Q’S Corner: Mitch McConnell

Everyone blames President Donald Trump for the government shutdown, but someone who should own it as much as he does is Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell.

McConnell assumed office in 1985, becoming the Senate majority leader in 2015. This was not a high point for the U.S. government.

As majority leader, it’s McConnell’s responsibility to introduce legislation to the Senate to be voted on. In theory, he’s supposed to introduce all bills equally, but in practice, he’s a partisan obstructionist.

When the Democrats took the House of Representatives, they passed a bill to reopen the government. McConnell, much like a turtle refusing to come out of its shell, has elected to subvert the rule of law and prevent the bill from going to the floor, calling it a “political stunt.”

He has a history of using his power to block legislation he doesn’t agree with. A quality example of his stunning devotion to the rule of law is blocking a bill that would protect special counsel Robert Mueller, who is in charge of a massive investigation into Russian interference in the federal government. With McConnell being an ardent supporter of the two year, thorough investigations into Hillary Clinton’s actions in Benghazi, you would think he would want to protect an investigation crucial to protecting the U.S.  

Of course he wouldn’t, considering he refused to sign a bipartisan condemnation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and then watered down a warning to state election officials to downplay the severity of the attacks.

McConnell also stole a Supreme Court seat from former President Barack Obama. He used his power as Senate majority leader to hold late justice Antonin Scalia’s seat open for over a year, the longest vacancy since the 1800s, by refusing to hold a vote for Obama’s nomination.

In 2010, McConnell said in a speech that his top political goal would be making sure Obama didn’t get a second term.

In the two years that Republicans controlled the government, McConnell has presided over tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy, the approval of Brett Kavanaugh, a known sexual predator, to the Supreme Court and has attempted to destroy the Affordable Care Act.

Everything McConnell has done in the last 10 years is little more than obstruction and the dismantling of the rule of law. He represents everything wrong with modern politics, and the day he is voted out will be a good day for the U.S.