Sen. Kyrsten Sinema should be 'punished' ... for not being a climate change radical?

Hold it. Let me grab a folding chair and cold beverage.

I don’t want to miss one second of this.

The people’s representative of the 16^th Congressional District of New York that includes the Bronx and New York’s Westchester County is about to tell me how I think.

In fact, how all Arizonans think.

Jamaal Bowman has it out for Sinema

Jamaal Bowman is the first male member of the Democrats’ all-girl band “The Squad.” His arrival was so earthshaking that CNN speculated he could be “the next AOC” — the next Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Intrigued?

Pull up a chair. Coke or Sprite?

Who knew this budding star of the young socialists’ version of The Go-Go’s had his finger squarely on the pulse of Arizona?

In a long post on the social network formerly known as Twitter, Bowman launched a fierce attack this week against Arizona’s senior senator, Kyrsten Sinema.

“Punish Traitors” screamed the block letters beneath a photo of Sinema.

'We're tired of you blocking,' he says

And then the deluge.

“Kyrsten Sinema, Shame on you.

“... Your decision to block climate legislation is a betrayal of the highest order.

“Voters elected you to represent the interests of your state. But you have made it clear that you only care about the interests of the rich.

“You have betrayed the people of Arizona, you have betrayed the American people, and you have betrayed the planet.”

“We’re tired of you blocking climate change bills. ... It’s not only irresponsible, but it is also criminally negligent.”

OK, we get it. Lock her up.

Bowman wants to end all fossil fuels

But before we put Sinema in pinstripes, it’s worth knowing what Rep. Bowman believes — just so we can know where he’s coming from and how he managed to tap into the Arizona zeitgeist.

In his attack tweet, Bowman asserts that Sinema, now a political independent, has “chosen to side with the fossil fuel industry and corporate interests that are destroying our planet.”

What he doesn’t tell you is what he told CNN, “We need to stop drilling for fossil fuel completely.”

Get that?

Bowman wants to end the use of fossil fuels that now supply roughly 80% of the nation’s energy.

When you consider that his Democratic Party is cold to the expansion of nuclear power (about 8% of the nation’s energy portfolio) it’s clear he would lead us to a new Stone Age.

Sun and wind power aren’t going to make up the difference. Not in our lifetime.

Never fear. “Stone Age” Bowman is here.

He slow-walked kids back to school

Fossil fuels are just the beginning. When he’s through, he will have unloaded all of America’s excess baggage.

Such as the free-market capitalist system.

“I believe our current system of capitalism is slavery by another name,” Bowman said. “We’ve moved from physical chattel enslavement and physical racial segregation to a plantation economic system.”

That harmonizes quite nicely with the Arizona point of view, don’t you think?

The strongest sign yet: That Sen. Sinema will run next year

He certainly channeled Arizona during the pandemic. He was the chorus line for the American Federation of Teachers — the teachers’ union.

He did the COVID two-step with AFT’s Randi Weingarten, pushing for mandatory vaccines for America’s public school children.

He also did the slow waltz, the very slow waltz, back to classroom learning.

“There are many vaccines that babies have to take and many immunizations that need to be done before going to school. This now needs to be a part of that cocktail, because we are living in a new normal,” he told Buzzfeed in December 2021.

Sure, that's exactly what Arizona believes

In the face of all evidence that public schools were safe to open because young people are less susceptible to COVID-19, Bowman said, “If we would’ve kept schools open, more people would have died due to COVID,” Yahoo News reported.

In the face of all evidence that the slow return to classroom instruction significantly set back this generation of public-school children, he said it is incorrect to refer to “learning loss.”

Yahoo News interpreted that remark as “an echo of arguments made by teachers’ unions that educational setbacks are being exaggerated.”

If quality of life can be measured by the insanity of your opponents, Kyrsten Sinema is living a charmed life.

Phil Boas is an editorial columnist for The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema should be 'punished' ... for not being a radical?