Monday, December 16, 2019

There is No Accountability: Mitch McConnell, the Gravedigger of Democracy


  "If the US has someone whom historians will look back on as the gravedigger of American democracy, it is Mitch McConnell. He stoked the hyperpolarization of American politics to make the Obama presidency as dysfunctional and paralyzed as he possibly could. As with parliamentary gridlock in Weimar, congressional gridlock in the US has diminished respect for democratic norms, allowing McConnell to trample them even more. Nowhere is this vicious circle clearer than in the obliteration of traditional precedents concerning judicial appointments."Christopher Browning,  NY Review of Books, October 25, 2018.
Historian Christopher Browning calls Mitch McConnell "the gravedigger of American democracy."  I've since learned more about what he means.

His reprehensible shameless effort to rig the Impeachment Jury is the latest example of the evil of this man's obsession with power and money. He's blatantly proclaimed, before the trial begins, that he is "coordinating" everything with the defendant and the defendant "will never be removed from office." It's shocking, but it's nothing new.

That's because there is nothing to stop Mitch McConnell. He's been abusing his power for over a decade, nonstop. He and his Republican followers have exploited and exposed some serious flaws in our democracy. Nothing, no person, no institution, no rule or policy, has stopped  him or will stop him. He's gotten away with it at least from the time he vowed to obstruct President Obama at every turn, and did, up to the point of sitting on Obama's SCOTUS nomination of Merrick Garland. McConnell simply refused to do his Constitutional duty, making up excuses as he went. How easy it was for him to get away with it.  He laughs and jokes about it now.

But it's no joke. Mitch McConnell's corruption of our democractic governance, its extent and depth, has broken records. He is part of a massive cover up of the truth. He has trampled on the Rule of Law.

You would think Kentucky would be on to Mitch by now. The State falls way below most others in every quality of life indicator. Education, 38. The economy, 39. Health, 44.  Maybe we can take some hope from the increasing rumblings of  dissatisfaction arising from Kentucky.

McConnell's ties to his home state mean nothing compared to his ties with transnational oligarch networks. These powerful networks corrupt politics on behalf of billionaires and mega corporations through enormous secret "deals" and money, lots of money.  McConnell's ties are secured through the wealth of his wife Elaine Chao, Trump's Secretary of  Transportation (another quid pro quo), and his brother-in-law Jim Breyer, among others.

Mitch is a master of the quid pro quo. He'll do what he has to do to get the money and power he covets. His quid pro quos with Putin oligarch Oleg Derispaka demonstrate his "any means to an end" strategies and his ties to Russia. That million-dollars Aluminum plant in Kentucky, after McConnell lifted sanctions on Derispaka with the help of lobbyist David Vitter, a former Senator, should raise lots of eyebrows. So far it's just another Mitch project, as if it's completely normal. It is not normal.

He gets millions from Saudi Arabia, too, via connections to Trump's buddy Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) and his murderous regime. Three weeks after journalist Khashoggi's murder, Jim Breyer and a Russian oligarch were at an economic summit in Saudi Arabia at which MbS gave $22 million for an Elaine Chao infrastructure project. McConnell mouthed some appropriate phrases about the Khashoggi murder, but he did all he could to sit on this tragedy until it left the front pages of the news. It didn't take long.

The money and quid pro quos continue to flow, in one way or another.  Elaine Chao, for instance, is funneling U.S. transportation money to Kentucky to help her husband get re-elected in November 2020. So far he's gotten over $50 million. It's all criminal.

McConnell's ties to China via his wife's family are even closer and more intimate, making him a rich man, and beholden to perhaps the US's biggest adversary on the close horizon.

In addition to being steeped in the money and influence of foreign adversaries, McConnell receives millions of domestic dark money from the likes of the extreme right Koch brothers, the Mercers, and others, as well as from every major national and international corporation you can name.

Citizen's United, the Supreme Court decision on money in politics, unleashed the billions that have poisoned our politics and enriched Republicans like McConnell. That ruling unleashed a monster.

McConnell's allegiance to foreign and far-right funders has driven his abuse of power. There's no end to it. He continues to corrupt the Judiciary branch, pushing far-right extremists onto the courts. With lots of Koch money, he pushed Gorsuch and Kavanaugh onto SCOTUS. He's  been the bull pushing through the disgusting unfits put forward by Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society, whose only criteria is that they violently oppose civil rights and abortion and defend big money, corporations, and billionaires.

