There’s an old adage in politics. When you want to exert pressure, don’t throw someone off a cliff. Just, show them the cliff.

That’s why Krysten Sinema is leaving the Democrats but still caucasing with them. If she really left Manchin could likely leave too causing the Dems to lose the Senate. Even without Manchin she’d be a major headache for them as a Republican.

By still caucasing with them the Dems have to suck up to her bigtime, lest she pull the next trigger and not caucus with them any longer. Her Indy status is a convenient reminder of what she could do. It’s like watching your girlfriend twirl her hair and laugh too hard at another guy’s joke. Ahem.

As regular readers of this column know, I like Krysten Sinema for mostly the same reason I like other women: Because I find them attractive. Oh, I could lie and say it was blah, blah, blah. But males are hardwired that way and I am no exception. Do I automatically agree with her? Nope. However, I cut her more slack than I do less fetching females.

Love the smart and perky girl in glasses thing. Loved the FU curtsey to other Dems she pulled off when she voted against their budget. Love that the left hates her with a passion. The bisexual thing? Meh. Though, well…Uh, I digress.

She’s also smart enough to know that she’s in a purple state, that she’s going to get primaried by the left, and that if DeSantis is the 2024 nominee he might have significant coattails. Thus being labeled Dem then could be a liability in purple territory.

She’s also not the only Dem that’s left the party recently. State and local level Dems are leaving in solid numbers all across America. Which, of course, by referencing America, I mean everywhere except the West Coast.

To name two, New York City Dem Councilman Ari Kagan, who was elected in 2021, is becoming a Republican. In West Virginia, state Senator Glenn Jeffries announced earlier in December he was bolting the Dems for the GOP. But wait, there’s more.

Tulsi Gabbard, who has political potential equal to if not greater than Sinema, booked on the Dems. Reagan ditched them in the 50s. Decades ago Jeanne Kirkpatrick, star of the United Nations and Bloom County, switched and coined the famous line, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me.”

And let’s not forget the brilliant generation of conservatives who came over in the 60s in response to the New Left. Irving Kristol, Norman Podheretz, Midge Decter, Gertrude Himmelfarb, and others increased the philosophical and ideological depth of conservatism and nailed the failure of the Great Society for all to see.

Will Sinema take the final plunge and go Republican anytime soon? Will Manchin? No. Nothing in it for them unless the Senate is in Republican hands. But after 2024, a year Dems defend a lot more Senate seats than Republicans, a big Republican Senate number could leave them with decreased leverage with either party. But that will be then.

So for the next two years Sinema gets almost anything she wants from Dems, which will make her look more powerful to Arizonans and increase her chances for reelection. Not a bad pressure play at all. And who knows? To keep up Indy creds we may get a couple of votes out of her. Cool beans.