He was the architect of our current judiciary, having gotten more right wing conservatives on the bench when we weren’t paying attention. For that he should rot in hell.
> It’s probably technically true that McConnell has never “misrepresented” how terrible he is, but that’s hardly grounds for a sorrowful tribute.
Counterpoint: McConnell was a sane, competent opponent. He could be relied upon to have alignment of “Rational Evil”, and to make any deals he struck, stick. You can at least negotiate with him and reach agreements, even if they’re lopsided.
Compare that to the MAGAs, who are frequently delusional and can’t do basic arithmetic to count votes.
Biden and a lot of Dems (e.g., Durbin, Schumer) do this crap a lot, and I'm not sure how much of this is purely personal ("yes this is our adversary, but in person he is very kind and generous to me, and I am going to let that color my opinion of them") and how much of this is just dense ("by saying nice things, I will win over these phantom voters who really want to see us be nice to each other!"). Either way, it's completely clueless messaging, because if we are truly in a battle against fascism and barbarism and one of our opponents is willingly enabling the fascism and barbarism--regardless of what he says or believes in private!--then it is insane to speak of him as anything other than an enabler of fascism and barbarism.
It's also possible for two things to be true at once--McConnell is largely responsible for destroying the integrity of both the Senate and he Courts, and enabling fascism to take over due to his own short-sighted political choices, AND the person who replaces him is likely to be far worse because that is the only direction the GOP seems to take.
The Biden quote was more damning with faint praise, especially for Biden, who likes everyone. He’s saying Moscow Mitch was a straight shooter who didn’t go back on deals like Kevin McCarthy or not have the votes like any number of GOP speakers since Boehner.
He’s an adept politician/supervillain, I’ll give him that. And he always supports vaccines and Ukraine. That’s about it.
Whichever John rises to the top will be worse.
And I hope his final act is to ratfuck Rick Scott.
Biden probably *does* resent McConnell (the self-styled "Grim Reaper,") but we all know the replacement will be worse. And since America keeps giving Republicans enough seats to skullfuck our halls of Congress, Democrats (and only Democrats) have to be polite to these braying jackals. Else nothing good happens—especially in the Senate.
I don't think it's any accident that most of our firebrands are in the House. Add a little sprinkle of Murc's law and the attendant media bias and I think I see how this happens.
And clearly his voters were happy with him instead of an actual good public servant because in the end he hated the right people and made life more difficult for us.
I’ll always remember him as the one that upended Senate norms and decency with the way he obstructed Obama’s judges. Just blatant dickheadery. Filibuster just needs to be removed on everything once Dems can pass that rule change.
McConnell's odious career is more evidence, as if we need it, that our current Constitution is outmoded and is not constructed to withstand autocracy. Not only is the Senate as a body anti-democratic, the majority leader of the Senate, especially as exemplified by McConnell, is a crypto-monarch, one person who can effectively rule the country. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
McConnell is a very skilled politician. He is also a willing tool to those with tons of money who have controlled the republican party since, like, forever.
McConnell deserves to be relegated to history's dumpster. I hope that the articles that will be written about him when he dies are filled with opprobriums.
McConnell might not like or respect trump, but he enabled trump from the moment trump rode down that tacky golden escalator. I may someday forgive him for that, but will never forget it.
Biden’s commitment to decency and goodwill, and belief that others will comport themselves the same way, is hopelessly outdated. He’s made some strides toward accepting today’s reality. His speech on the frailty of democracy before an important primary election was forceful and effective. But he still insists on referring to the MAGA wing of the Republican party when it’s so obviously the whole damn bird. And McConnell is the falconer. I’m sure Biden knows that, he’s just still playing nice because he’s known the dark lord for so long. You’d think THAT would be enough to speak his whole truth out loud. Baby steps I guess.
If we are to follow the practice that we are to speak no ill of the dead—if I am around to comment when McConnell dies, I will be saying very little indeed.
He was the architect of our current judiciary, having gotten more right wing conservatives on the bench when we weren’t paying attention. For that he should rot in hell.
