McConnell at the Helm
So we’ve come to the point at
which we always knew we’d arrive. It all comes down to Mitch McConnell,
the leader of the Senate who publicly asserted that his primary goal
was to make Barack Obama a one-term president; who, as President Obama
was inaugurated, gathered fellow Republicans to plot a four-year
legislative plan of obstruction, never mind whatever Obama proposed; who
engineered the outrageous refusal to follow Constitutional practice
with the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme court; and who now
prepares his caucus to author its own plan to repeal and replace the
Affordable Care Act. Mitch McConnell, whom history will likely describe
as one of the most cynical, ruthless, and effective political leaders
of the modern Senate pantheon. And the central question: will he be
able to keep Republican senators united in drawing a moat around their
national leader, Donald Trump? On the day following Trump’s firing of
FBI Director James Comey, McConnell took the Senate floor to
dismiss
calls for independent investigations of Trump campaign connections to
Russian bad actors. We should trust, he implied, the Senate and House
Republican-led committees charged with their own investigations.
“Trust” is not a word with much currency in our current national
debates. But we can be “secure” in our understanding that Mitch
McConnell will do whatever he can to preserve the power of the
Republican party—the national interest be damned. If that means
defending the lies of the President, ignoring his appalling ignorance of
basic policy matters, looking the other way as he tears apart
centuries-old American traditions and values—then so be it. We will
cease to be a country ruled by law, but instead by the rules of Mitch
McConnell.
Publishing History
Albany TU 5/21
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