You just can’t make some things up. Things like the self-proclaimed Democrat, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who stood next to Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas Republican who had just filibustered the bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and U.S. Congress to declare that the filibuster “protects the democracy of our nation.” No, really, she said that. With cameras rolling.

This is after Sinema herself inexplicably missed that vote, and that missed vote was after she tweeted out a joint statement with her fellow Democratic obstructionist, Joe Manchin, about how important the Jan. 6 vote was. “The events of January 6th were horrific. We could never have imagined an attack on Congress and or Capitol at the hands of our own citizens,” the two wrote. “We implore our Senate Republican colleagues to work with us to find a path forward on a commission to examine the events of January 6th.” 

While she was defending the filibuster on camera while standing next to one of the single most partisan of Republicans, she refused to explain why she missed the vote, saying only, “I had a personal family matter.” Radio silence from her for four days on her absence, and that’s the best she could come up with.

Sign the petition to Senator Sinema: End this charade. The filibuster endangers our democracy.

But back to that “democracy of our nation” bit. Sinema went on to say: “To those who say that we must make a choice between the filibuster and ‘X,’ I say, this is a false choice.” Like a choice between the filibuster or legislation actually passing? She rejects that. “The reality is that when you have a system that is not working effectively—and I would think that most would agree that the Senate is not a particularly well-oiled machine, right? The way to fix that is to fix your behavior, not to eliminate the rules or change the rules, but to change the behavior,” Sinema added, confirming that she’s fully committed to make an utter fool of herself.

Behavior? Behavior? Like posting very senatorial Instagram photos, wearing a “Fuck Off” ring while guzzling sangria? Behavior like that? That’s going to help bring the Republicans around? 

Again, her commitment to making herself a clown is something else, something entirely not helpful when it comes to actually saving this nation. I mean, look at this. She’s standing next to Cornyn, on a “border” trip to align herself with Republicans on immigration, of all things, and she spews this nonsense.

But just in case you misinterpret her providing all that cover on immigration for fucking John Cornyn, she tweets out stuff like this: 

The bill she is refusing to end the filibuster for is “fundamental to our democracy.” Like the filibuster protects our democracy? When the Republicans are vowing to filibuster the “fundamental” For the People Act?

It’s not like the Republicans have demonstrated an iota of good faith here. It’s also not like our democracy isn’t really at stake. It is “truly a five-alarm fire,” says former Senate leadership aide Eli Zupnick, a spokesman for Fix Our Senate. That group, along with more than 100 others, sent a letter to Senate Democrats to highlight just how dangerous the filibuster is.

“Democrats have to make the fundamental choice: Are they going to protect the filibuster or are they going to protect voting rights?” Zupnick says, echoing the letter. “That Republicans could not even support a bipartisan investigation into a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol reflects dangerously misplaced priorities: They have chosen party over country, obstruction over progress, and Trump over democracy,” the groups said in the letter.

Perhaps Sinema will take some time away from her personal family concerns and her stunts trying to demonstrate that she’s “quirky” and “authentic” and “mavericky” and spend some time figuring out what’s going on around her. Like the fact that she’s even losing support from critical former Republican backers at home in Arizona.