{"id":2188963,"date":"2024-02-29T10:27:02","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T15:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mitch-mcconnells-entire-legacy-is-misunderstanding-politics\/"},"modified":"2024-02-29T10:30:14","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T15:30:14","slug":"mitch-mcconnells-entire-legacy-is-misunderstanding-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mitch-mcconnells-entire-legacy-is-misunderstanding-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitch McConnell&#8217;s Legacy: Political Misunderstandings"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">10<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmitch-mcconnells-entire-legacy-is-misunderstanding-politics%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2188963&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<h2>&#8220;Misunderstanding \u200cPolitics&#8221;: \u2063Mitch McConnell&#8217;s Legacy<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cI have many faults,\u201d\u200d intoned Mitch McConnell after announcing he would be surrendering his \u2062leadership of\u2063 the Senate GOP\u2063 at the end of the\u200d 2024 term. \u201cMisunderstanding politics is \u2062not one \u2064of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>That McConnell would provide \u200bthis assessment \u2062of his own career was predictable. He was just echoing \u2063the take of the average\u200d GOP establishment \u200bpolitician or D.C. \u2063operative. He was also completely wrong.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-709555251\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f73ea6ee82c17d6acd3d5a478ff772d7 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f73ea6ee82c17d6acd3d5a478ff772d7\"><\/div>\n<p>In\u2063 fact, throughout his career, few people understood politics more poorly, and of the many flaws he had\u200d as a \u200bleader, his misunderstanding of the \u2064nature and purpose of politics was perhaps his \u2063worst.<\/p>\n<p>Start\u200d with the fact that \u200dhe had an <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/4366225-mcconnells-approval-rating-sinks-to-just-6-percent-monmouth-poll\/#:~:text=McConnell%2520garnered%2520a%252060%2520percent,a%252041%2520percent%2520disapproval%2520rating.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">incredible\u200c 6 \u200dpercent (not a misprint) approval\u200b rating<\/a> \u2063and\u200d 60 percent disapproval among American adults in a recent\u200b poll from respected pollster Monmouth (even among GOP voters, \u2062he was at just\u200c 10 percent approval!)\u2062 Even politicians who have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/multiple-child-sex-offenders-criminal-aliens-arrested-after-crossing-sw-border\/\" title=\"Multiple Child Sex Offenders, Criminal Aliens Arrested After Crossing SW Border\">committed sex offenses<\/a> \u2063have polled\u2062 better. \u200dBut while these ratings were particularly anemic even for McConnell,\u200b voters\u2019 disregard of McConnell was par for the course. For years, even among the raft \u2063of unpopular GOP politicians, McConnell \u200bstood out as \u200cthe most\u200d unpopular major political figure in America.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh,\u201d McConnell\u2019s defenders would always say. \u201cYou don\u2019t understand. He\u2019s a master of Senate procedure.\u201d These people seem to think\u2063 that this skill, important though \u200bit is, \u200dis somehow \u2063what \u201cunderstanding politics\u201d entails. They\u2063 could not be more wrong.<\/p>\n<p>McConnell <em>is<\/em> great at counting votes,\u2062 seeing what egos\u200c need massaging, making the threats\u2062 he needs to\u2062 make, etc. These \u2062are very useful skills \u2062for climbing the greasy pole \u2063in D.C. \u2014 \u2064and for a\u2064 party whip whose job it is to wrangle votes \u2014 but they are not the primary skills needed for a\u200d party leader who sets the agenda. McConnell could have\u200c been a\u200b very \u2063useful cog in \u200da machine led \u200cby a strong majority leader\u200b who would have set the ideological tone for the party in alignment with the voters and then relied on someone \u200dlike\u200d McConnell \u2064to twist the arms \u200bto get the votes to \u200bexecute that\u2064 vision.\u2062 But we never had that. Instead, we had almost\u200c two decades of \u201cleadership\u201d from an antiquated\u2064 backroom pol who almost never delivered on his \u2064voters\u2019 priorities.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-d2f94a2f578682b9179aa4f1354400c3 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-d2f94a2f578682b9179aa4f1354400c3\"><\/div>\n<p>Whether the issue was Ukraine, immigration, or \u2063budgetary discipline, McConnell continually aided and\u200d abetted the Democrats at the \u2064expense of his own voters. \u2063The donor class \u200cgot taken \u2062care of to a \u200cdegree. But there was \u200dnothing left for the nation.