The Most Dangerous Man in the Country

 

Over the past 13 or so years Mitch McConnell has proven himself to be the most dangerous man in the United States. While he has been a party apparatchik ever since he steamrolled Walter Huddleston it is only with his rise to power as Minority Leader that he became able to use his political wiles and profound knowledge of arcane Senate rules to promote minority rule of our legislative process.

Upon the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency he famously promised that his main role would be to make President Obama a one term President. Due to the popularity of the President he was unable to fulfill that promise but he was able to engineer a Republican majority in the Senate and a rise to Majority Leader.

His efforts at faking negotiation with President Obama over the Affordable Care Act dragged out the length of time it took to get a bill. He kept offering hope that a compromise could be reached while all the time never intending to make any significant concessions. But he did extract some concessions. The public option fell by the wayside as a result of his machinations before the President realized there was nothing more to be gained and pushed ahead with what was left. The decimation of the bill eventually led to the court decision to eliminated the public mandate. These two acts by the Minority Leader hamstrung the ACA and created many of the faults that people later found disappointing about the bill. With the help intended for the working people who could have benefited from the public option fractured and sources of revenue to support the bill eliminated it limped on to passage. It is a tremendously popular package that insured millions of people and, even now, President Biden is proposing that the public option be made a part of the bill and that its coverage be extended.

Senator McConnell also brought the court case that resulted in the infamous Citizens United ruling which threw into the garbage years of Campaign Finance regulations to limit the power of large, well-heeled interests. Through his leadership he gradually eroded campaign finance laws to hide the identities of those who made political contributions to political organizations so the people couldn't see who is attempting to control their government.

He has been true to his word to block every bill proposed by Democratic administrations while at the same time using Senate rules to confirm a vast number of Conservative Republican Judges to the Federal Bench. The objectives of Reactionary Republicans to control the Federal Judiciary has been largely realized during his Senate leadership but possibly the most vile thing he has done is to refuse to bring the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court seat vacated upon the demise of Antonin Scalia to the floor for discussion. His control of what comes to the floor for discussion short circuited the constitutional process of confirming Federal judges.

For four years he enabled the Presidency of Donald Trump who could never have been successful without the machinations of Senator McConnell. He made sure that Trump's objectives were hand-carried through the Senate. Then when the House of Representatives impeached President Trump he controlled the examination process in the Senate to encourage acquittal. When the House impeached the President again he pooh-poohed the charges and refused to even allow a trial with witnesses allowing President Trump to escape again.

Now, having lost his Majority when President Biden was elected, he is choosing to allow the former President to allege the election was rigged calling into doubt the sanctity of the vote and causing the nation to split with the most egregious of the protesters spouting conspiracy theories which the Senator is allowing to pass because the Republicans know if the truth comes out they'll never be allowed to hold office again. Even when those conspiracy theorists and criminals attacked the Capitol while our elected representatives were performing their duty to confirm the President he still gave the insurrectionists cover. Even now he refuses to allow an investigation to move forward by using his favorite too, the filibuster, to thwart rule by the majority of the people.

The result of all of his conniving has been to weaken the ties that bind us and cause what may be irreparable damage to our Republic. His venality will be legendary. Even now he is blocking the President's efforts to help our country and it's citizens recover from decades of crushing inequality and a world-wide pandemic.

And he is our Senator. Elected time and again by the people of Kentucky. My Take is that it is time for him to go before he destroys the foundations of our Democratic Republic. The most dangerous man in the United States.