Bravo, Kyrsten Sinema. You Represent Millions of Americans Who Hate Both Parties | Opinion

Kyrsten Sinema just told the Democratic Party, "It's not me, it's you." The maverick Arizona Senator is formally breaking up with the Democrats and registering as an Independent.

"Everyday Americans are increasingly left behind by national parties' rigid partisanship, which has hardened in recent years," Sen. Sinema explains in an Arizona Central Op-Ed announcing her move. "Pressures in both parties pull leaders to the edges, allowing the loudest, most extreme voices to determine their respective parties' priorities and expecting the rest of us to fall in line."

"When politicians are more focused on denying the opposition party a victory than they are on improving Americans' lives, the people who lose are everyday Americans," the Senator concludes. "That's why I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington."

This is a major blow for Democrats. But they really only have their own side to blame. Sinema votes reliably center-Left on everything from abortion to immigration to LGBT issues, but because she has centrist views on economics, opposing tax hikes, for example, the far Left has viciously harassed her.

Protesters at Arizona State University even followed her into the women's bathroom and screamed at her, reportedly breaking the law. More broadly, she has faced vitriolic criticism and attacks for positions that until very recently were mainstream among Democrats, such as maintaining the Senate filibuster.

Is it any wonder she's leaving a party that has treated her so poorly?

There will, unfortunately, be serious downsides to Sinema's move.

For one, the Senator will likely have a harder time securing important committee positions and getting her legislation passed, seeing as Democrats control the Senate and she just thumbed her nose at their leadership. Sinema may also have a harder time getting reelected in 2024 as an Independent, if she does decide to run again, though could be some unique electoral scenarios where this move could actually work out in her favor.

But she's evidently decide all these trade-offs are worth it in order to better represent her constituents and, more broadly, the American public. Don't forget that there are more unaffiliated registered Arizona voters than there are voters registered for either party. And per the Pew Research Center, large majorities of Americans view both the Republican and Democratic Party unfavorably. This is reflected in their self-identification, with 42 percent of Americans now identifying as Independents, compared to just 29 percent who identify as Democrats and 27 percent who identify as Republicans.

Clearly, the people share Sinema's frustrations with both establishment parties. And it's not particularly hard see why.

The Democratic Party establishment increasingly caters to the fringe "woke" social views of a tiny minority of loud activists, isolating their own voters in the process. Meanwhile, the GOP increasingly stands for nothing beyond subservience to Donald Trump and blind opposition to Team Blue. Content to fear-monger and fundraise, neither establishment party seems particularly bothered with actually addressing the issues people care about.

But Kyrsten Sinema does care about exactly that. And, whether you agree with her on the issues or not, we should all appreciate the spirit of independence that animates her controversial political career.

Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a libertarian-conservative journalist and the co-founder of BASEDPolitics.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.