Is Mitch McConnell facing any backlash due to his obvious hypocrisy, and unprincipled actions concerning the Supreme Court? Shouldn’t his numbers be crumbling?
At one time the Republican Party was known as the party in favor of personal responsibility and personal integrity. Obviously that has been abandoned in actuality, but isn’t there still a desire to appear as, and give lip service to- having integrity? Sure, not all – but shouldn’t a respectable percentage of voters bristle at the blatant power grab?
They do, but those voters weren’t fans of Mitch to begin with.
The latest move by Mitch, while hypocritical, is perfectly in character. It should surprise no one, and therefore change no one’s opinion, who’s been paying attention to McConnell all along.
I’ve said this before: Pointing out the hypocrisy in Republican words and actions is useless because they have fully embraced hypocrisy as an effective tool in their fight to hold onto and increase power. They are not ashamed of it.
And completely unswayed by logic, reason, morality, and especially by facts. Some of the things Republicans of my acquaintance believe (the eight thousand year old world is going to end in my lifetime) makes it hard to fathom how dismissive they can be of demonstrable facts!!
Sure, he’s facing backlash, but not in a meaningful way. If all the stuff he did from 2010-2019 hasn’t changed him (he got backlash aplenty,) why would this change him now?
On the contrary, he is on the cusp of snagging the crowning achievement (for him) in his entire career. If he can successfully replace Ginsburg with Barrett, he can hang up his hat and call it a career, in his view. Nothing can top that.
As long as Mitch keeps sounding the trumpet for opposing Democratic “socialists,” 60+million voters will support him, even if they don’t like him. Like with Trump, there is no unscrupulous political act he can perform that will affect his support with the No-Nothing Party.
Even though I did not expect it to deter him at all, I was hoping there would be some outrage, some tangible result. Here in AZ when appointed senator Martha McSally tweeted about replacing Ginsberg on the same day she died, folks went apeshit and her opponent Mark Kelly raised a ton of money over night. I was hoping since McConnell is also up for reelection he would have faced some push back like his opponent rising in the polls or raising money.
Perhaps I am too optimistic but I am so saddened by this. It is possible to see outside the koolaide buble and escape it, I did. But once you are out of their sphere of influence it is damn near impossible to rescue anyone else no matter how much truth or morality you have to guide them out.
(On the other hand, it took me the better part of a decade to move as far as I have moved from the hard rightwing. Of course, once I decided to view my party objectively and honestly, it has been a steady trip away from them and the contradictory nonsense they espouse.)
You’re in a “purple” state, and Kelly is running against a freshman senator, whom, as you note, was not elected to the post – and who, in fact, lost to Kyrsten Synema in the race for your state’s other Senate seat, two years ago. Kelly has had a strong lead in most of the recent polls, and 538’s models show Kelly winning in 78% of their model runs.
OTOH, while McConnell is facing an impressive opponent in Amy McGrath, Kentucky is still a pretty deep red state (if you look at the “snake chart” on 538’s presidential election page, Kentucky is among the half-dozen “reddest” states). It doesn’t look like there’s been as much polling done in Kentucky, maybe because it’s not a particularly competitive race, but McConnell’s lead in the last few polls has been pretty big, and 538 has him winning in 98% of their model runs.
Anecdotally, I’ve seen several friends mention, on Facebook, that they’ve donated to McGrath’s campaign, but I think that she’s got too steep of a road to climb, against an established (and, frankly, very politically savvy) opponent.
Also, it’s too soon for any polls to really show the effects of the past five days, but if McConnell sees any sort of significant erosion to his support, I’ll be stunned.
Yes, if she brings it down to a single digit race she will have been doing well. I still hope however. I would love to see him pay a price for his lack of character – would love to see him have to be Trump’s toady as a lame duck.
A certain mindset doesn’t see this as doing anything wrong. It’s like when Trump cheats at golf. He doesn’t see it as cheating. He doesn’t feel he should have to win by having better golf skills. He wins by being more powerful than the people he’s playing golf with. He knows he can openly break the rules and the people he’s playing with won’t object because he’s Donald Trump. And he feels that’s a legitimate victory; winning by forcing the other players to let you cheat is just as valid as winning by playing the game better. Maybe it’s even better; golf skills don’t translate off the course but power does.
And that’s the way people like Trump and McConnell conduct politics. They have no interest in playing by rules. They feel it’s a sign of how successful they are at politics that they don’t have to follow the rules. Following rules is what weak politicians have to do. Strong politicians can ignore the rules and nobody can stop them when they do it. They actually welcome opportunities to break the rules because it shows how strong they are.
This: “Strong politicians can ignore the rules and nobody can stop them when they do it. They actually welcome opportunities to break the rules because it shows how strong they are.”
Winning is everything. How you win doesn’t matter. You prove you are a winner by virtue of winning, any way you can must.
I saw a headline a couple days ago to the same effect: That some of these Senators feel it is worth it to risk losing control of the Senate and the White House if they get their judge on the Court and blow away Roe v Wade and Obamacare.
But willing to take that kind of a hit for that kind of gain? (Are they willing to risk their own seats for that?)
This leads me to wonder: Do some of these Repub senators actually have some principles after all? That they are willing to fight these fights even if it may cost them control of the Senate and the White House?
It’s worth losing control of Congress and the White House for a stretch. In fact, it’s what they do.
They don’t want the responsibility of cleaning up the enormous mess they’ve made. They don’t care about it at all. It’s part of the process. Just like they did to Obama after the disastrous 2 terms of GWB, the Republicans slither off to the sidelines and snipe, criticize, Benghazi and bitch, bitch, bitch. They fix nothing. They protect nothing. When they’re in office, they do the bare minimum to keep from being driven from office by the citizenry as they steal us blind and tear down as many norms and institutions as they possibly can. Every single time.
And lots of Americans will fall for it. Again.
After their stuffed courts have destroyed voting rights, workers’ rights, health care, LGBTQ and gay rights, rights of minorities, Social Security, Medicare and anything else they can think of, Republicans will be back. The fix is already in. They know they are only out on a temporary basis.
@Aspenglow: I hate hate hate what you write there, all the more so because I fear more each day how right you may be!
A nearby thread asks what I’d do if I had lots and lots of power. I cringe to contemplate it. But it would not be pretty for Republicans, specifically the camo-wearing, assult-rifle bearing, profanity swearing MAGAt ilk.
I hate that so many of us, myself included, seem to be getting more radicalized by the day.
I don’t feel radicalized. Just despair at what seems to be the obvious conclusion.
Democrats have been so busy fighting over their splintered concerns, they never noticed as Republicans moved forward with an agenda they forged over 40+ years. It’s a ghastly agenda, one full of selfishness, greed and scorn for we hoi polloi. They popularize movements like Libertarianism, gin up racism, misogyny and general xenophobia so citizens will work against their own best interests and demonize concepts like SOCIALISM (!!!) and LIBERAL EDUCATION (!!!), all in service of keeping us at each other’s throats so we don’t notice all they’ve stolen from us. There really is nothing they won’t do if it means they’ll get to run the show their way without any accountability to the citizens they’re meant to serve. The ends always justify the means.
It is very depressing to contemplate. I’d like to think we could fix it. I’m just far from certain we can.
I’ll tell you one thing we can and should do if we manage to wrest control back in this election: Thoroughly investigate McConnell’s own ties to Russian oligarchs. Never forget who built the 200 million dollar aluminum mill in Kentucky that earned him the moniker, Moscow Mitch.
And all the rest, like Devin Nunes, Ron Johnson and Dana Rohrabacher, among others. Tear that nasty stuff out, branch and root.