<\/p>\n<p>McConnell fancied himself a fiscal\u200b and military conservative. Yet \u2062in 17 years as\u2062 GOP leader, the debt\u200d rose from some $9 trillion to $34 trillion. He failed to shepherd a single GOP alternative to Obamacare, \u200bthe greatest expansion of the welfare\u200b state in decades, \u2062despite having years to\u200c do so, nor was he capable of\u200d creating GOP \u200clegislation on other key policy priorities. He was a leading supporter of America\u2019s disastrous intervention in Iraq and an enabler of\u2064 its unfocused,\u2063 endless military adventurism \u2064in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>Judging him by his own claimed\u2064 values, has America\u2019s \u201cglobal leadership\u201d strengthened under McConnell? \u2062Is our party strengthened? Just one GOP president \u200cwas elected during McConnell\u2019s \u2063tenure, \u200band it \u200dwas a\u200b man McConnell opposed at every turn. If that\u2019s success in politics, I\u2019d hate to\u2064 see\u2063 failure.<\/p>\n<p>McConnell had \u2063certain\u2062 base cunning and procedural skills, but contrary to his establishment apologists, these do\u2064 not political leadership make. Without the\u200c help of the regime media to amplify our message, it is particularly essential for the\u2063 GOP leader to be a skilled communicator. One who\u200c can make\u200c sure \u2064the issues we want to talk about, \u200crather than\u200d those our opponents want\u2064 to talk about, are driving the agenda. In a 24\/7\/365 media environment, McConnell\u2019s utter colorlessness and failure to \u2063<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-reportedly-considering-republican-he-ran-against-in-2016-to-be-his-vp\/\" title=\"Trump may choose his former rival as VP\">articulate\u200d conservative principles<\/a> was a disqualifying flaw.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2560438afd82909be57fc6762b291ed1 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2560438afd82909be57fc6762b291ed1\"><\/div>\n<p>McConnell often complained about the \u201ccrazy\u201d \u200bcandidates he\u2063 had to deal with running for the Senate. But in\u200b deciding to regularly wage war on the conservative grassroots and lose the trust of \u200dRepublican voters, he was, more than anyone, responsible\u2062 for the emergence of those \u201ccrazy\u201d candidates.\u2064 As my old boss, the late Secretary\u2062 of State George Shultz, was fond of saying, \u201cWhen\u2063 there is trust in the room, good \u200bthings happen. When there is no trust in the room, good things do not happen. Everything else is details.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When\u200c McConnell interacted with the GOP grassroots, there\u2062 was\u200d never trust in\u2062 the room, and the \u200cblame for\u2063 that lies squarely \u2064on \u2064his \u2064shoulders. Indeed the Tea Party revolution of 2010, which birthed a number \u2063of the biggest GOP stars today, directly grew out of McConnell\u2019s failures, and he opposed it at every turn. He has misread the political \u2063mood of the country and GOP voters since before the Tea \u200dParty and continuing through the Trump and Biden administrations.<\/p>\n<p>And because McConnell also failed to build trust with President Trump, he was in no \u200cposition to intercede when Trump pushed less ideal Senate \u200ccandidates. With no understanding of\u2063 the issues that motivated \u2062GOP voters and no relationship with the party leader, McConnell was unable to \u2062be a Senate candidate kingmaker. And\u2062 while it is beyond the scope of this article to discuss it in detail,\u2064 the notion that grassroots candidates tended to\u2062 be\u2063 political losers (despite this mantra being \u2063endlessly repeated\u2064 by\u2063 D.C. establishment Republicans) is \u200dnot well supported by empirical evidence.<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, Steve Daines, the\u200c senator from my state \u2062of\u2062 Montana running the Republican senatorial effort this\u2062 election cycle, \u2064has successfully worked in tandem with Senate\u200d leadership and President Trump without\u2062 alienating the grassroots. Daines was able to put up a \u2064set of\u2064 candidates that, taken as a group, were largely acceptable to all wings of the party. Sometimes that meant \u2062getting behind\u200b more establishment-oriented\u2064 candidates, and\u200b sometimes it meant going with grassroots favorites like Jim\u200b Banks or Kari Lake. Nobody got\u2062 everything they\u200d wanted, but\u200c everybody got something they wanted. To do this is actually understanding politics \u2014 and McConnell was incapable of it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut judges!