Mitch McConnell does not believe in rules, much less follow them
Those who loved Ruth Bader Ginsburg were allowed no time to mourn. Americans could only gasp, and brace for the inevitable. Instead of reflecting on a legacy, we were forced to prepare for an onslaught of hypocrisy around a policy of Mitch’s crafting, the McConnell Rule: Never confirm a Supreme Court Justice in a presidential election year. We remembered Republicans solemnly repeating this mantra, often adding “hold us to this” and “even if the president was Republican” to obscure the political expediency.
In Kentucky, we know a man is only as good as his word. For all the dishonesty implicit in the 2016 McConnell Rule, we knew the real test would be if its application restricted Republican power. McConnell had already pushed through two corporatist Justices, would McConnell self-apply his rule and prevent a third?
Of course not. The poetic irony of the McConnell Rule is that Mitch does not believe in rules, let alone follow them. We were right to place more hope in the idea that the frailest member of the progressive bench would hold on until a new president than to believe that McConnell would keep his word. The health of our democracy rested on the tiny frame of an 87-year-old Brooklynite undergoing her third bout of metastatic pancreatic cancer, because Kentuckians had seen this before.
McConnell has shown us how good his word is. His opportunism on the Ginsburg seat is only our most recent disappointment. While he refuses to permit a vote on unemployment and Coronavirus aid, he oversaw 70 votes to eliminate protections against “pre-existing conditions” discrimination. He’s the coal miners’ friend who allowed Massey Energy to poison the drinking water of our Martin County miners and their families. In 2019, his first bill on return from a 35-day government shutdown was not back-pay for the federal employees and contractors living in Kentucky who are his constituents, but a repeal of the estate tax benefitting America’s 1,700 richest families: His base.
One wonders how long McConnell can continue to fail to read the room. Governor Matt Bevin was the unpopular Republican who lost re-election because he advocated for policies against his constituents’ best interests. Bevin was the anti-government Tea Party insurgent who collected $200,000 in federal corporate bailouts. He was the anti-public education activist who gutted our university system, the man who pardoned sex offenders while declaring that our teachers were permitting the sexual exploitation of children. He was the “man of the people” that destroyed employee rights, devastated pensions, and raised taxes on working people.
Bevin lost, beaten back by common sense and honesty, even while Republicans swept every other statewide race and kept their majorities in the State House and Senate. Kentuckians demonstrated they value decency over selfish political games.
The common bond between Bevin and McConnell is their hypocrisy. Hypocrisy amongst politicians is not uncommon, but the eagerness with which both Bevin and McConnell lean into what others conceal is impressive. Bevin took away health insurance from Kentuckians even while he gave his friends high-paying jobs in Frankfort. Like Bevin, McConnell does not hide it behind a veneer of respectability. He embraces shame publicly, with a sip of sweet tea, a crooked grin, and a deceitful “Oh, we’d fill it.”
Smart money is on McConnell avoiding the same fate as Bevin. He’ll get re-elected as he always does. But there’s always a chance for those brave enough to kindle hope. Perhaps, the tenacious spirit of RBG will live on. In Kentucky, we’ve seen the spark from teachers overtaking the Capitol, Blackjewel miners blocking coal shipments, and protestors risking their own lives to defend black ones. The spirit we see here is what we saw in Ginsburg, and might inspire us this November to let McConnell know that, just like Bevin, he’s misread the room one last time.
Roy Harrison is a citizen activist from Lexington who believes in the power and integrity of democracy.