The Necessity Of Leadership

'We’re pretty well rudderless': GOP senators scrambling as McConnell heads for the door https://t.co/nZIdaam7te

— Raw Story (@RawStory) June 23, 2024

Via Politico directly:

It reflects the right flank’s growing frustration with the longest-serving Republican leader’s occasional interest in working with the other side on issues like spending, infrastructure and foreign aid — a criticism considered laughable less than a decade ago. Few younger Republicans recall McConnell’s longtime reputation as the “Grim Reaper” who killed Democratic bills, or his zeal in blocking Merrick Garland from a spot on the Supreme Court.  

But the GOP leader has steered his conference away from government shutdowns, preferring to compromise and move on rather than see voters blame his party for the resulting mess. Senate conservatives, buoyed by former President Donald Trump’s bombastic style of politicking, argue that’s an antiquated way of thinking.

I guess they want to keep losing. There’s a reason Democrats have “over performed” since 2018. Trump has no “style” of politicking; and he’s showing it more and more every day.

“I read that one of my colleagues said my job was to be with whatever position was the majority position of my conference,” McConnell said in an interview earlier this spring, addressing internal criticism of his leadership. 

Had that been the case, McConnell added, “we would have never raised the debt ceiling and never funded the government.”

A feature, not a bug, to Mike Lee and the Senators who agree with him. After all:

In a recent Rolling Stone article, reporters Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng spoke with several unnamed GOP-aligned sources who are in Trump's orbit, and they made no efforts to assuage concerns that Trump would drastically reshape the federal government if he took power again. Rather, these sources instead confirmed that reports of a term-limited Trump eliminating all guardrails that would stand in the way of him wielding absolute unchecked executive power and pursuing vengeance against his political opponents are accurate. 

“Of course we aren’t f—ing bluffing," a source identified as a "close Trump adviser and former administration official" said. Another told the publication that, "yes, we do really want to burn it all down," referring to the more moderate wing of the GOP that may seek to hamstring Trump's worst impulses in a second term.

There is no GOP anymore. There are only the radicals who now consider Mitch “Grim Reaper” McConnell a squish. If not an outright RINO.

Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond, in their day, knew they were outnumbered. I sometimes think they also knew the country, sooner or later, was more with them than against them (enough of the country, anyway). “Justice for all” still means justice for white people first and it’s a zero-sum game so we really can’t spare much for anyone else. Especially when justice is (mis)applied to rich white people. But I digress…. 

The former unrepentant racist Senators fought change where they could, but they didn’t openly espouse burning it all down. If anything, that’s what they thought the civil rights movement was doing. And now even racist McConnell (who, granted, is no Strom Thurmond), is too liberal for people who would say Thurmond and Helms compromised too much, and in the wrong way.

Trump’s promises to deport tens of millions ASAP is more racist and xenophobic than the wildest dreams of Thurmond and Helms. And I’m sure his latest proposal, to keep those with at least AA degrees, is not sitting well with the “burn it all down” crowd. Which crowd seems to include several U.S. Senators. Enough senators, at least, to make McConnell step down from leadership.

The Helms GOP is now triumphant. But it’s not Helms’, now it’s Trump’s GOP. Helms eventually vanished into history, but he just represented a strain of American culture that is still with us. Trump represents another strain, but he is its avatar. No other politician has been able to do what Trump does, though many since him have tried. What happens if (when, IMHO) he loses in November? Where does Mike Lee’s clout (if he has any) go? If Trump loses, he won’t be in the wilderness where Hillary was cast. He’ll be in courtrooms, if not in jail. And his daily camera tirades will grow tedious indeed. A twice-failed Presidential candidate for whom the biggest question will be “Should he keep his Secret Service protection in prison?” Who will really care what he has to say, especially since it’s the same old story ad nauseum? Who will it conceivably matter to anymore?

He will shrink away like the Wicked Witch under Dorothy’s well aimed bucket of water. 

And then whither the GOP? The way of the Whigs, I expect. The in-fighting among the party remainders will be vicious, and not politically fruitful.