\u201d McConnell\u2019s defenders cry. But while his opposition to Merrick Garland was perhaps the one out-of-the-box political\u200b act for which he deserves genuine\u200d credit\u2062 in his many years as leader, \u200bit does not overcome a 17-year legacy of failure. \u200cMcConnell was not able to build\u2064 a durable majority to more easily\u2063 confirm judges because of his own\u2062 failures in recruitment and vision. A RINO such as Murkowski, whom McConnell\u2062 got such credit for shepherding on key \u2063votes, was only in office \u2063because McConnell had personally saved\u2062 her campaign\u2064 from a conservative grassroots challenge.<\/p>\n<p>A true leader who understands politics is \u2063someone who understands his voters\u2019 priorities and then maneuvers electorally at the ballot box \u2063and within his party \u200dcaucus to deliver on those priorities. That is the exact \u2063opposite of Mitch \u2063McConnell\u2019s legacy. The people he represents, the nation, and the GOP are all weaker because\u2064 of his \u201cleadership.\u201d The GOP will pick a new leader, and we can only pray he\u200c doesn\u2019t even vaguely resemble McConnell.<\/p>\n<p>Mitch McConnell was\u2062 correct in saying he\u200b has \u200dmany \u2062faults. Misunderstanding politics was perhaps the worst of them.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-987d03501d59102a2798f35659f5d27a fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-987d03501d59102a2798f35659f5d27a\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> In what\u2062 ways does Steve Daines\u200c differ from McConnell in\u2063 his ability to connect with voters and effectively \u200ccommunicate conservative principles to a wider audience<\/h2>\n<p><span>  \u2064 Re-election \u2063campaign,\u2064 has actively\u200d sought the \u200cendorsement of grassroots conservative organizations, all the while being immensely successful in his own right. Just like McConnell, \u2064he has\u200d a high approval\u2063 rating \u2063and has effectively represented the interests\u200c of his constituents. However, the difference lies in Daines&#8217; ability to connect\u200b with voters, understand their concerns, and effectively communicate his conservative principles to\u2063 a wider audience.<\/p>\n<p>All in all, Mitch McConnell&#8217;s legacy \u2063is one of missed opportunities, failed leadership, and a fundamental misunderstanding of politics.\u200b While he may have excelled in certain procedural aspects of the Senate,\u2062 his inability to connect with voters and deliver on their priorities makes him one of the least effective party\u2063 leaders in recent history. McConnell&#8217;s focus on pleasing the donor class and his willingness to compromise on key conservative principles have undermined the strength and values of the Republican Party.<\/p>\n<p>As McConnell steps down from\u200b his leadership position, it is time\u200c for the Republican Party to reevaluate \u2064its approach and choose \u2063leaders\u2062 who truly understand politics, connect with voters, and can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nancy-mace-declines-to-say-whether-she-would-support-move-to-oust-mccarthy\/\" title=\"Nancy Mace refuses to reveal stance on ousting McCarthy.\">effectively advance conservative principles<\/a>. Only through strong, principled leadership can the party regain the trust of its supporters and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/manchin-claims-biden-has-been-pushed-to-the-far-left\/\" title=\"Manchin says Biden has moved too far left.\">achieve meaningful change<\/a> for the American people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mitch McConnell, while stepping down as Senate GOP leader in 2024, admitted his faults, stating, &#8220;Misunderstanding politics is not one of them.&#8221; This self-assessment was unsurprising, as McConnell echoed the sentiment of the average GOP member<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":787,"featured_media":2188964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Mitch-McConnell-speaking.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2188963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Mitch-McConnell-speaking.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/787"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2188963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2188964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2188963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2188963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2188963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}