What Mitch McConnell Teaches Us About America
The Kavanaugh hearings have shown McConnell’s true colors. Democrats need to take note.
Saturday’s confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was a victory lap for several people. One was President Donald Trump, whose ability to nominate anti-abortion justices most likely clinched his election. Another man proud of the Kavanaugh ascension was Senator Lindsay Graham, who has spoken frequently in recent weeks about the idea of Kavanaugh as an aggrieved victim of evil, vindictive Democrats. But the proudest supporter of Kavanaugh’s confirmation has been Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell praised his own actions in nominating Kavanaugh, decried protesters against the judge as a “mob,” and confidently predicted that anger over the nomination would “blow over.”
In a recent New York Magazine article, Chas Danner described what this victory meant for McConnell’s overall approach to governance and Supreme Court nominees, including Kavanaugh and failed Court nominee Merrick Garland. Danner wrote
with his dream achieved on Saturday, McConnell admitted that his whole stated premise for blocking Garland — that it was, as he once said, ‘about a principle, not a person’ — was bullshit, unless the right to take over the judicial branch by any means necessary was the principle.