What is Mitch McConnell really after? [View all]

[thucythucy]

American political life knows few politicians as cynical as Senator Mitch McConnell, and none more devious in his malice towards any attempt to drag the United States into the 21st century.

This is aptly demonstrated by his current posturing regarding Trump’s absurd and anti-democratic charges of voter fraud and “fixed elections.”

McConnell surely knows these charges have no basis in reality. No less a figure than the Republican Secretary of State for the state of Georgia has said so, as well as GOP insiders and experts and a multitude of legal scholars.

So what does McConnell hope to gain by backing such an effort? Simply this—to de-legitimize a Biden/Harris presidency from before day one. To justify, in the minds of the Trump base and perhaps even beyond that base, what is sure to be a continuation of the obstructionist tactics he used to such effect to stymie President Obama’s judicial appointments, and then in consigning to a legislative black hole all of the much needed reforms passed by the Democratic House under Speaker Pelosi. McConnell has already said he will not confirm ANY judicial nomination made by the incoming administration. There has even been discussion that this scorched earth policy will be extended to President Biden’s attempts to form a cabinet.

While this may seem an escalation of GOP obstructionism, it is in fact merely the latest chapter in the long saga of Republican refusal to accept as legitimate any election that isn’t a win for their party. President Clinton, you may recall, was deemed “illegitimate” because he won only a plurality, and never a majority, of the popular vote. Never mind that G.W. Bush was first inaugurated having lost the popular vote to Al Gore, and that Trump has been outvoted in both of the elections in which he was a candidate. Clinton was “illegitimate” because the popular vote was split three ways and so he never polled more than 50%. President Obama was deemed “illegitimate” in turn by Trump and the birthers—whose racism McConnell has never disavowed.

And now President-Elect Biden is to be subjected to this same strain of political sabotage and sour grapes.

That these stratagems undermine the very foundation of our democracy—the belief by the public that American elections are fair and relatively free of corruption—bothers the GOP not a whit. That this diminishes our standing in the world is of no consequence to McConnell and his ilk. That these corrosive narratives will help to paralyze the incoming administration in its efforts to protect the nation, and to respond to the worst public health crisis since the AIDS epidemic or even the flu pandemic of 1918-1920 is likewise not a concern to McConnell, Gingrich, Cruz, Giuliani, and the talking heads at Fox News.

We have all come to know the depth of Trump’s narcissism and grandiosity which not even a resounding defeat at the polls has been able to dent. What has become more apparent with each passing day after November 3rd is the willingness of McConnell and the GOP leadership to co-opt that narcissism in the pursuit of their own obstructionist agenda, even at the expense of the health and safety of the public they were elected to serve, and the Constitution they swore to protect.