Kyrsten Sinema Comes Flying in off the Top Rope After Democrats Surrender on ‘Build Back Better’ – Opinion

Democrats have had a rough few days. Two days ago, the 5th Circuit delivered a stunning rebuke of the Biden administration, denying their appeal of Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. Adam Schiff was found to have altered text messages at a hearing on January 6. Today, however, the thermonuclear explosion took place.

Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda was officially shelved after an agreement with Joe Manchin couldn’t be reached. This is a reminder that my prediction of Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda being stalled into the next year was right, but I remain convinced that Manchin has his ultimate goal of destroying it in the most gentle way.

Of course, the Democrats needed an excuse for why they were punting on the president’s chief policy priority, and some overpaid consultants settled on “voting rights.” Sure, everyone who is legally entitled to voting rights already has them, but when you’ve got nothing else, you’ve got nothing else.

This great hope only lasted for just a few minutes. Kyrsten Sinema has now come flying in off the top rope, destroying any hope that Democrats can pass a federal takeover of the country’s elections.

Dems shelved the Build Back Better bill – the cornerstone of the Biden agenda — to shift to election reform bills.

Kyrsten sinema even stuck a fork in there.

Joe Biden, President of the United States is still a lame duck 11 months later. https://t.co/ZjZMnHUmwV

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) December 15, 2021

This was absurd. What’s the point of focusing on a bill without having enough votes? At least with the “Build Back Better” bill you only needed to negotiate with Sinema and Manchin because it can be passed via reconciliation. But on this “voting rights” farce, you need 60 votes, and there’s no chance Sinema is going to suddenly change her mind on the filibuster. Then, how exactly did this strategy work?

The answer here is that there isn’t one — except a lame attempt to save face. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi realized they had a lot to lose by trying to pass yet another large spending bill. They needed to calm their left-wing base. What better way to do that than to play into the fantasy that Democrats can federalize elections and “save democracy”?

The votes simply aren’t there, though. You are seeing a party content to keep its position in the corner. Don’t forget about the historic winds that are battering the Democrat election ship and Republican turnout next spring. For all the empty promises, even if you focus only on left-leaning voters. Democrats will have to face a rebellion once it happens, which likely leads to a depressed turnout. This is what happens when you promise the world and can’t deliver, and as I’ve suggested many times, the current Democrat coalition was never sustainable.

Contrary to claims of Biden being a legislative genius, he’s proven once again to be anything but. Pelosi as Schumer have also been wrongly misplayed here. It was enough for them to sit back, be rational and enjoy two years. They might have saved something by then. Now, they’ve written too many checks, and the bank account is empty.