Centrist extinction looms as Sinema, Manchin, Romney, Quit
Mar 6, 2024 4:52:29 GMT -5
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Post by Blitz on Mar 6, 2024 4:52:29 GMT -5
Centrist extinction looms as Sinema, Manchin, Romney call it quits
www.axios.com/2024/03/06/sinema-retirement-manchin-romney-centrists
From left: Manchin, Sinema and Romney. Photos: Samuel Corum; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call; Win McNamee via Getty Images
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's (I-Ariz.) decision not to seek re-election has dealt the latest in a series of crushing blows to Senate bipartisanship, hollowing out a centrist core that has suffered under years of intensifying polarization.
Why it matters: The departures of Sinema, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) — three moderates routinely vilified by their own parties — will leave a massive hole for bipartisan deal-making.
It's hard to look at today's political incentives, with lawmakers more concerned about their primaries than the general election, and conclude that the vacuum will be filled.
Zoom in: Despite her broad unpopularity, Sinema will leave Congress with a virtually unparalleled record as a bipartisan negotiator.
The freshman senator wielded outsized power as a moderate swing vote, helping to craft bipartisan laws on infrastructure, gun safety, marriage equality and semiconductor manufacturing.
Sinema was the first Democrat to win an Arizona Senate seat in decades, but she left the party in 2022 — a political earthquake that came just three days after Democrats secured a 51-49 Senate majority.
The other side: Some progressives think of Sinema as a sellout. She helped advance some of President Biden's top priorities — but when the political road got bumpy, the competitive triathlete wouldn't go the distance.
Her and Manchin's staunch opposition to eliminating the filibuster, for example, prevented Democrats from passing landmark voting rights legislation in 2022.
Sinema also stood in the way of Biden's signature spending package — the Inflation Reduction Act — until Democrats abandoned a tax provision that would have closed the "carried interest loophole" for private equity.
Zoom out: Sinema, Manchin and Romney have spent years sounding the alarm on the death of bipartisanship, a trend punctuated by the GOP's recent rejection of the border security deal that Sinema helped negotiate.
"You lose the center, you lose the moderates, you're screwed. You really are screwed," Manchin told Politico after Romney's retirement announcement. "I'm hoping the voters will wake up."
Even the exit as Senate GOP leader of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — once viewed as the quintessential partisan brawler — was lamented by Democrats who admired his commitment to the institution.
Between the lines: Of the 10 senators who helped negotiate the bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021, four will be gone by next year.
A fifth — Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) — faces a highly competitive re-election race in November that could determine control of the Senate.
Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) remain pillars of the Senate's centrist foundation, but there's little doubt they're endangered species.
www.axios.com/2024/03/06/sinema-retirement-manchin-romney-centrists
From left: Manchin, Sinema and Romney. Photos: Samuel Corum; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call; Win McNamee via Getty Images
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's (I-Ariz.) decision not to seek re-election has dealt the latest in a series of crushing blows to Senate bipartisanship, hollowing out a centrist core that has suffered under years of intensifying polarization.
Why it matters: The departures of Sinema, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) — three moderates routinely vilified by their own parties — will leave a massive hole for bipartisan deal-making.
It's hard to look at today's political incentives, with lawmakers more concerned about their primaries than the general election, and conclude that the vacuum will be filled.
Zoom in: Despite her broad unpopularity, Sinema will leave Congress with a virtually unparalleled record as a bipartisan negotiator.
The freshman senator wielded outsized power as a moderate swing vote, helping to craft bipartisan laws on infrastructure, gun safety, marriage equality and semiconductor manufacturing.
Sinema was the first Democrat to win an Arizona Senate seat in decades, but she left the party in 2022 — a political earthquake that came just three days after Democrats secured a 51-49 Senate majority.
The other side: Some progressives think of Sinema as a sellout. She helped advance some of President Biden's top priorities — but when the political road got bumpy, the competitive triathlete wouldn't go the distance.
Her and Manchin's staunch opposition to eliminating the filibuster, for example, prevented Democrats from passing landmark voting rights legislation in 2022.
Sinema also stood in the way of Biden's signature spending package — the Inflation Reduction Act — until Democrats abandoned a tax provision that would have closed the "carried interest loophole" for private equity.
Zoom out: Sinema, Manchin and Romney have spent years sounding the alarm on the death of bipartisanship, a trend punctuated by the GOP's recent rejection of the border security deal that Sinema helped negotiate.
"You lose the center, you lose the moderates, you're screwed. You really are screwed," Manchin told Politico after Romney's retirement announcement. "I'm hoping the voters will wake up."
Even the exit as Senate GOP leader of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — once viewed as the quintessential partisan brawler — was lamented by Democrats who admired his commitment to the institution.
Between the lines: Of the 10 senators who helped negotiate the bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021, four will be gone by next year.
A fifth — Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) — faces a highly competitive re-election race in November that could determine control of the Senate.
Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) remain pillars of the Senate's centrist foundation, but there's little doubt they're endangered species.