Normally, I would not dignify McConnell with even a few keystrokes on my laptop's keyboard, but recently, his obstructionism strongly warrants at least our scrutiny, if not outright condemnation, plus his tacit participation in continuing the shutdown has really started to bother me.
I have never had any dealings with him, except one: about 20 years ago, I wrote to him as titular chairman of the Senate Nutrition Committee to suggest that the United States could benefit from creating a new Cabinet Secretary for Nutrition and Consumer Protection, because, no, no other agency or department was addressing those vital concerns. He ignored it and never replied.
Now, his career path has evolved to cementing Trump's judicial appointments at all levels, a complete about face from what he did to Obama's judicial appointments. (Hypocritical? Of course, by definition, but not in Mitch's mind, not at all. Turn-about is fair play or something like that".)
I cite the recent stunning article in Salon, from which I will summarize the key points after the letter from Ditch Mitch, both of which inspired me to write this one.
Mitch McConnell has the power to shut down the shutdown: So why isn't he?
By letting Trump drag out the shutdown, McConnell hurts not just Americans, but his own party and even Trump
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And then this eloquent fundraising epistle from the Ditch Mitch Fund:
Mitch McConnell has the power to end this shutdown right now. But instead, hundreds of thousands of federal employees and their families are missing a paycheck today. And for what? So Donald Trump can break his campaign promise, asking the American people to pay for the ridiculous wall he has spent years saying Mexico would pay for?Yesterday, despite Senate Democrats trying to force a vote, Mitch McConnell used his power as Majority Leader to single-handedly block two bills passed by the House to fully fund and reopen the government.
Mitch said he refused to allow a vote on the bills because they would be just "show votes" since Donald Trump would never sign them into law. But since when has the man whose party staged more than 70 "show votes" to repeal The Affordable Care Act during Obama's presidency ever cared about the threat of a presidential veto?
No. Mitch McConnell is refusing to allow a vote on a bill to fund the government and to end shutdown because he knows it would pass. He knows it would pass, because one of the bills already did pass the Senate last month - with even McConnell himself voting for it!
What's really going on here is that Mitch McConnell is afraid of his Republican base. He's up for reelection in 2020, and he has seen the polling. Mitch is the most unpopular senator in the entire country. According to the most recent poll, only 33% of Kentucky voters approve of Mitch McConnell, with an overwhelming 52% disapproving. Even Republican voters don't like McConnell, and this is in Kentucky - a state that Trump won by almost 30 points!
Mitch McConnell knows that if he brought a bill to the floor reopening the government without a penny for Trump's ridiculous wall, it would pass. Trump would almost certainly veto it, but even then, this bill has already once gotten enough votes in the Senate to override Trump's veto. And if Mitch allowed that to happen, the Republican base would turn on McConnell more than they already have.
What's happening right now in the Senate and the real reason that hundreds of thousands of federal workers and their families are missing a paycheck today is this: Mitch McConnell is worried about his own reelection and preventing a Republican primary challenger from running against him for not supporting Trump. But no more. We will not allow Mitch to continue to put his own personal gain and party before country. That's why we started Ditch Mitch - a brand new grassroots organization that is solely dedicated to supporting McConnell's future Democratic opponent and ending his political career once and for all in 2020.
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