What good news for democracy, Mitch McConnell is finally stepping down from leadership in the Republican Party (although he won't be gone from the Senate until 2027). DSOT is not a partisan organization, recognizing that the issue of money in politics, the corrupting influence of the donor class and special interest groups is not isolated to any party. That being said, Mitch McConnell has been an exemplar during his nearly 40 years in the Senate, especially as Senate Majority and Minority leader of the Republican Party, has done more than perhaps any modern legislator in moving this country, and its processes away from popular democratic control.
We can, and should, list the litany of unpopular positions supported and rammed through by Mitch McConnell: From restricting abortion rights, to opposing gun regulations, to blocking climate change legislation, to fighting healthcare coverage. He supported tax cuts for the wealthy, government subsidies and impunity for corporations, opposed labor organizing, and prevented increases to the minimum wage. An odious and horrifying record for sure, however, by and large, these are explicitly Republican party values.
The importance of Mitch McConnell's stepping down from leadership is because he was profoundly effective during his time in power at using the bureaucracy to his advantage, and, even further, reshaping the political landscape to fundamentally make this country less representative and responsive to the will of the American people. His successful brinksmanship with the Obama administration made the Senate more partisan and less functional: threatening government shutdowns and withholding judicial confirmations.
Then, during the Trump era, he rammed through Heritage foundation judicial confirmations and SCOTUS nominations swinging the courts more conservative. Despite their current animosity, Mitch McConnell was instrumental to much of the lasting damage of the Trump presidency, turning Trump’s campaign promises of tax cuts into legislation. McConnell worked closely with billionaire donors to fundamentally reshape many of the laws of this country, making them more permissive towards exploitation by the wealthy. It will take years, perhaps decades, to unwind the damage of Mitch McConnell's tenure in the Senate, and to bring back the representative democracy that is the promise of this country.
To do so will take more than just removing people like Mitch McConnell from office, it will take learning from his calculated maneuvers how the structures of power can be moved and changed to create a new playing field that is either advantageous for the wealthy few or for the many. We need to join together, organizing and fighting on both a political and economic agenda for a freer, fairer, and more equitable country. So join us each Tuesday in growing solidarity as we build the economic cudgel to fight back vassals of the powerful, like Mitch McConnell, and make a better tomorrow. Get involved, and keep organizing,
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