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In reply to the discussion: The Lincoln Project has a new target... [View all]Hortensis
(58,785 posts)11. Yes, excellent! KISS and honest, though history will have plenty
to say about McConnell's dreadful damage to America -- even if KY's own history, as said, will be unable to list any meaningful benefits but many betrayals. McConnell was famous for decades among his colleagues of only wanting power, specifically 30 years of wanting the very powerful position he currently holds. His only real goal.
Fascinating read in Vox with Jane Mayer on McConnell:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is a nihilist. More than any other politician in recent memory, his life is a monument to self-dealing and partisan hackery. His devotion to winning at all costs, to ensuring there are no limits on private money in politics, to bending the rules and shunning public opinion, has done incalculable damage to constitutional norms in the US. As my colleague Andrew Prokop noted back in 2017, McConnell has almost singlehandedly broken the Senate and with it, American politics.
New Yorker writer Jane Mayer is the latest to take a deep dive into the life and mind of McConnell. In a lengthy profile Mayer ... tries to explain whats motivating them ... Her answer is familiar: power. Its the only thing McConnell appears to want, and theres no ideology behind it, no real worldview, no purpose. But Mayer manages to unearth some new revelations about McConnells corruption and some of the behind-the-scenes dealings. ...
Mayer: I guess I thought that he was an ideologue of a certain kind, and what I discovered is that he actually has almost no fixed ideology. Its pretty hard to find any important issue that he hasnt switched positions on at some point or another when it was convenient for him. Whether its abortion or campaign spending or many other issues, he just switches like a chameleon when he needs to, and I hadnt really realized how many times hes done this and how easily he did it.
Mayer: Whats interesting, and MacGillis writes about this in his book on McConnell, is that this very much reflects the trajectory of the Republican Party since maybe the Reagan years. I covered Reagan for the Wall Street Journal and there was at least some content to the ideology at that point, which was sort of a rebellion against liberalism in favor of small government. But all we have now, and McConnell really exemplifies this, is a cult of winning. ... Based on what people around him told me, I think he would have been just as happy, if not happier, if Trump had been defeated because then he, McConnell, wouldve been the most important Republican in the country and the most powerful.
Vox: You could say that McConnell is a reflection of his times, or you could say that he helped make the times what they are. Id argue its the latter what do you think?
Mayer: Oh, I totally agree that its the latter. Hes not just a passive bystander in this. McConnell is an active participant in this devolution; he has helped push the country in a certain direction. I interviewed a historian who I didnt end up quoting in the end but whos an expert in the rise of Hitler before World War II, and he was likening McConnell to Paul von Hindenburg, a German statesman who was part of the political establishment and thought he could control an autocrat and realized too late that he had unleashed something he couldnt contain. ... McConnell is just chasing power wherever it takes him, and in doing that, he has actively shaped the world were in right now. ...
Its all tactical, no strategy, no vision. I talked to John Yarmuth, a Democratic congressman from Louisville, who told me that McConnells very smart but hes not intellectual. If you tried to have a conversation with him about some big issue that were facing as a society, like climate change or artificial intelligence, he wouldnt be able to have that conversation and he wouldnt be interested in it. Hes interested in winning and nothing else. ...
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/4/30/21234505/mitch-mcconnell-trump-republican-party-jane-mayer
New Yorker writer Jane Mayer is the latest to take a deep dive into the life and mind of McConnell. In a lengthy profile Mayer ... tries to explain whats motivating them ... Her answer is familiar: power. Its the only thing McConnell appears to want, and theres no ideology behind it, no real worldview, no purpose. But Mayer manages to unearth some new revelations about McConnells corruption and some of the behind-the-scenes dealings. ...
Mayer: I guess I thought that he was an ideologue of a certain kind, and what I discovered is that he actually has almost no fixed ideology. Its pretty hard to find any important issue that he hasnt switched positions on at some point or another when it was convenient for him. Whether its abortion or campaign spending or many other issues, he just switches like a chameleon when he needs to, and I hadnt really realized how many times hes done this and how easily he did it.
Mayer: Whats interesting, and MacGillis writes about this in his book on McConnell, is that this very much reflects the trajectory of the Republican Party since maybe the Reagan years. I covered Reagan for the Wall Street Journal and there was at least some content to the ideology at that point, which was sort of a rebellion against liberalism in favor of small government. But all we have now, and McConnell really exemplifies this, is a cult of winning. ... Based on what people around him told me, I think he would have been just as happy, if not happier, if Trump had been defeated because then he, McConnell, wouldve been the most important Republican in the country and the most powerful.
Vox: You could say that McConnell is a reflection of his times, or you could say that he helped make the times what they are. Id argue its the latter what do you think?
Mayer: Oh, I totally agree that its the latter. Hes not just a passive bystander in this. McConnell is an active participant in this devolution; he has helped push the country in a certain direction. I interviewed a historian who I didnt end up quoting in the end but whos an expert in the rise of Hitler before World War II, and he was likening McConnell to Paul von Hindenburg, a German statesman who was part of the political establishment and thought he could control an autocrat and realized too late that he had unleashed something he couldnt contain. ... McConnell is just chasing power wherever it takes him, and in doing that, he has actively shaped the world were in right now. ...
Its all tactical, no strategy, no vision. I talked to John Yarmuth, a Democratic congressman from Louisville, who told me that McConnells very smart but hes not intellectual. If you tried to have a conversation with him about some big issue that were facing as a society, like climate change or artificial intelligence, he wouldnt be able to have that conversation and he wouldnt be interested in it. Hes interested in winning and nothing else. ...
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/4/30/21234505/mitch-mcconnell-trump-republican-party-jane-mayer
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I'm afraid that is how we sound in Kentucky. I don't notice, till I hear my own voice.
fwvinson
May 2020
#14
Republicans are pretty could at simple messaging. Usually, it is BS aimed at Democrats, but
OAITW r.2.0
May 2020
#28