The Quiet Part
Occasionally, politicians (particularly conservative politicians) get caught saying the quiet part out loud. That’s an expression we like to use when someone says what everyone is thinking, but sounds absolutely horrific when it is said out loud in mixed company. Mitch McConnell was just the latest in a long line of horrible moments.
Of course, McConnell’s legacy in Washington will largely depend on which side of the fence you sit. If you are conservative then he will go down as one of the greatest legislators in the history of mankind. No one has been more effective in getting the conservative agenda through and no one has been more effective at blocking the progressive agenda. He’s done more to tip the balance of power in the judicial branch than any three other legislators combined.
If you are a liberal, progressive, or even just a moderate you obviously can’t see Mitch McConnell as anything but cravenly evil. As much as people will blame Joe Mancin and Kyrsten Sinema for the failure of voting rights legislation, Mitch McConnell is the architect of everything the conservative caucus is able to accomplish.
They don’t accomplish much these days. In fact, the only thing they’ve really accomplished in the last five years is a major tax cut for the rich. That’s the extent of their legislative agenda. That’s the extent of their intellectual pursuit. Otherwise, they are the adult embodiment of a two-year old. The only word they know is no.
Whether McConnell’s utterance is a mere gaffe or a Freudian slip is in the eye of the beholder I guess. Someone so jaded and manipulative can’t be given the benefit of the doubt. McConnell’s legislative tactics are the perfect reflection of what conservative state legislatures have been doing across the country. The two in concert have managed to take common sense planks and make them disappear.
For McConnell and other conservatives, African Americans really aren’t Americans. Latino Americans really aren’t Americans. LGTBQ+ Americans really aren’t Americans. Poor Americans really aren’t Americans. Anyone that might cast a vote for Democrats really aren’t Americans. They’ll concede a few of us that might look conservative on the outside, but it would never be enough to win an election. So, then it is okay.
Power is theirs from birth. Power is theirs to do with what they want. Sadly, they’ve had it for over a generation and we’re living in the aftermath. Wealth disparity is higher than its ever been. There are more billionaires than ever before. This has all happened when the GOP has won exactly four presidential elections according to the popular vote since 1980. That’s four out of ten elections.
Ultimately, that’s the legacy of Mitch McConnell. He has been in national politics for nearly that entire period. Somehow he has taken a world where Democrats won majorities more often than not and created a powerful conservative coalition. They have the courts. They have a majority of states. Their will is done in Washington even without majorities. Only Americans that vote with them count in his eyes.
C’mon, a two year old makes equal use of “MINE”, usually in combination with “NO”.
1Well said.
2Power has been theirs since before this country was the USA. White men have thrown a few crumbs over the centuries (when they have been forced to by changes in law) to anyone who isn’t a rich, powerful white male. Those of us who are not them are supposed to be content with that, and go sit in the corner and glorify them for our crumbs, even as they systematically continue to take away any of the equality the rest of us have been granted on paper and law. This didn’t start 10, 20, or 50 years ago-it’s been a practice for centuries. Power does not cede power to the “others”. The GOP has just perfected their tactics the last 50 plus years, and they will never stop in their quest to continue their attempts to take us back to the glory they reveled in, in the times the held absolute power over anyone who wasn’t one of them.
3In the QOP Moscow Mitch is the head of the snake although nary as charming as a pit viper. Mitch the snake has a snake handler. Morton C. Blackwell is the trainer for conservatives. He also trained the former Vice Poodle Pence. Mort through his RNC ties is the scoundrel who allowed TFG into the 2015/2016 QOP pool of the most deplorable candidates evuh.
Nick, if you have a spare minute or more, check out ol’ Mort’s “The Leadership Institute” where the worst of the snakes are trained. Perhaps you or the amazing Alfredo can bust open the money funnel to the snakepit.
4Cannot understand why his wife Elaine won’t leave him. She dumped the Trump administration the day of the attempted lynching on Capitol Hill. What is she holding onto?
5What’s interesting Anne is that we actually teach the shift in 1980 as a part of our U.S. History curriculum. We refer to it as the conservative movement. There are partisan realignments usually every 40 to 50 years where the center of politics shifts. I think your analysis of politics/society is certainly true overall, but from 1932 to 1980, politics was slowly but surely pointing towards the expansion of rights and growth of the middle class. Certainly, nothing is perfect, but we were making real progress.
1980 changed all of that. It would be interesting to hear from historians as to whether they would deem society overall as progressing or not (in terms of individual rights) but economically we have definitely taken two or three steps back. That has happened in spite of the fact that the demographic landscape is definitely pointing in the progressive direction. Conservatives often talk about the upcoming revolution/civil war and I happen to agree except not for the reasons they seem to believe. The reason is because an overwhelming majority want things that never seem to happen even though they continue to vote progressive. The progressives they vote for either somehow don’t win because the decks are stacked against them or are ineffective because the rules are stacked against them. That can only happen for so long before something happens.
6What are mcconnell and repugnanticans afraid of- is that non-whites will target them by arresting them because of their skin color, keep them down, suppress their vote or treat them like they’re treated? No, they’re afraid they’ll take their power and their money. Doing anything else for people is not part of their agenda.
7“If you are a liberal, progressive or even just a moderate you obviously can’t see Mitch McConnell as anything but cravenly evil.”
Cravenly. I don’t think that word means what you think it means.
Cause that f**ker’s got balls big enough to make him walk funny.
Doesn’t make him right.
What I object to is the obviously part.
So much of the authoritarians power comes from telling people what they’re thinking REALLY means and getting them to believe it.
8Worked for Big Brother.
9People is still people.
Elaine Chao and Betsy DeVos served trump loyally before quitting two weeks early. They don’t get a chapter in “Profiles In Courage II: Electric Boogaloo.” Rudolf Hess flew to Scotland in 1941 but they still put him on trial in Nuremberg.
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