McConnell's closing in on 180 confirmations, a record of which he's proud. One is Wendy Vitters, wife of David Vitters who lobbies against Russian sanctions, a typical quid pro quo. Another is far-out White Nationalist Steven Menashi, who worked with Steve Miller on Trump's immigration operations, which constitute Crimes against Humanity. Menashi worked with Betsy Devos on corrupting the purpose and policies of the US Department of Education. Driven to flip the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to alt-right Republicans, McConnell pushed Menashi anyway, in spite of the fact he's never argued an appeal or made any oral arguments, never conducted a deposition, never tried a case.  Same is true of his latest, Sarah Pitlyk, confirmed by Senate Republicans despite her extreme views on fertility treatments and her unanimous "not qualified" rating from the American Bar Association.

McConnell has also corrupted the Executive branch. Besides using Trump however he sees fit, he has ensured that the Senate confirm every cabinet nomination that came from the Trump regime. It  started with the totally corrupt Transition Team's billionaire nominations. McConnell pushed them through, without vetting them, knowing they were against the agencies they were to head. Qualifications didn't matter, only partisanship above all. McConnell continues to aid and abet with his shoving through replacements as tRUmp fires one after the other, mostly for telling the truth.

Steve Bannon talks about "deconstructing" our government. McConnell makes it happen.  He gave us one of the most corrupt Cabinets in American history, and we've had some bad ones. Throughout  the revolving door of the Trump tyranny, he has continued to make it worse with the likes of Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross, Pompeo, and the reprehensible William Barr.  Former federal prosecutors, constitutional scholars, and lawyers have protested, but the beat goes on.

McConnell doesn't care about the norms and values that have guided us since the beginning of the nation. He has ruled the Senate like a warlord for so long, the Republicans go along like sheep. He calls himself the "Grim Reaper" of Democrats' legislation and, in reality, he is. He is sitting on some 400 bills passed by the House. If this isn't a dereliction of duty, what is?

It's breathtaking. One man without any accountability has almost single-handedly corrupted the three branches of our government.  Chris Browning warns that "McConnell and our dysfunctional and disrespected Congress have now ensured that...the constitutional balance of powers among the three branches of government is in peril."  We stand by and watch. Will the 2020 national elections put an end to him?


     "If the US has someone whom historians will look back on as the gravedigger of American democracy, it is Mitch McConnell. He stoked the hyperpolarization of American politics to make the Obama presidency as dysfunctional and paralyzed as he possibly could. As with parliamentary gridlock in Weimar, congressional gridlock in the US has diminished respect for democratic norms, allowing McConnell to trample them even more. Nowhere is this vicious circle clearer than in the obliteration of traditional precedents concerning judicial appointments. Systematic obstruction of nominations in Obama’s first term provoked Democrats to scrap the filibuster for all but Supreme Court nominations. Then McConnell’s unprecedented blocking of the Merrick Garland nomination required him in turn to scrap the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations in order to complete the “steal” of Antonin Scalia’s seat and confirm Neil Gorsuch. The extreme politicization of the judicial nomination process is once again on display in the current Kavanaugh hearings.
        One can predict that henceforth no significant judicial appointments will be made when the presidency and the Senate are not controlled by the same party. McConnell and our dysfunctional and disrespected Congress have now ensured an increasingly dysfunctional and disrespected judiciary, and the constitutional balance of powers among the three branches of government is in peril.
       Whatever secret reservations McConnell and other traditional Republican leaders have about Trump’s character, governing style, and possible criminality, they openly rejoice in the payoff they have received from their alliance with him and his base: huge tax cuts for the wealthy, financial and environmental deregulation, the nominations of two conservative Supreme Court justices (so far) and a host of other conservative judicial appointments, and a significant reduction in government-sponsored health care (though not yet the total abolition of Obamacare they hope for). Like Hitler’s conservative allies, McConnell and the Republicans have prided themselves on the early returns on their investment in Trump. The combination of Trump’s abasement before Putin in Helsinki, the shameful separation of families at the border in complete disregard of US asylum law (to say nothing of basic humanitarian principles and the GOP’s relentless claim to be the defender of “family values”), and most recently Michael Cohen’s implication of Trump in criminal violations of campaign finance laws has not shaken the fealty of the Republican old guard, so there is little indication that even an explosive and incriminating report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller will rupture the alliance."


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