Know Thy Enemy: Mitch McConnell
I mentioned an analogy in the previous article of Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and possibly Paul Ryan as the outlaw Miller Gang from the movie High Noon. The more I thought about it, the more appropriate it seemed. But I suppose you could consider them the four horsemen of the American apocalypse as well. The reason I think the analogy is appropriate is simple.
When Americans voted for Barack Obama in 2008 it was presumed, under the tenants of democracy, that everyone would work together to further the interests and goals of the country regardless of whatever candidate won. That’s how it’s always worked in the past. You respect the judgement of the majority. If that judgement turned out to be incorrect then the majority would choose someone else next time.
But on October 25th, 2010 McConnell uttered these words in an interview with the National Journal:
“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
Now in and of itself, that sounds like just some inflammatory political rhetoric but as the months progressed and the evidence of obstruction of any policies from the Obama administration; regardless of their merit, became more obvious, this statement took on a whole new meaning. Nothing matters more than ensuring that President Obama is defeated; not the economy, not jobs, not ending wars, not funding the government. McConnell may as well have given all of the Americans who voted for Obama the finger and said;
‘We refuse to legitimize this person you elected as President and we are going to do everything in our power to tear him down. Your vote is meaningless to us.’
Perhaps we should have seen this coming then when Newt Gingrich threw so many obstacles in the path of Bill Clinton. This strategy of obstruct until the population gets frustrated enough to vote the Democrat out of office was perhaps born then and has been finely honed now. And buoyed by the emerging Tea Party anger perhaps McConnell and crew thought they had an opportunity to wrest control from the Democratic party by purposely obstructing everything; even policies that they themselves previously put forth. And when Americans gave the Republicans the House in 2010, McConnell had all the leverage he needed provided the entirety of House Republicans all voted en masse to jump on the obstruction bandwagon.
McConnell may have had some success in creating the perception that the Obama administration is ineffective but I suspect that the recent debt ceiling debacle may have countered that strategy, particularly now that it appears that President Obama is taking decidedly tougher stands against the obstruction.
Kevin Rouda makes a salient point in his article at Louisville.com.
True political leaders make the case to the public that they should be in power because they know how to make life better for the people. Domestic terrorists and mafia thugs make the case to the public that they will make life worse for the people unless they are in power.
The truth is, Republicans have no plans whatsoever to make conditions better for the country. They only have plans to make it better for themselves at our expense. We cannot let that happen.
Related articles
- Mitch McConnell, economic terrorist (dailykos.com)
- McConnell, Boehner, Kyl, and Cantor’s Letter to the Fed (economistsview.typepad.com)
- Mitch McConnell is a Domestic Terrorist (Louisville.com)
- Mitch McConnell Accuses Democrats Of ‘Deliberate Deception’ (huffingtonpost.com)
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