> It’s probably technically true that McConnell has never “misrepresented” how terrible he is, but that’s hardly grounds for a sorrowful tribute.
Counterpoint: McConnell was a sane, competent opponent. He could be relied upon to have alignment of “Rational Evil”, and to make any deals he struck, stick. You can at least negotiate with him and reach agreements, even if they’re lopsided.
Compare that to the MAGAs, who are frequently delusional and can’t do basic arithmetic to count votes.
Biden and a lot of Dems (e.g., Durbin, Schumer) do this crap a lot, and I'm not sure how much of this is purely personal ("yes this is our adversary, but in person he is very kind and generous to me, and I am going to let that color my opinion of them") and how much of this is just dense ("by saying nice things, I will win over these phantom voters who really want to see us be nice to each other!"). Either way, it's completely clueless messaging, because if we are truly in a battle against fascism and barbarism and one of our opponents is willingly enabling the fascism and barbarism--regardless of what he says or believes in private!--then it is insane to speak of him as anything other than an enabler of fascism and barbarism.
It's also possible for two things to be true at once--McConnell is largely responsible for destroying the integrity of both the Senate and he Courts, and enabling fascism to take over due to his own short-sighted political choices, AND the person who replaces him is likely to be far worse because that is the only direction the GOP seems to take.
Excellent, Stephen, thank you.
The Biden quote was more damning with faint praise, especially for Biden, who likes everyone. He’s saying Moscow Mitch was a straight shooter who didn’t go back on deals like Kevin McCarthy or not have the votes like any number of GOP speakers since Boehner.
He’s an adept politician/supervillain, I’ll give him that. And he always supports vaccines and Ukraine. That’s about it.
Whichever John rises to the top will be worse.
And I hope his final act is to ratfuck Rick Scott.
McConnell told us who he was many times. If you didn’t believe he could be so callous, you weren’t really listening.
Biden probably *does* resent McConnell (the self-styled "Grim Reaper,") but we all know the replacement will be worse. And since America keeps giving Republicans enough seats to skullfuck our halls of Congress, Democrats (and only Democrats) have to be polite to these braying jackals. Else nothing good happens—especially in the Senate.
I don't think it's any accident that most of our firebrands are in the House. Add a little sprinkle of Murc's law and the attendant media bias and I think I see how this happens.
And clearly his voters were happy with him instead of an actual good public servant because in the end he hated the right people and made life more difficult for us.
I’ll always remember him as the one that upended Senate norms and decency with the way he obstructed Obama’s judges. Just blatant dickheadery. Filibuster just needs to be removed on everything once Dems can pass that rule change.
McConnell's odious career is more evidence, as if we need it, that our current Constitution is outmoded and is not constructed to withstand autocracy. Not only is the Senate as a body anti-democratic, the majority leader of the Senate, especially as exemplified by McConnell, is a crypto-monarch, one person who can effectively rule the country. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
McConnell is a very skilled politician. He is also a willing tool to those with tons of money who have controlled the republican party since, like, forever.
McConnell deserves to be relegated to history's dumpster. I hope that the articles that will be written about him when he dies are filled with opprobriums.
The grim reaper can't take "The Grim Reaper" soon enough for me. Fuck that guy.
McConnell might not like or respect trump, but he enabled trump from the moment trump rode down that tacky golden escalator. I may someday forgive him for that, but will never forget it.
Biden’s commitment to decency and goodwill, and belief that others will comport themselves the same way, is hopelessly outdated. He’s made some strides toward accepting today’s reality. His speech on the frailty of democracy before an important primary election was forceful and effective. But he still insists on referring to the MAGA wing of the Republican party when it’s so obviously the whole damn bird. And McConnell is the falconer. I’m sure Biden knows that, he’s just still playing nice because he’s known the dark lord for so long. You’d think THAT would be enough to speak his whole truth out loud. Baby steps I guess.
If we are to follow the practice that we are to speak no ill of the dead—if I am around to comment when McConnell dies, I will be saying very little indeed.
I disagree that we are to speak no ill of the dead. Many dead people did much harm before they died, and it shouldn't be forgotten.