Kyrsten Sinema And The Fruits Of Courage
The knives are out for Kyrsten Sinema, perennial nonconformist Senator from Arizona. She is a Democrat, but she is a thoughtful, non-partisan Democrat. Miss Sinema is concerned about the spending bill President Biden is pushing for, in particular its size. For weeks, she has been holding out, negotiating over changes to it, principally to reduce the price tag. She and Senator Manchin, from West Virginia, are alone in the Democrat Party in their [partial] opposition to the bill. The left is naturally apoplectic as a result. Every MSM pundit and his mother is seeing in Sinema’s actions all the evil intentions that they typically ascribe to their rightist opponents. Some are saying she doesn’t believe in anything anymore, and is essentially the Liz Cheney of the left, an amoral, machiavellian figure of sorts with outsized ambition. Others claim she is just a shallow attention-seeker. Recently one NBC News columnist even wrote an article about how she is “bad for bisexual Americans”. Yikes! Talk about base propaganda.
For my part, I think Sinema realizes she is in a position to influence legislation, and she plans on using her leverage to achieve particular policy outcomes. In other words, she is doing what politicians are sort of supposed to do. Her motivations for desiring those policies? How should I know? I do not pretend to know the woman’s heart or soul, or anyone’s for that matter.
One must bear in mind that Sinema is a lefty, but a peculiarly nuanced one intellectually. She is no ideological purist or party loyalist, nor should she be. She has a lot of support from the political center and many friends and allies on the political right. That is but another reason leftists are bellowing non-stop of late, arguing she has been corrupted by Washington, and is now in the pocket of Big Pharma or the US Chamber of Commerce or whoever. Again, I have no position on any of that. Some of her conduct could certainly be explained by corruption, but a lot of it can just as easily be explained by philosophical evolution (minds and values change over time) or political practicality (she is from a purple state) or simply a more complex, variegated ideology (just as there is ideological diversity on the right, there is plenty on the left too, and specific individuals can possess all kinds of idiosyncratic views).
Yet with the left’s outrage now boiling over, some commentators have begun to insult and degrade her over her dress as well. She wore denim in the Senate Chamber the other day! Ahh, real denim! Yes, the “don’t slut shame women who dress like sluts”, “everyone should wear whatever they want” political left, is, once again, attacking a woman for her fashion choices. Yet this got me thinking: if Sinema is so cunning and machiavellian, why wouldn’t she dress more conservatively? I mean if that is the way to be taken seriously as a woman, wouldn’t one expect her to dress like Killary? Yet that is not what we observe.
The notion that Sinema is some dark, dangerous mastermind is quite far-fetched given the available evidence. More likely she just has a fierce independent streak, and for my part, I really like that in a person. It shows strength of character. Some say it is a sign of arrogance or lack of respect for rules or authority, and all that could well be true, but I still find it quite appealing. Wishy-washy people, of any sex, disgust me.
Moreover, despite criticism of her from everyone and everywhere of late, the female Senator from Arizona has remained largely mum and resolute. She doesn’t seem to be all that interested in placating anyone or pleasing her party’s base by giving in. Once again, her conduct doesn’t appear to be the conduct of someone pursuing fame, power, or attention. I think Miss Sinema just wears what she wants and feels she looks good in, and doesn’t pay much attention to what you want, or what I want, or what the media wants, or what the left wants, or what outdated conventions demand. And good golly, I admire that. That’s called sass.
In fact, we need more people like that around, people who do what they want irrespective of what other people think, people who express themselves freely irrespective of what other people feel. Living your life as you please, irrespective of anyone else’s views, a moderate irreverence as it were, is the essence of liberty. Americans used to know what that word meant, but somewhere along we were cut off from our roots and our heritage. Liberty takes standing up to the crowd, which nowadays usually means standing up to leftist fanatics and bigots. It means flipping the bird to the media, corporate America, and the US power class. In sum, courage is the price of liberty, it is the only soil in which it grows. Not the courage to serve power or money or government, the courage to stand up to it all and say, “I’m gonna do what the hell I want, and forget the misguided mob and the personal consequences”.
There is way too much people-pleasing and crowd-pleasing going on in America today. As a people, we have become excessively, and I think foolishly, concerned about our own image and reputations. We look out for ourselves without considering what kind of world we are creating for everyone else, and leaving to our children, by doing so. After all, if you pay the mob-geld, you never get rid of the mob. There is no reason to truckle to the always-angry-about-nothing woke twitterati or anyone else. It helps no one, not even the cowardly apologist. Mocking, defying, and ignoring neo-marxist bullies is the true antidote to the left’s unending crusade against free everything.
Ultimately, I suspect what really bothers the left and the right and the dress code drafters and the order lovers, isn’t that Sinema lacks respect for the Senate or traditions or dress codes or anything else. What really irks people is that she is free and they are not. In a country where people walk on eggshells at all times, where you can’t even go to the theater without a vaccine pass, where all our leaders are conmen, and the only way to get ahead is to jump through hoops and fake it until you make it, Kyrsten Sinema doesn’t bow before anyone, she doesn’t take loyalty oaths to the godhead of diversity, or smooch the butts of the powerful. She just doesn’t care, and good on her, because no one should. People with courage and integrity don’t care what wokeshevik bullies and fools want or demand. Free people scoff at the scum who dominate and rule modern America.
Sadly, once upon a time Americans did have courage, and integrity. Americans used to be pioneers. We used to take responsibility for our own safety. We didn’t look to the government or its vast army of bluecoat gangsters to keep us safe. 75 years ago if you told a white man to get on his knees to apologize for the sins of his forefathers, he would have laughed in your face. Just as he should have. That’s called courage. And we need more of it as a nation, a whole lot more of it, if we are to deliver ourselves from the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into.
