A lot of ink has been spilled about Kyrsten Sinema's motivations regarding the reconciliation bill currently making its way through the Senate, and I think that most of it ignores the obvious.
While there there are some politicians whose motivations are transparently clear, no one would be surprised if Mitch McConnell were to take his mother to the Soylent Green factory just to get another conservative justice on the Supreme Court, for example, there are people in Washington whose motivations are profoundly, and I would argue perversely, personal.
Clearly, Sinema's lack of professed ideology, and her reticence about
revealing what she specifically wants, and does not want, from the
reconciliation bill is confusing when looking using the calulus involved in either ideological or electoral motivations.
I think that when one looks at Sinema's history, her public personae, and her affect, it's clear that she is an toxic narcissist. (Note again, I am using the term "Toxic Narcissist" in a conversational and not a clinical way, as I am an engineer, not a psychologist, dammit.*)
This toxic narcissim is obvious, just look at her behavior on the minimum wage vote,when she gave the thumbs down on the minimum wage with a curtsy while dressed something like an extra on Japanese school girl pr0n film.
Her behavior makes perfect sense if it is seen as being driven by a personal rather than a political need: She has an overweening need to be the center of attention and this is accompanied by a need to be in complete control while doing so.
This explains why she is unwilling to express specific demands, and why she eschews town hall meetings with constituents: She wants to be listened to, not to listen.
Basically, she's nuts.†
*I love it when I get to go all Dr. McCoy!†Again, I want to make this clear, I am not offering a diagnosis, I am using the term collocuially.
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