Posted on 12/15/2022 7:40:12 PM PST by SeekAndFind
It continues to amuse me how presumably-conservative keyboard warriors latch onto — and sing the praises of — various Democrat “renegades,” including Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona (the Democrat darling of the pseudo-right), who recently announced she was leaving the Democrat Party. The question is, Sinema might be “leaving,” but how far away is she going?
So in an effort to get a few things on the record, mostly the reasons she left the Democrat Pary to register as an Independent, Sinema penned an op-ed for the Arizona Republic, in which she said, fundamentally:
Americans are told that we have only two choices — Democrat or Republican — and that we must subscribe wholesale to policy views the parties hold, views that have pulled further and further toward extremism.
The Arizonan correctly called the “two choices” option a “false choice.”
I know oodles of “Republicans” who claim the same — that neither party is right all the time or wrong all the time — yet write and talk completely the opposite. Why? Dunno, don’t care — but I do think it’s hypocritical.
In my view, principled objectivity matters, as long as it comports with constitutionally conservative views, and blatant hypocrisy on either side is inexcusable. Again, I know a whole lot of people who say they believe the same, yet more than a few whose words and actions simply don’t align with their claims.
And What of Sinema?
Sinema wrote at length about the “fringe elements” of both Democrats and Republicans, including:
Everyday Americans are increasingly left behind by national parties’ rigid partisanship, which has hardened in recent years. Pressures in both parties pull leaders to the edges, allowing the loudest, most extreme voices to determine their respective parties’ priorities and expecting the rest of us to fall in line.
In catering to the fringes, neither party has demonstrated much tolerance for diversity of thought. Bipartisan compromise is seen as a rarely acceptable last resort, rather than the best way to achieve lasting progress. Payback against the opposition party has replaced thoughtful legislating.
However, with Sinema’s announcement about leaving the Democrat Party, little in the mix is likely to change. She’s still expected to vote mostly with the Democrats and may only be strategically positioning herself for re-election in 2024. That’s not uncommon — particularly if a lawmaker believes he or she stands a chance of being primaried. But celebrating on the right as some sort of “victory” is naive.
Truth be told, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sinema was encouraged by Democrat House members who might also believe that running as an Independent instead of a Democrat in 2024 might make for a more successful Sinema re-election campaign.
Consider what Cal Thomas noted in a recent op-ed:
In a strong indication of the Democrats’ confidence in the vast majority of Sinema’s votes,
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), has said she’ll keep her committee assignments. A Wall Street Journal editorial notes that ‘Sinema voted for President Biden’s priorities some 90 percent of the time this Congress. Where her independence mattered in the last two years is preserving the Senate filibuster and opposing the worst elements of the Biden Build Back Better plan.’
So, while Sinema says both parties have extreme elements, she’ll likely continue to vote — 90 percent of the time or more — with the Democrats. New uniform, maybe, but running the same, old plays.
Tulsi Gabbard and the ‘Elitist Cabal’
In contrast, Hawaii’s Tulsi Gabbard, who announced her departure from the Democrat Party in October, made no bones about her disgust with the party of Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, and co. More than a year after retiring from the House in 2021, Gabbard attacked the party in a nearly 30-minute video posted to her YouTube account. While she didn’t announce plans to join the Republican Party or any other political affiliation, she did take it to the Democrat Party — strong:
I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively working to undermine our God-given freedoms, are…
That’s how you leave the Democrat Party. That is, unless you’ve only left the Democrat label behind.
I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are… pic.twitter.com/oAuTnxZldf
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) October 11, 2022
Still, as is the case with Manchin and Sinema, I don’t think we’ll be seeing Gabbard announce she’s a registered Republican anytime soon. Then again, we won’t see the Hawaiian caucusing with the Democrats, either. Anyway, sports fans, Kyrsten Sinema is no Tulsi Gabbard.
What has Gabbard done? Has she come out and said she was changing to Republican and will be campaigning for one of the Republican candidates?
Sinema’s move means nothing.
If she’s still keeping her assignments it’s either: she’s got some major dirt on Schumer and he’s got none on her or she’s assured them that she will still be in their side.
I’m not yet sure that Tulsi Gabbard is the Tulsi Gabbard that we’d like her to be, but she does have FAR MORE COURAGE than any Democrat and 95% of Republican.
Just two examples were going to Syria to find out the TRUTH (which was that the media was lying to us, big time, about who the bad guys were), and being willing to discuss what led up to the Ukraine War (and hint, it wasn’t because Putin got up on the wrong side of the bed on Feb 24).
Tulsi is no Tulsi, either. Heil Antifa!
Sinema was pressured by the business interests afraid of the Democrats being too powerful.
These same Mothers Of Business want to destroy President Donald J. Trump so they boycotted his candidates in the Mid-Terms and ended up with bag they hold.
They needed to switch gears and wean Sinema away from the Dems.
>> Kyrsten Sinema Is No Tulsi Gabbard
lol — idiotic inequivalency
Two things.
If Sinema goes away from the Dems, she’s gone. They’re already looking to replace her and with Hobbs there, the Democrat is a lock
This is all a stunt and she’s as much and independent as sanders and king.
She doesn’t have to be. The fact that she put papers in to run in the senate race should be good news to all of us. The democrats will have to decide to run one of their own or support her. Brilliant on her part and a great help for the republican who runs as long as they are not wacky.
No to either. No. Pay them no nevermind, they’re teasing.
She is going to caucus with the rats so it changes nothing. It just protects her for the 24 Primary. Schmukie does not need dirt on her she is doing the same thing as comrade Bernie.
I’m not convinced about Gabbard.
No, if the Dems in AZ put up a candidate against her in ‘24, in a 3-way race, either she will win or the Repub will.
AZ Dems best move is to support her in ‘24, even as an Independent. She is daring them not to.
When a Republic has fake elections it is no longer a Republic. It is a dictatorship. Say what you will about the enemies dissenting Senators but by resisting the attempt to kill the filibuster they threw a wrench into the plans to make this dictatorship permanent.
They are both horrible leftists regardless of what political party they are part of.
Tulsi is a CIA asset.
Maybe. But with the way elections will be run under Hobbs, the puppet masters that control Hobbs are going to make that decision.
Maybe. Sinema is no dummy.
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