I will provide the reasoning...
McConnell is the epitome of the "RINO" which is an acronym for "Republican in Name Only" for those who seem to forget or confuse the true meaning of the term. He has earned the title of King of the Swamp creatures by demonstrating time and again his willingness, if not eagerness, to not just over-compromise, but capitulate on policy with the dems who have now moved much farther left than when McConnell began his career in the Senate which I believe was just at the end of the Civil War.
His career body of work has no resemblance whatsoever to that of a Reagan conservative. His motives are purely in the effort to keep the dysfunction and cronyism in D.C alive for what must be no other reason than for personal gain. Aside from all that, his health is now a factor as it is for Brandon. McConnell has had two TIAs in public that we are aware of, and he clearly is no longer capable of functioning as a U.S Senator let alone it's minority leader.
I disagree with your assessment of McConnell's legacy which will be determined by which party holds power in the next 20 years. History is written by the victors, and sadly, I assume the victors will be the socialists who will likely praise McConnell for his assistance in achieving their mission.
Thank you for including me both directly and indirectly in this reply Dave.
With respect to McConnel, you have offered your feelings about him. He is "king of the swamp creatures" and has been guilty of "over compromise" or he has been willing to "capitulate" on policy.
Fair enough. To which policies or legislation are you referring? What should or could he have done differently? A minority leader or majority leader in an opposing party administration, only has so much power. How should or could that power have been wielded differently? Any senate leader has to have the votes.
What he was particularly adept at from an out of power position was in exploiting the filibuster to not just change the court but to also delay and force changes to democratic legislation. His successful use of the ploy so infuriated Harry Reid that he employed the "nuclear option" to end filibuster and push through Obama appointees.
Some key efforts: He led the republican senate fight against Obama care and further tried to insure its repeal. In both he failed. One has to have the votes. However, he did salvage repeal of the individual mandate tax and ended IPAB.
He reshaped both the Supreme Court and Federal judgeship for a generation or more. As majority leader, McConnell pushed more than 230 of Donald Trump’s judicial nominees through the Senate, including three Supreme Court justices. By the end of his tenure, Trump had appointed one-third of federal appeals court judges in the country. Those vacancies were available to fill due to McConnell’s efforts to slow Barack Obama’s nominees during his tenure, giving the Republican president a head start in appointing as many judges as possible at the start of his term.
The most consequential act during the Trump administration was tax reform that lowered corporate taxes. McConnel insured that the final bill accomplished those goals and sailed through the senate.
He used the Congressional Reform Act 16 times to roll back Obama era regulatory measures.
In spite of enormous environmentalist pressure he was able to shepherd through the senate opening of the Alaska refuge to oil production.
He sponsored banking reform legislation and moved it through the senate that provided relief from some of the more onerous requirements of Dodd-Frank and to date has successfully avoided any legislative reinstatement.
The VA Mission Act of 2018 which he sponsored and shepherded into enactment was the first significant and effective reform to the VA since Vietnam. I can speak from personal experience the act dramatically changed among other things the VA assessment and appeals process from the one I first experienced in 2003. The bill also provided the largest funding increase in history for veterans care and services, and modernized the VA’s electronic health record system. And for you more recent vets reading this, I would love to take you back through my VA retirement experience twenty years ago.
There are a lot more.
Oh yes, he also kept Donald Trump in office when it was within his power to have seen him out the door.
Was he likeable? Absolutely not and with Pelosi's retirement, he has become the face of our dysfunctional legislative system.
I won't speak for Dave, but I do think much of the angry right's (sound better than MAGA?) distain for McConnel is McConnel's eventual distain for Donald Trump.
He did in fact say, Trump was “practically and morally responsible”, for January 6, and the demonstrators had “been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth because he was angry he lost an election." That and other comments seem to have made Trump unhappy.
One can hardly blame McConnel because to some extent the discord was also personal. After all, in typical Trump form, he had referred to McConnel's wife, Elaine Chao, as "Coco Chow" or his "China-loving wife." Truly a comedic genius, and I am sure the multitude laughed. I remember Secretary Chao's response and was able to find it. I always thought the two comments exemplified the difference between conservativism and the Trump act.
"When I was young, some people deliberately misspelled or mispronounced my name. Asian Americans have worked hard to change that experience for the next generation. He doesn’t seem to understand that, which says a whole lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans.”
All that said, I suspect McConnel will actually come out and endorse Trump before the election - my guess would be following super Tuesday. Whatever his feelings about Trump, he knows this is the best chance to take and hold the senate that the republicans will have in the foreseeable future. I expect he will do everything in his power to keep the down vote in play. We'll see.
