Sinema
She seemed almost in tears as she stood in the well of the Senate. Arizona’s Kirsten Sinema was committing the ultimate political insult. She was telling the President of the United States, the leader of her party, that she would not support him. And she was doing it as publicly as possible, as his motorcade was driving to the Capitol and to her, the Mountain coming to Mohammad, to ask her and fifty other Senators for help. It doesn’t politically get more “in your face” than that.
But the “almost” tears weren’t for the possible consequences of her insubordination. No, she was choking up for the need for bipartisanship. She is trying to end the dramatic divide that splits the American body politic into two immobile forces. She was speaking in favor of the filibuster, an arcane rule of the Senate that, in its present incarnation, required sixty Senators to agree to even discuss any piece of business, any issue. The “greatest deliberative body in the world” is shackled from even talking about something, anything, without a super-majority agreeing to do so.
Before we confer sainthood on the second year Senator from Arizona, recognize that she has made an objective political calculation. The President is “weak” politically, with a current approval rating of 45% (Reuters). And Sinema is from a “purple” state, depending on the support of “McCain Republicans”. They are still angry at their Party for the insults poured on their deceased hero by former President Trump. Sinema’s mathematics obviously conclude that insulting Biden costs fewer votes than standing for the Senate’s
“regular order”, a frequent talking point of McCain in his last few years. This was Sinema declaring independence from the Democratic establishment, her “thumbs down” moment.
Biden
Joe Biden himself, was a “man of the Senate” who stood with McCain for “regular order” (including the filibuster) for his thirty years there. The President has made a journey since his inauguration speech a year ago, when he called for unity and common purpose. In his first year in office, he was struck with a fierce reality: in the US Congress there is no common purpose.
Republicans have made it clear: no matter how reasonable, or necessary, or even common sense a proposal might be, if the Democrats are for it, they are against it. Not a Republican voted for the first Covid relief package. Only a handful voted for the “bipartisan” infrastructure bill. In fact, the Republicans in the Senate were willing to temporarily break the filibuster itself, so Democrats could raise the debt ceiling and keep the Nation from going into financial default. Just as long as they didn’t have to vote for it.
Debt Ceiling
That requires just a bit more analysis. Clearly every Senator with the exception of the “hair-on-fire” crazies like Ron Johnson and Rand Paul, recognized that the debt ceiling had to be raised. They all, Democrat and Republican alike, knew that it had nothing to do with future spending. They were simply paying the bills from what they ALL had voted for in the past two years, the heavy Covid relief bills that kept the Nation out of financial depression when the pandemic hit.
But the Republicans recognize that the American public doesn’t quite get the “debt ceiling”. It looks like spending, like getting a bigger credit card limit so more money can go out. In fact, it is getting a bigger credit limit, but to cover money already spent. But that distinction will be lost in the 2022 campaigns, when Republicans will rail against the “big spending” Democrats.
So Republicans forced Democrats to break the filibuster, in order to pass the debt ceiling. That way, no Republican had to vote for it. That might be “smart” politics, but it definitely denies the common purpose of good governance. That doesn’t matter anymore, the “men of the Senate” just want to win.
On the Record
So last week, Biden called out the Senate, and especially Sinema and Manchin, the roadblocks to defeating a filibuster. Biden said they had to make a choice: support voting rights or be listed with the great racists of our history: Strom Thurmond, George Wallace, Jefferson Davis. It doesn’t get starker than that. The President, the “man of the Senate”, is calling members of his own political party racists. The unity and common purpose of a year ago is lost in the raw political calculations.
Chuck Schumer is doubling down on the President’s threat, forcing the Senate to vote on breaking the filibuster to debate the Voting Rights Acts. Schumer knows he doesn’t have the votes to win, but is “putting everyone on record”. He’s making sure that all the Republicans are “against voting rights”. But he is placing his “purple” Senators, like Tester of Montana and Kelly of Arizona, in a bind. Like Sinema, they depend on Never-Trump independents to get re-elected. It would be different if the votes were there to do it, but Sinema and Manchin have made it abundantly clear they are not on board.
It is a symbolic vote, for the record, and thirty-second ads in the 2022 campaign. But it is another move of division, not one of common purpose. That doesn’t make it wrong, just sad, on this Martin Luther King day of 2022.
