Facing heightened calls to support voting rights legislation, conservative Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and her staff have resorted to empty words.
The Arizona senator is a staunch supporter of the filibuster despite all the evidence — past and present — that it’s often used by racists to thwart civil rights legislation. Not wanting to be viewed as one of those racists, she’s tried the impossible balancing act of backing the filibuster and claiming to support voting rights.
The past two weeks have been a particularly nonsensical week for her and her press team.
For example, last week she met with Arizona college students who were participating in a hunger strike to protest her ongoing obstruction of voting rights legislation. According to the students, Sinema said she supports the Freedom to Vote Act, but she said it hasn’t passed because it hasn’t been put up for a vote in the Senate again after Republicans blocked in October.
Truthfully, she’s a major reason that bill hasn’t passed. Republicans have twice used the filibuster she clearly supports to block the bill. Her incoherence is meant to mystify her audience — to talk them in circles as she continues her obstructionism.
Another example of her dizzying doublespeak came in a Politico report Wednesday about her support for the filibuster. A spokesperson for Sinema claimed she “believes that the right to vote and faith in our electoral process are critical to the health of our democracy.”
Sounds great.
But that same spokesperson said Sinema supports the filibuster because legislation passed with a 51-vote majority could be “rescinded in a few years and replaced by a nationwide voter-ID law, nationwide restrictions on vote-by-mail, or other voting restrictions currently passing in some states extended nationwide.”
Another ridiculous justification from Team Sinema.
Republican-led legislatures in states across the country are passing laws restricting access to the ballot right now. They’re able to do this because conservative lawmakers like Sinema are using the power of the filibuster to block voting rights legislation that would stop them. They’re using this valuable time she’s giving them to create the nightmarish scenario she’s claiming to stave off.
Sinema clearly believes she’s in the midst of a masterful spin job, but her arguments are insincere and unconvincing.
In reality, she and her staff are just being exposed as hypocrites. Related posts: Newsom gives conservatives a taste of their own medicine White nationalists held a buffoonish rally — but there’s nothing funny about it Rep. Matt Gaetz, possible sex trafficker, vows to investigate his investigators Head over to The ReidOut Blog for more.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. Recommended
