The following opinion column by Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry President and CEO Danny Seiden originally appeared in The Arizona Republic earlier today.

It’s hard to remember a time when our nation was as deeply divided as it is today.

Now more than ever, we need elected leaders who are willing to buck party politics and work toward finding common-ground, commonsense solutions to address our challenges, bridge our division and begin to move our country forward.

Unfortunately, examples of this kind of leadership are becoming fewer and farther between. Nowhere is that more apparent than in Washington, D.C., where political expediency and pandering to the party base increasingly take precedent over the pursuit of broadly supported bipartisan solutions.

Then there’s Sen. Kyrsten Sinema – a refreshing independent voice amid a chorus of deafening partisan rancor. Throughout her first term, Sen. Sinema has demonstrated the kind of bold and brave public service many people may have thought died with the late Sen. John McCain.

That maverick spirit has been on full display in recent days, as Sen. Sinema held her ground in supporting the long-standing Senate filibuster amid intense and incendiary political pressure from her own party.

The senator’s stance on this issue should have come as a surprise to no one. In a from last June, Sinema wrote: “If anyone expected me to reverse my position because my party now controls the Senate, they should know that my approach to legislating in Congress is the same whether in the minority or majority.”

She reiterated that position during a recent , reminding her colleagues that “we have but one democracy. We can only survive, we can only keep her, if we do so together.”

You would think that message of bipartisanship would be widely embraced, welcomed and celebrated in this time of severely fractured politics. After all, it’s exactly what politicians, pundits – and yes, opinion columnists who appear on these pages – have been preaching for years.

Not so. Rather than praising Sen. Sinema as a profile in courage, the same chattering class that has been crying for civility has laid bare its hypocrisy – spewing vile, threatening and dishonest attacks on the senator’s character and distorting her record.

Ironically, some people – all of whom know better – have resorted to the same overheated, hateful rhetoric that they’ve longed claimed has no place in the public square.

“Worse than the ‘Ku Klux Klanner’ of the 1960s.”

“Killing [Dr. Martin Luther] King’s legacy” and “turn[ing] America back to the Jim Crow era.”

These are dripping off the pages of Arizona’s newspaper of record.

Nationally, the backlash has been equally repugnant, with MSNBC talking heads calling Sen. Sinema – among other things – “” and her staff “.”

These accusations are not only ridiculous – not to mention flat-out false – but they are also corrosive. If anything is a threat to democratic discourse, it’s language like this.

This is about more than a single policy issue. We are at a place where working across the aisle to advance bipartisan solutions – the very thing the Senate was designed to do – is now met with vitriol, and decried as failure.

If we are truly going to heal our fractured country, we must first start by toning down the dangerous and divisive rhetoric. And we must realize that the consistent pursuit of bipartisan agreement is not a threat to democracy, but an asset.

We’re grateful to have that in Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. We would hope our entire delegation – and all of our elected leaders – would follow her example.  

Danny Seiden is the president and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. On Twitter: .

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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Tuesday night convened a statewide tele-townhall about why the groups are urging Sen. Kyrsten Sinema , D-Ariz., to oppose the massive social spending bill known as Build Back Better.

Arizona Chamber President and CEO Danny Seiden and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley discussed the bill’s negative effects on inflation, the tax environment and federal budget deficits. 

Seiden said Arizona’s economy was one of the fastest states in the country to recover the jobs it lost during the pandemic-induced downturn and he noted the consistent rate at which the state is attracting new jobs. 

The reconciliation bill, warned Seiden, could hurt the state’s positive growth trajectory, and his chamber is urging Sen. Sinema and her colleague Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., to reject the legislation. 

Seiden said the bill is too expensive and that it will make the “already Jimmy-Carter-level inflation rates even worse.” 

Bradley, a public policy veteran, said that the bill was one of the worst pieces of legislation he has seen in some 25 years of tracking Congress’ work. 

Bradley also noted that Arizona’s economic growth can be hindered by policy crafted in Washington, D.C.

“Arizona is what we want the nation’s economy to be: dynamic, vibrant, growing –  that’s the definition of what we want to emulate,” Bradley said. “The problem is that sometimes Washington can throw a wet blanket on all that growth and at the same time raise prices for everyday families and businesses.”

Bradley said that last weekend around 1,880 pages of the bill were received by lawmakers on Capitol Hill containing “taxes, new powers for the Internal Revenue Service, and [new] ways of regulating businesses.” 

Sixty-three percent of small businesses across the U.S. have had to raise their prices due to inflationary pressures, and Bradley said he’s certain that the bill will add to these pressures partly because of the amount of money that it requires, which will “have to be borrowed, in this case from mainly overseas creditors, and paid back by higher taxes later.”

Seiden said he’s concerned with the penalties that the bill would enforce on Arizona’s economy, pointing to a portion of the legislation that offers a more generous tax credit for electric vehicle purchases if the car was assembled in a unionized factory.

Seiden said the provision conflicts with , which enshrines the state’s “right to work” (RTW) status and makes labor union membership voluntary. He argued that Arizona’s growing electric vehicle manufacturing sector is thanks in part to Arizona’s status as an RTW state, which the bill would undermine.

“This provision would punish non-union companies to choose between operating at either a competitive disadvantage or protecting their employees,” Seiden said. 

Both Bradley and Seiden called for the bill to be scrapped and that Congress should start over. They both expressed appreciation for Sinema’s work to improve the bill, but that their chambers are urging her not to support it and instead back pro-economic-growth policies. 

“Arizona’s Chamber and the U.S. Chamber are working together on an advocacy campaign here in the state thanking Sen. Sinema for so far standing up to the big tax and spend agenda in Washington and urging her to not let up, to keep fighting back against policies that will drive up costs more than they already are,” Seiden said.

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