Last month Sen. Krysten Sinema voted no on an effort to add a minimum wage provision to a bill which could be passed with just a simple majority. Democrats were made about the loss but they really got angry at the way she gave a little thumbs down move on the Senate floor.

Why is Senator Sinema from AZ so happy about voting against minimum way increase?

How infuriating when millions of people are struggling including in her own state.pic.twitter.com/fEhxr29Aci

— Cristina Jiménez (@CrisAlexJimenez) March 5, 2021

Seriously, this really made a lot of people furious. This video mocking her has been viewed nearly 175,000 times. The lack of love between Sen. Sinema and progressives escalated a bit yesterday when she posted an image on Instagram in which she’s drinking Sangrian through a straw while wearing a ring that reads “F**k off.” I don’t actually see the post on Instagram so she may have deleted it but a reporter for Politico copied it over to Twitter yesterday:

Kyrsten Sinema, the Senate’s most colorful member, posts a pic of herself on instagram rocking a “F*** Off” ring & sipping what looks like Sangria pic.twitter.com/ec6AkEPUiE

— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) April 18, 2021

I don’t think Sinema specifically indicated this was a message to progressives angry about her minimum wage vote, but it seems they all agreed that’s what this was about. There are a lot of angry socialists denouncing her today. Here are half a dozen examples:

What's the message here, @SenatorSinema and who is it directed towards? Because the complaints you're hearing are from people who presumed that you were at least progressive enough to support voting rights, infrastructure etc. Do you support those things or just the filibuster? https://t.co/lxP7YW6Rb6

— Joy-Ann Pro-Democracy & Masks Reid 😷 (@JoyAnnReid) April 18, 2021

This picture was intentional.
Sen. Sinema thinks the fuck off ring is a witty way to send a message to the people upset at her actions. The reality, the fuck off ring is a gut punch to the people that worked their ass off to elect her. Shameful. @SenatorSinema https://t.co/U1iwovZkzz

— Brianna Westbrook (@BWestbrookAZ8) April 18, 2021

doing the macarena while voting down a minimum wage increase, then doing passive aggressive shit like this after people don't respond wellhttps://t.co/i15EdLEqRf

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) April 19, 2021

Kyrsten Sinema took a class about the French Revolution and came out thinking Marie Antoinette was the real MVP. https://t.co/sq1RuLsgvK

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) April 19, 2021

So Kyrsten Sinema now wants people she deprived a living wage to see her get buzzed? https://t.co/H0V3EcpgTI

— Jordan (@JordanChariton) April 18, 2021

This is what happens when you don’t bully the teens who are obsessed with Alice In Wonderland https://t.co/pmvKyfZmrL

— Travis Helwig (@travishelwig) April 19, 2021

Not sure why but the communists seem particularly agitated.

Kyrsten Sinema went from being a Green Party activist organising anti-war rallies under Bush to voting against raising the minimum wage, being opposed to abolishing the filibuster, and voted with Trump 50% of the time when he was president. https://t.co/8mQlTw0OeE

— Communist Sailor Moon ☭🇬🇹🌙 (@stealyoredbull) April 18, 2021

There are literally thousands more reactions like this. People on the left are assuming this is directed at them and then trashing her and vowing she’ll face a primary. Is that realistic? Polls show that Sen. Sinema has lost some support from Democrats since she’s refused to vote the party line. But even now about 50% of Democratic voters support her. So there’s a big inherent risk of trying to primary her in Arizona with someone on the far left:

Sinema became the first Arizona Democrat in three decades to ascend to the U.S. Senate in 2018, squeaking into office with just over 51% of the vote – aided by Martha McSally, a tin-earred Trump ally who managed to turn off moderate Republican women and independent voters.

Since then, Sinema has done just what she said she would do, to the consternation of Democrats who seem to think she owes them something. She has charted a middle course, in search of solutions that have bipartisan support…

I’ve long believed that Sinema is in the catbird seat. Democrats have never loved her but they can’t afford to dump her. If they field a more liberal candidate in 2024, they likely will lose the seat to Republicans.

She really is the Democratic Party’s John McCain in many ways. Just as Republicans were often furious at McCain for his “maverick” votes with the other party, progressives feel the same way about Sinema. But finding a candidate who can win in Arizona and consistently vote with the left could be a stretch. One thing we’ve learned from watching the squad in action is that they often overestimate how popular their politics are outside their own bubble.