Thank You For the Visuals on Video, Senator Sinema.
Video of the Arizona Senator casting her no vote for the minimum wage increase has understandably sparked outrage online.
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As many of us who have been following the fate of the $15 minimum wage in the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill already know, eight Senate Democrats voted alongside the Republican party to kill the amendment including the wage increase. A wage increase that would have given America’s lowest earning workers a raise they have not seen since 2009. Among the eight, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema had been vowing to vote against this piece of the bill virtually from the time Joe Biden indicated his intentions to include it.
As if eight Senate Democrats sending a message to the left and killing what is inarguably the bare minimum of progressive policy goals wasn’t infuriating enough, the now viral video of Senator Sinema casting her no vote has sparked justifiable outrage online. Head held high and making her way to the center of the Senate floor, Sinema made a show of sticking her arm all the way out, jutting out her hip and knee into what looked like a half attempt at a curtsy, and gleefully turned her thumb down before throwing her bag over her shoulder and marching away.
Seconds before, she was even caught on video clapping Mitch McConnell on the back and attempting to get his attention, looking back around to see if he would watch her cast her no vote.
He ignored her.
Earlier in the day before casting her vote to deny tens of millions of people a raise — as if the video of the vote wasn’t telling enough — she brought cake to the Senate for what her office insists was for the Senate staffers who had worked tirelessly through the night.
Well, the choice of dessert and the context surrounding it is certainly fitting, considering the infamous legendary statements of Marie Antoinette before the French Revolution:
“let them eat cake…”
As a cherry on top, Sinema’s spokeswoman thought it wise to argue in response to the blowback that it was sexist to point out her “body language” or “physical demeanor”.
