Had Morning Edition on this a.m., driving John to his weekly a.m. stint at A.C. Moore. As we headed down Street Road, it was announced that Mitch McConnell would be on in the next segment, talking about how Donald Trump poses no threat to the Republican party's identity, no sir-ee. I practically jumped up & down - he would be talking about the very thing I'd posted just last night! LOVE when that happens!
Sheez - I thought the USA Today article painted him as detached from reality. The radio interview revealed a man in full-blown, flat-out denial about what's happening before his unseeing, uncomprehending eyes.
As the Senate Marjority Leader told Steve Inskeep, the party is now at an "all-time high." Sounds like he's the one on a high.
Praise be, he was very clear about why he is blocking Merrick Garland's SCOTUS appointment - to regain conservative control of the Supreme Court. Mind you, if a Republican president was in this position, he'd be shouting at the top of his lungs that the people DID make their choice & that until a new president is sworn in, the sitting one has not only the right but the obligation to bring the highest court in the land back to its full strength & the Senate has the obligation to approve it. BUT, it's Barack Obama in the White House, so...
The single most important thing I would remind right-of-center voters in suggesting that they vote for Donald Trump is: Who do you want to make the next Supreme Court appointment? Donald Trump has already put out a list of 10 or 11 right-of-center, well-qualified judges, a list from which he would pick. I think that issue alone should comfort people in voting for Donald Trump for president.
Sen. McConnell gave a thumbs down on banning Muslims from entering the USA, but noted...
It's a very bad idea. I mean, for example, the king of Jordan, who is a great ally of ours, wouldn't be able to come to the United States, and so that's not something I think we ought to do. Do we need to tighten restrictions on people coming into the country? I think there's a good argument for that, but a kind of broad ban is a bad idea.
If only he'd stopped there. He didn't, going onto say...
Of course, many American Muslims are great sources of information as we seek to look for domestic folks who might be engaged in trying to promote terrorist activities.
Yeah, my jaw dropped when he came out with that gem. I can't even begin to dissect how many ways I find that single sentence beyond-the-beyond shocking. Not "Most American Muslims love their country & would not do it harm." Nope - instead he assumes the ones who are already here will lead us to the bad guys, 'cause all of them know what's happening.
But it was this response that made me realize that Mitch McConnell is every bit the ostrich I described in yesterday's post, that he is - as his party has in election cycle after election cycle - ignoring the elephant in the room. That the Republican party is not what it was under Reagan, Bush 41 or Bush 43. That it is a hybrid of toxic themes & memes that had been quietly nurtured since 1968 & burst into full bloom in January 2009. When I heard this, knew he's in entrenched denial...
I think the Republican Party is at an all-time high. We don't have the White House, but we've had very good years. The American people gave us a new majority in 2014. I don't in any way think the American people rejected the Republican Party, or we'd be in a lot worse shape than we are. I think in this particular election, however, Republican primary voters are looking for an outsider.
Since November 2008, GOP leaders have been steadfast in pointing blame everywhere EXCEPT at the party's core message. For eight years, they have insisted, as Sen. McConnell did in this statement, that the unlooked for, negative outcome was an outlier, that their problem was in poor messaging, that the core message - the fundamentals of the Republican party - remain strong.
It's reported that the Majority Leader sees himself as tamping down a President Trump much as he's done with so much of what President Obama tried to get passed. His grand vision is that if the GOP gains control of the House, Senate & White House, President Trump will accept his own party bucking his will & wishes.
Good luck with that.
If Sen. McConnell wants to remain Majority Leader in 2017, i strongly recommend his staff makes sure he reads David Frum's article in the current Atlantic, The Seven Broken Guardrails of Democracy. Maybe someone who deeply cares about Sen. McConnell could stage & intervention, arranging an all-day retreat with Frum so the former Bush 43 speech writer can help wean Mitch out of his denial, to get his head out of the sand.
In other words - this is not time to be hiding in his shell, however tempting that might be.
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