The Call That Isn’t Going To Get Through

Senator Krysten Sinema made clear yesterday that, although she would vote for bills crafted to counter voter suppression and ensure the integrity of election processes, she would not vote to make an exception to the filibuster rule that would allow such such bills to become law. Her reason was that it would foster political division.

The Republicans are much more likely to achieve their aim of converting our form of government from a democracy to long term authoritarian one-party minority rule in the absence of legislation that Simena, apparently with the concordance of Senator Joe Manchin, has blocked.

As Jennifer Rubin noted in a column earlier in the day, “Republicans . . . almost certainly would dump the filibuster at the drop of a hat if it suited them. (as they did on confirming Supreme Court justices).”

Yet we wouldn’t want to risk fostering political division with a political party that is engaged in a concerted effort to end American democracy and reinstall as president a malevolent sociopath, would we? Simena believes that avoiding fostering political division is a weightier matter than preserving American democracy when you balance the scales.

This is a “Planet Earth to Senator Sinema” moment, but the call isn’t going to get through. Simena’s either extraordinarily obtuse, or deeply cynical, state of mind presages dark times ahead.