Kyrsten Sinema, the independent U.S. senator from Arizona, has announced that she will not run for office again. Her farewell speech had one overarching message: America, I was great, but you didn’t appreciate me enough.

“Because I choose civility, understanding, listening, working together to get stuff done,” Sinema said, “I will leave the Senate at the end of this year.” She listed out her many purported accomplishments, then lamented, “But it’s not what America wants right now.”

It was an on-brand moment from a politician whose primary consideration and most important constituent has been herself. Sinema has long styled herself as a reasonable moderate just trying to get stuff done. In reality, she has been a self-serving attention monster, consistently willing to bend any purported principle if she believes doing so will empower her. She seems motivated less by service or even the garden-variety narcissism on display from so many elected officials than a desire for victory, power, and eyeballs. In that, she is hardly unique in Washington. But in a Congress where most of the venal showboaters are Republicans, men, or both, Sinema was singular: a Democrat who, once she got a bit more power, abandoned the party and often her constituents and instead catered to the ultrawealthy—and herself. Even in stepping down, she made it all about her.

Sinema was something of the enfant terrible of the Senate, albeit in the body of a Gen X woman fond of jewel-tone dresses and statement jewelry. She is despised by many Democrats for running as a member of the party only to take a completely obstructionist turn once in office, tanking some of the most important pieces of the Democratic legislative agenda.........

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