformation” – their code word for censoring the right.
The new Democrats don’t like the way the internet democratized information. They want the major internet platforms restricted to legitimate media – meaning media to their liking. The web has given bloom to a colorful bouquet of new voices and independent journalists, many of them at war with the narrative the mainstream media produces.
And this is a problem for people who demand control. Big Brother wants no rivals.
Sinema represents the old left that once celebrated originality and non-conformity. For it, she was censured by her own party and then driven out because she did one of the most radical things you can do in American politics today – she reached across the aisle.
She believes the filibuster is a necessary tool that forces Americans to work together and find compromise in a country filled with competing interests.
So, everything wrong is Sinema’s fault
To high five that principle at Davos, where the point of the conference is for brainy liberals to take control of everything, well that just blew out the circuit breakers in the Democratic Party.
Qasim Rashid, a human rights lawyer and host of The Qasim Rashid Show on Sirius XM, tweeted that Sinema is taking food from starving babies.
“After Manchin/Sinema chose to stand w/the GOP & refuse to repeal the filibuster, the child tax credit expired and childhood poverty increased 41%, which meant 3.7 MILLION MORE children were forced into poverty. But yeah, high fives all around. Horrid.”
This kind of criticism was the norm last year. Any Democratic legislation that didn’t pass on the slimmest of governing margins – the one-vote majority Democrats enjoyed in the U.S. Senate – was blamed on Sinema and Manchin.
Arizona and West Virginia must bow to their coastal masters.
You bet Gallego wants Sinema to hold a town hall
Next came Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego stomping on Sinema. He tweeted:
“Kyrsten Sinema hasn’t held a town hall in Arizona for years. Instead, she flies to Switzerland for a town hall with the rich and powerful. Not a Joke!”
Gallego knows full well the moment Sinema holds a town hall in Arizona, the progressive left will blow it up with agitprop. You know, the same way they followed her into a restroom with a video camera.
Of course Gallego wants Sinema to hold a town hall. He wants bedlam. He wants her Senate seat.
MSNBC host Chris Hayes tweeted, “I’ve heard from wealthy donors that Sinema is at her most comfortable and gregarious around rich donors and you can really see it here!”
Democrats will never learn this about her
I’m not sure Hayes knows it, but Sinema wasn’t exactly doing the Davos two-step with her high-five and woolen vest.
Nor does she lose sleep when she provokes the angst of liberals such as Hayes. Her minimum-wage curtsy, the F-off ring, the Davos high-five. They’ve all touched a nerve. And progressive Democrats will never learn.
Like trained seals, they bark at every perceived slight, failing to understand that all of their taunts and threats and vulgarity aimed at Sinema are never going to discourage or change her.
She’s as happy as she was the day she entered national politics. And she’ll be happy the day she leaves.
And they’ll still be barking.
Phil Boas is an editorial columnist for The Arizona Republic. Email him at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kyrsten Sinema shakes up Davos and progressive Democrats back home
