Unrepresentative Policy of the Week:Profiles in Cowardice, Kyrsten Sinema
In 1956, John F. Kennedy wrote Profiles in Courage a series of Pulitzer prize winning short biographical stories, highlighting moments of bravery and integrity from eight US Senators. These stories show, at least in Kennedy's mind, the highest ideals a public servant can strive for. I might not agree with all the choices these Senators made, and undoubtedly my own list of profiles would be quite different, but there is a degree of admiration one must have for any individual who will stand by their principles when the whole world is against them, no matter the personal cost.
Jeanette Rankin was one such public servant, the first woman elected to federal office as a congresswoman in 1914, she was a staunch pacifist, and suffragette. She voted in favor of an amendment to the constitution giving women the right to vote (her proudest achievement) and voted against the United States entering WWI. It cost her re-election. It wasn’t until 1940, that she was re-elected to Congress, where she cast the sole no vote in either house of Congress against entering WWII. She was booed, and harassed and needed a police escort to leave the Capitol building safely. It of course ended her political career. Asked years later if she ever regretted her action, Rankin replied, "Never. If you're against war, you're against war regardless of what happens. It's a wrong method of trying to settle a dispute."
As progressive William Allen White, writing for the Kansas Emporia Gazette said:
Probably a hundred men in Congress would have liked to do what she did. Not one of them had the courage to do it. The Gazette entirely disagrees with the wisdom of her position. But Lord, it was a brave thing! And its bravery someway discounted its folly. When, in a hundred years from now, courage, sheer courage based upon moral indignation is celebrated in this country, the name of Jeannette Rankin, who stood firm in folly for her faith, will be written in monumental bronze.
This is a woman who stood firm in what she believed, declared it proudly to the world and lived gladly with the consequences of her truth.
Kyrsten Sinema, is not Janette Rankin. She would merit a profile in courage from neither myself or Kennedy. She is in fact, a coward.
Superficially, her aesthetics give the appearance of a “principled maverick” who doesn’t just fall in line with he party based on some ideological stand. Scratch the surface, however, and you see no principles, and certainly no bravery. This is a woman who is blocking life saving and life changing policy because…not even she can tell us! That’s the most galling part, she doesn’t even give any reasons for her utter intransigence. She’s a corporate stooge who takes bribes and kills policy that helps people.
Of course, that sort of behavior is a dime a dozen in Washington, no what makes Kyrsten such a coward is everything else she does on top of this psychopathic legislative narcissism. If she were proud of her actions, reveling in the cruelty like a Republican, than perhaps you could at least acknowledge her living a despicable truth, but no, she says nothing, doesn’t negotiate, hides from the press, and lets the super-PACs bribing her run adds lying about her activities in Washington DC. Even as she is one of the principle architects of the destruction of the Democratic party agenda, ads as blitzes the Arizona airwaves claiming she is fighting for Americans, and helping to save programs like Medicaid!! She stone walls her constituents, and skips out on meetings to take bribes from lobbyists. Over the weekend she floated cutting $100 billion in green funding from the infrastructure bill, and then denied it when the proposal was obviously unpopular.
No Kyrsten Sinema is a coward and a cretin, and she represents exactly what’s wrong with our system. And she thinks she is so insulated from the fall out of her actions as a Senator, that it doesn’t really matter. She just keeps living her comfortable, narcissistic life.
That’s why it’s so important to bring home the consequences of the people’s actions to them. It’s only once they are affected themselves, that people like Kyrsten feel the need to change. So keep non-violently confronting her, and Manchin and everyone else blocking these policies. Make them face the consequences of the choices head-on everyday.
Just confronting the politicians isn’t enough though, they behave as they do not because they are brave mavericks, but rather cowardly servants of capital. To really create change, we need to speak to the politicians’ manager, and there is only one language the donor class speaks: money. That’s why we must join together, each week on Tuesday in growing solidarity, creating an economic block that can stand up to the donor class and get our politicians serving the people again. Because what this country really needs are not just a few courageous people in power, but an engaged and empathic populous. So join us and #DSOT!
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