HOW KYRSTEN SINEMA BROUGHT GEN X TO THE SENATE:
Somehow, after all the crocheted pussy hats and #MeToo, it was suddenly fine to film a woman in a bathroom. When President Biden was given a chance to condemn the harassment, he wrote off the incident as part and parcel of lawmaking: “The only people it doesn’t happen to are the people who have Secret Service standing around them. So it’s part of the process.”
Sinema responded in kind, not only by sticking to her guns in negotiations on the Hill, but by taking off for Europe for a week in mid-October. Her message to the Biden administration could not be any clearer. Politico may call her “stubborn,” but she has been crystal clear on what she wants for herself and for Arizona:
I have already told the White House what I am willing to do and what I’m not willing to do. I’m not mysterious. It’s not that I can’t make up my mind. I communicated it to them in detail. They just don’t like what they’re hearing.
In the Capitol, a journalist from NBC News stopped Sinema and scolded her: “What do you say to progressives who are frustrated they don’t know where you are?”
“I’m in the Senate.”
“There are progressives in the Senate that are also frustrated they don’t know where you are either.”
“I’m clearly right in front of the elevator.”
Under pressure, Sinema had channeled the ironic monotone of Daria Morgendorffer, the high school heroine of MTV’s 90s cartoon Daria, and left both journalists and activists speechless. If the twentysomething BuzzFeed reporters want to understand Kyrsten Sinema, they should stop drafting listicles about Beyoncé’s hair color and listen to Gen-X “riot grrrls” like Sleater-Kinney.
Sinema isn’t going it alone against her own party because of her voting record or her donors. She’s doing it because she is Gen X, and she’s going to force the media, the Democrats, Joe Biden and his astronomical spending plans to swallow what Alanis Morissette called a “jagged little pill.”
Why, it’s as if: To Understand Sinema, You Need to Understand Arizona. “Progressive activists from Manhattan to Marin can sign petitions and curse her name. SNL and John Oliver can mock all they want. Kyrsten Sinema knows that alienating national media personalities and party leaders will only help her reelection campaign.”