I'm happy to acknowledge that Sinema won't be moved by her constituents following her into a bathroom, but can we stop pretending that she'll be scared of Ruben Gallego? You are correct in positing that a tactic is only viable if it is useful, so why are you pretending that the threat of a primary in three years is useful? The most rational interpretation of Sinema's recent behavior is simple: she is racking up favors as fast as possible while she is in a position of power, as though she imagines that she won't have that power for much longer and expects to receive the payments she's accrued soon enough. I seriously doubt if she cares if Ruben Gallego or Kelli Ward will be the Senator for Arizona come 2025; she wants to be Heidi Heitkamp. And if that's true, there's not much Democratic voters can threaten her with, whether it's harassment or a primary. Both are ineffective and inviable. The bathroom thing is poor optics, but you're offering something equally inert.
I have a hard time feeling a shred of sympathy for someone who is fighting to make sure Americans pay the highest prices for prescriptions. The obvious result of her actions is that people will die so that a small cabal of rich people can become even richer.
I hope every day of her life is a miserable hell. She absolutely deserves it.
It's very silly to write about this story as if Sinema were ACTUALLY using the bathroom, instead of ducking into "a place of privacy, completely off-limits" so that she could AVOID the protesters. I guess that might seem like a trivial distinction, but if you're going to criticize the tactics in question here, you should at least characterize them fairly. They were trying to confront an elected representative who had been hiding from the public while holding meetings with big donors. The plan likely was not "follow her into the bathroom" but "follow her when she's in public so she's forced to explain herself." This is a pretty time-honored way of protesting, and has indeed proved effective in the past. One way to demonstrate a mass constituency for a bill is to make it clear that an elected official will always hear about it when they are out in public. That Sinema chose to hide out in the bathroom is kind of funny, and I'm not sure the protesters should have followed her, but what should they do? Saying "Tactics are good... when they work" is begging the question; protesters don't KNOW in advance what tactics will work. Sometimes shaming people does work. When Jeff Flake was confronted in an elevator over Kavanaugh, he at least demanded a sham FBI investigation. Die-ins and other protests aimed at shaming members of Congress helped doom the AHCA. Etc. Not saying this definitely will work on Sinema, but it's not clear that it won't and there's a long history of this type of protest. Acting like her bathroom hiding place makes it notably different is kind of foolish.
Definitely agree. By doing this, the debate has become about whether or not it's appropriate to protest her in the bathroom, a debate that you can only take seriously if you already think that Sinema is in the wrong. Sinema's defenders now only have to defend her right to privacy, not her bad politics, and anyone who hasn't made up their mind about Sinema is not going to be convinced by things yelled at her in the bathroom.
I'm happy to acknowledge that Sinema won't be moved by her constituents following her into a bathroom, but can we stop pretending that she'll be scared of Ruben Gallego? You are correct in positing that a tactic is only viable if it is useful, so why are you pretending that the threat of a primary in three years is useful? The most rational interpretation of Sinema's recent behavior is simple: she is racking up favors as fast as possible while she is in a position of power, as though she imagines that she won't have that power for much longer and expects to receive the payments she's accrued soon enough. I seriously doubt if she cares if Ruben Gallego or Kelli Ward will be the Senator for Arizona come 2025; she wants to be Heidi Heitkamp. And if that's true, there's not much Democratic voters can threaten her with, whether it's harassment or a primary. Both are ineffective and inviable. The bathroom thing is poor optics, but you're offering something equally inert.
I have a hard time feeling a shred of sympathy for someone who is fighting to make sure Americans pay the highest prices for prescriptions. The obvious result of her actions is that people will die so that a small cabal of rich people can become even richer.
I hope every day of her life is a miserable hell. She absolutely deserves it.
It's very silly to write about this story as if Sinema were ACTUALLY using the bathroom, instead of ducking into "a place of privacy, completely off-limits" so that she could AVOID the protesters. I guess that might seem like a trivial distinction, but if you're going to criticize the tactics in question here, you should at least characterize them fairly. They were trying to confront an elected representative who had been hiding from the public while holding meetings with big donors. The plan likely was not "follow her into the bathroom" but "follow her when she's in public so she's forced to explain herself." This is a pretty time-honored way of protesting, and has indeed proved effective in the past. One way to demonstrate a mass constituency for a bill is to make it clear that an elected official will always hear about it when they are out in public. That Sinema chose to hide out in the bathroom is kind of funny, and I'm not sure the protesters should have followed her, but what should they do? Saying "Tactics are good... when they work" is begging the question; protesters don't KNOW in advance what tactics will work. Sometimes shaming people does work. When Jeff Flake was confronted in an elevator over Kavanaugh, he at least demanded a sham FBI investigation. Die-ins and other protests aimed at shaming members of Congress helped doom the AHCA. Etc. Not saying this definitely will work on Sinema, but it's not clear that it won't and there's a long history of this type of protest. Acting like her bathroom hiding place makes it notably different is kind of foolish.
Definitely agree. By doing this, the debate has become about whether or not it's appropriate to protest her in the bathroom, a debate that you can only take seriously if you already think that Sinema is in the wrong. Sinema's defenders now only have to defend her right to privacy, not her bad politics, and anyone who hasn't made up their mind about Sinema is not going to be convinced by things yelled at her in the bathroom.