Manchin is a rational political player; Sinema isn't. I know her; she's certifiably insane. I'm not joking. When I first met her she was a still pretending to be a progressive-- that was always baloney-- in the Arizona state legislature. Having started her career in politics as a fringe lunatic on the "left," she was always headed right-- first towards the Greens, then towards the Democrats, then, once she was in Congress, as a Blue Dog extremist and now, in the Senate, as the Democrat most likely to flip to the GOP. She's actually non-ideological and not really interested in governance either. To Sinema politics is a means to an entirely different end: attention. That's it in one word: crazy wants attention.
And she deserves attention... from a team of psychiatrists. At this point her political devolution would have made her a Republican, except for two things: Choice (she's for it) anther self-identification as "bisexual." One of her colleagues parodied her to me recently (in her voice: "Hi, I’m Kyrsten Sinema, the Congressman from Bisexual. Did I mention that I’m bisexual? Hey, if you’re hungry later on, maybe we can grab a bisexual together.") Another told me when she first got to Congress she ran around telling everyone she's bisexual, usually more than once.
A lapsed Mormon, Sinema has spent her entire time in public office lying about everything and flip-flopping at will. Her whole exciting origin story turned out to be a lie and where she once said "Until the average American realizes that capitalism damages her livelihood while augmenting the livelihoods of the wealthy, the Almighty Dollar will continue to rule," she more recently helped the GOP kill raising the $15 minimum wage. The former Green was one of only 3 Democrats to join the Republicans to vote down the Green New Deal and was one of only 3 Democrats to vote with Republicans to confirm Trump's corrupt pick to head the Interior Department, former oil executive, David Bernhardt.
Before Schumer-- curse him to hell-- picked her for the Arizona U.S. Senate seat, she had been the chair of the Blue Dogs and ran up the single worst voting record of any Democrat in the House. And that's exactly why Schumer selected her and cleared the field for her. Now America is stuck with her. And Schumer can moan and groan all he wants about not being able to move Biden's agenda and pretend he backs Bernie's progressive proposals, knowing his beloved donors are utterly safe from them... thanks to his manipulation of the 2018 Arizona primary.
2024's primary is going to be very different. She's widely hated-- especially by Democrats-- in Arizona, with just a 29% favorability rating. 40% of Arizona voters give her a thumbs down. Among independents her rating is 24% favorable and 44% unfavorable. And the ads-- by a coalition of progressive groups-- have just started running (today). The Hill reported that "Twenty Arizona groups joined Just Democracy, a coalition of more than 40 'Black and Brown-led organizations' promoting democracy reform, in unveiling two hard-hitting ads targeting Sinema," both embedded on this page. The ad campaign will cost $1.5 million for a starter.
"The television ads," wrote Alexander Bolton, "will run across Arizona and urge Sinema 'to deliver on her campaign promise to protect voting rights and stand up for Arizonans,' according to a press release by the coalition. The ads call on Sinema to support scrapping the filibuster and to vote 'yes' on proceeding to the For the People Act, which would promote online and automatic voter registration, expand opportunities to vote by mail, affirm a commitment of Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act and make other reforms."
Schumer will always steer you wrong. Never back his handpicked candidates. They're all Kyrsten Sinema in one form or another. Want to help progressives win Senate seats. Give directly to carefully vetted Democrats here, none of whom are Schumer candidates, none of whom are anything like Sinema.