“If I’m still the majority leader of the Senate after next year, none of those things are going to pass the Senate,”\u00a0 “They won’t even be voted on. So think of me as the Grim Reaper \u2014 the guy who is going to make sure that socialism doesn’t land on the president’s desk.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell\u00a0\u00a0– 4\/22\/19<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nBefore there was Donald Trump, before there was \u201cfake news,\u201d before there was Twitter; there was Mitch. Before there was the Star Wars like \u201cResistance\u201d to the current Republican Administration (worrisome for Resistance fans, the Rebellion in Star Wars didn\u2019t always turn out OK) there was \u201cMcConnell Blocks.\u201d Try \u201cGoogling\u201d it, you\u2019ll get over one hundred hits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mitch McConnell, the seventy-seven year old senior Senator from Kentucky, started in politics after receiving his medical discharge from the Vietnam War era Army.\u00a0\u00a0He only served thirty-three days, exiting to become an aide to Senator Marlow Cook in 1968.\u00a0\u00a0He has, except for a brief stint in private legal practice, been in politics ever since.\u00a0\u00a0He first ran for office in 1977, elected as Judge\/Executive of Jefferson County (Louisville).\u00a0\u00a0He was elected to the US Senate in 1984 and he has been there ever since, thirty-four years.\u00a0\u00a0He became Majority Leader when the Republicans won the majority after the 2014 election.\u00a0\u00a0Through all of that, he has managed to amass a personal wealth of over $20 million.\u00a0Government work is good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before Republican\u2019s gained the majority, McConnell was the Minority Leader for eight years. Upon the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency, McConnell stated; \u201cThe single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one term President.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It isn\u2019t out of the norm for a Republican leader to want to defeat a Democratic President in the next election; in fact, it\u2019s exactly normal. The difference is the extent that Mr. McConnell was willing to go. He was willing to completely abandon the values of bipartisan rule in order to do anything and everything to stop President Obama\u2019s legislation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even when the Obama Administration took a Republican plan, developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation and first implemented by Republican Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and presented it to Congress as the Affordable Care Act; McConnell did everything he could to stop it, and led Republicans in a total boycott. It wasn\u2019t just that they voted against the legislation, they refused to participate in any negotiations about it. When current arguments are made that Democrats shut Republicans out of the Affordable Care Act legislation, the reality was Republicans refused to participate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2015, when Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia suddenly died of a heart attack, McConnell as Majority Leader quickly made it clear that President Obama\u2019s appointee would not get a hearing or a vote. As McConnell later said; \u201cOne of my proudest moments was when I told Obama, ‘You will not fill this Supreme Court vacancy\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Courts have been a singular focus for Leader McConnell since the election of Donald Trump as President.\u00a0\u00a0In the last two years,\u00a0McConnell has managed to fill 20% of the Federal Appellate seats in the nation.\u00a0\u00a0As Federal judges are appointed for life, and McConnell has determined to place an emphasis on youth in his appointments; his actions will have a profound influence on US law for the next thirty years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His coordination with the Federalist Society, a national organization of lawyers dedicated to conservative views on the Constitution, has provided a pipeline of nominees.\u00a0\u00a0While the most famous recent appointees were Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, they join three other Society Justices; Thomas, Roberts and Alito, in changing the Court majority.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Federalist Society \u201ccourt packing\u201d is McConnell\u2019s singular achievement, starting with blocking President Obama\u2019s Merrick Garland appointment. Whatever may happen to President Trump, either Constitutionally or electorally in the next two years, McConnell can definitely say \u201cmission accomplished\u201d when it comes to the Federal Judiciary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That power is contingent on a Republican President, and a Republican Senate. The Presidential election of 2020 is an existential turning point for the United States, but the choice for control of the Senate is almost as critical. McConnell has made it clear that a Democratic President in 2020 will continue to be hamstrung by a Republican majority. McConnell will be happy to return to his \u201cgrim reaper\u201d role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s Mitch\u2019s Fault “If I’m still the majority leader of the Senate after next year, none of those things are going to pass the Senate,”\u00a0 “They won’t even be voted on. So think of me as the Grim Reaper \u2014 the guy who is going to make sure that socialism doesn’t land on the president’s … Continue reading “It’s Mitch’s Fault”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIt's Mitch's Fault : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mitch McConnell and the plot to control the judiciary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/04\/26\/its-mitchs-fault\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It's Mitch's Fault : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mitch McConnell and the plot to control the judiciary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/04\/26\/its-mitchs-fault\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/Dahlmanonline-610417212502642\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/Dahlmanonline-610417212502642\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-26T13:02:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-26T13:02:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dahlman.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_3564-e1488996194684.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Marty Dahlman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@martydahlman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@martydahlman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Marty Dahlman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/04\\\/26\\\/its-mitchs-fault\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/04\\\/26\\\/its-mitchs-fault\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Marty Dahlman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c\"},\"headline\":\"It’s Mitch’s Fault\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-26T13:02:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-26T13:02:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/04\\\/26\\\/its-mitchs-fault\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":771,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/04\\\/26\\\/its-mitchs-fault\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/04\\\/26\\\/its-mitchs-fault\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/04\\\/26\\\/its-mitchs-fault\\\/\",\"name\":\"It's Mitch's Fault : Our America - 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