McConnell is a Monster Only Georgia Can Eradicate

By Sunny Dell

Senate Majority Leader (and resident grim reaper) Mitch McConnell doesn’t deserve praise for finally acknowledging that Joe Biden is the president-elect. Stating the obvious after the Electoral College voted Monday, well over a month past the election, isn’t an act worthy of some brownie button. What he deserves is a collective bitchslap for having taken so long and being complicit in the attempt to overturn the will of the people. 

In a long, long list of reasons why McConnell should burn in hell, this one is up there. But there is so much more.  

The man is simply a monster who’s held our country hostage for at least 12 years. Let’s not forget the filibusters and refusal to vote on nearly all legislation from 2008 to 2016. Let’s not forget that he held judicial appointments from Senate confirmation hearings and stole a Supreme Court justice seat from Obama, handing the duty to the least qualified and most corrupt president in U.S. history. Let’s not forget that he is the reason millions of us can’t feed our families or pay rent. And why is he holding back a relief package? Because he wants to shield corporations from liability if employees are made sick or are hurt on the job — the measure he’s pushing for will live longer than the virus and will effectively roll back worker protections we’ve fought for generations to achieve. 

He refused to take up a vote on the House-passed HEROES Act, which would’ve significantly softened the financial blow for the millions of unemployed and underemployed people suffering through the pandemic. He’s blocked other attempts to strike a deal since and has failed to get consensus in his own party. As the majority leader, it is his job to whip his caucus and facilitate Senate votes on proposed legislation — he’s either incapable or unwilling to do either effectively. It’s likely the latter.

Donald Trump would not have been nearly as successful in his destruction of the country’s most important institutions had it not been for McConnell’s enabling. Trump on his own is no more than a petulant child lacking the intellect to execute any plan more complex than his hamberder order. It’s McConnell who knows better, who has the experience and connections to lurk in the shadows and solidify deals — he just won’t use those powers to help anyone who isn’t a donor or otherwise contributes to the long-game neoliberal agenda.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is holding up COVID-19 relief stimulus for a liability shield that would protect corporations from being sued for putting workers in harm’s way. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)     

He tormented the nation under both Obama and Trump, and Democrats are not the only ones suffering from his assaults, even if Republicans blind themselves to that reality. Kentucky, which for some ungodly reason just re-elected him to the Senate, is not immune to high unemployment, poverty and health impacts of the pandemic. The state’s unemployment rate grew by 2.5 percent between September and October. The 2019 poverty rate in McConnell’s home state was 4 percent higher than the national average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And while the state’s COVID-19 cases seem relatively low compared to more populous areas, their per capita rate of infection is nearly equal to that of Florida and substantially higher than rates seen in California and New York.  

His refusal to do his fucking job is destructive to both the constituents he represents and to the nation as a whole, and he should never be forgiven for what he has done. His dereliction of duty is criminal negligence and his propping up of such an obviously corrupt president flirts with the notion of treason. As far as I’m concerned, he’s a perfect candidate to rot in one of those Guatanamo Bay cells he’s so keen on keeping open. 

The Georgia Senate races are the only tool we now have to stop the asshole in his tracks, to dethrone the reaper who has withheld public relief in times of crises and manipulated the system to work for corporate overlords alone. So, instead of praising him for acknowledging facts, call your Georgian friends and beg them to put him out of his misery once and for all.