The Democrats need a leader like Mitch McConnell
Strangely, the Democrats need a leader like Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) on Capitol Hill.
In contrast to the brain-dead Democratic Congressional leadership, the U.S. Senate Majority Leader gets stuff done. For example, McConnell and former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) passed the biggest tax cut in decades in 2017.
In addition, McConnell has approved the appointments of 158 federal judges and two U.S. Supreme Court Justices. Consequently, some observers think McConnell could shape law for two or three generations to come. Some of those judges could be on the bench in 2060.
Why Mitch McConnell is Effective
McConnell achieves such incredible results by playing hardball. For example, McConnell refused to allow a U.S. Senate vote on President Barack Obama’s (D-Illinois) Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.
That helped elect President Donald J. Trump (R-Florida) in 2016 because it ensured Trump one Supreme Court nomination. That gave cultural conservatives a strong incentive to vote for a man they despise, Trump.
Republicans get what they want because they have a Senate leader who is not willing to compromise with Democrats. Instead, McConnell stands up for Republican values and fights for them.
How Democrats Enable Trump
In contrast, Congressional Democrats keep giving Trump everything he wants.
For instance, 128 House Democrats supported President Trump’s $1.4 trillion budget on 12 December 2019. The budget raised defense spending by $22 billion and includes funds for Trump’s idiotic Space Force.
“This defense budget is $120 billion more than what Obama left us with,” US Representative Rho Khanna (D-California) alleges. “That could fund free public college for every American. It could fund access to high-speed, affordable internet for every American.”
“But it’s worse,” Khanna claims. “The bipartisan amendment to stop the war in Yemen: stripped by the White House. The bipartisan amendment to stop the war in Iran: stripped by the White House.”
Democrats Need to Play Hardball with Trump
Just imagine what could happen if U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) told Trump: “If you want a defense budget, no Space Force, no War with Iran, and no war in Yemen. Those are my terms. If you want to meet them you know my phone number. Either meet our terms; no federal budget until that shit is gone from the budget.”
Nor is it just war. The Democrats overwhelmingly voted “to Give Trump’s People More Spying Power” in November 2019, Reason claims. To clarify, almost all Democratic House members voted to reauthorize The Patriot Act which allows unconstitutional mass surveillance of of U.S. citizens.
Only 10 House Democrats voted against Patriot Act re-authorization, Reason notes. Hence, 219 House Democrats voted to increase Trump’s power shortly before they tried to impeach the president for abuse of power.
Democratic Hypocrisy in Action
Yes, the Democrats gave a man they accuse of abusing his powers more power. Therefore, the House Democrats are hypocrites.
The good news, however, is that 192 House members voted against continuing the Patriot Act. The bad news is that 181 of those House members voting no the surveillance state were Republicans.
Imagine, what could happen if Pelosi told Trump, “you want the Patriot Act. Meet our demands. I’ll be watching Twitter for your surrender. If you don’t, we’ll tell everybody you’re soft on terrorism.”
To explain, if Pelosi made Patriot Act renewal conditional on Democratic demands. I think Trump will cave because it will look as if he does not care about National Security if he refuses to play along.
We Need a Democratic Mitch McConnell
Thus, we need a Democratic Mitch McConnell instead of professional sell-outs such as Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York).
If Democrats have brains they will study McConnell’s effective methods and adopt them. Unfortunately, Democrats refuse to take tough aggressive stands. Instead, we get meaningless political theater such as Pelosi ripping up Trump’s State of the Union speech.
I think that action is the equivalent of a drug dealer telling an addict to “say no” while pocketing the drug buy money. Pelosi is not Trump’s opponent, she is Trump’s enabler.
McConnell’s actions prove Congressional Democrats have the power to stop Trump and block the President’s entire agenda. However, Democrats refuse to use that power.
House Democrats have the power to destroy Trump. Why aren’t they using it?
Democrats have been in control of the House for over a year. Yet we still have neither Trump’s tax returns nor The Apprentice Tapes. Why?
Couldn’t Pelosi call Donald and “okay Donald you want the Space Force fine. We’ll approve it after we get your tax return. I’ll be waiting at my office for the tax return. If I don’t see it, you get nothing in your budget.”
My guess is Rudy Giuliani would hand deliver the tax return to Pelosi’s office within the hour, if Trump thought Pelosi was serious. As for The Apprentice Tapes, they’re reportedly in the hands of a private company; probably Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) subsidiary NBC.
The House could subpoena those tapes any time. The American people deserve to know if the president said “nigger” in public.
If Apprentice creator Mark Burnett refuses to comply with the subpoena. They can prosecute him for Contempt of Congress. Contempt of Congress is punishable by up to 12 months in jail. I suspect a few hours in jail will cure Burnett of whatever loyalty he has for the Donald and force his cooperation.
Why not start holding Trump-enabling rich fat cats such as Burnett accountable? My guess is is Pelosi fears those fat cats will stop writing checks to Democratic candidates if she gets tough on Trump. How sad.
House Democrats have the power to destroy Trump? Why aren’t they using it?
What would Mitch McConnell do?
Democrats need to ask themselves, “what would Mitch McConnell do in our shoes” when dealing with Trump.
To see what Mitch could do in a similar situation I will conduct a little thought experiment. Imagine, an alternate universe where Hillary R. Clinton (R-New York) won the 2016 election.
Do you think McConnell would have stopped investigating Hillary’s emails or the Clinton Foundation after the election? Of course not!! The Senate would have held nonstop investigations of Clinton and bombarded every Clinton associate with subpoenas.
Yet in a reverse situation, the Democrats refuse to go after obvious smoking guns that could destroy Trump. Instead, they based impeachment on imaginary charges and lost.
As a result Gallup, estimates Trump had his highest approval rating yet, 49% in a 4 February 2019 poll. One reason for that is Democrats refuse to expose Trump’s behavior.
Democrats lose because they refuse to go in for the kill and capitalize on their enemies’ weaknesses. In particular, they refuse to attack a corrupt, weak, incompetent, and unpopular racist President. Worse, Pelosi’s behavior makes Trump more popular.
Why Democrats will not go McConnell on Trump
Sadly, Democratic leaders refuse to “go McConnell on Trump” because they value popularity more than power. Worse, Democrats care more for likability than doing what is right for the American people.
McConnell’s effectiveness comes at a high price. For instance, Morning Consult estimates McConnell had a 37% approval in Fourth Quarter 2019. Additionally, Morning Consult estimates 50% of Kentucky voters disapproved of McConnell in 4th Quarter 2019.
McConnell is effective because he is not afraid of being disliked. In contrast, Democrats such as Pelosi prefer being liked to accomplishing their goals.
Pelosi’s desire to get along with everybody; including Trump, dooms her cause. McConnell’s willingness to fight allows the Majority Leader to achieve his goals.
If Democrats want to win, they need to replace Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) with people like Mitch McConnell. Until Democrats understand McConnell and his effectiveness, they will lose and the progressive agenda will stay on paper.
