McConnell's Legacy in Flames as Trump Crime Show Swamps GOP

Earlier this summer, I sat down with House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who flat out told me, in no uncertain terms, that Republicans were “losers” because of their stances on a whole range of issues. As always, she is being proven right.

Republicans face some significant headwinds going into the 2024 election. Rather than learn the lesson that pro-life is a losing issue, the party seems to have doubled down on it. Just look at the special election in Ohio. According to the Ohio Capital Journal, “After months of denial, (Republican) Secretary of State Frank LaRose admitted that the proposal to make the constitution harder to amend is ‘100%’ due to efforts to legalize abortion.”

Well guess what? In a state where red tips the scale slightly more than blue, voters turned out in droves to strike down, by a strong majority, the Republicans' blatant attempt to make it easier to pass restrictive abortion laws. But that most likely won't phase Republicans, who seem stubbornly set on making stringent abortion laws a campaign issue.

After the thumping in Ohio, many pundits have been asking, "Hasn't the GOP learned it's lesson on abortion?" They miss the point asking that question If you've seen the right-to-lifers up close; there is no "alternative," meaning it's do or die on abortion. No relenting. No turning back. They are fighting for lives (Meanwhile these same people are putting 20 million lives at risk by holding up PEPFAR funding. Further, the Republican party needs evangelical Christians to come out in droves next year, and the only way to push them is by telling them that abortion restrictions are at risk because of liberal agendas.

The party also likes to claim that voters are tired of “woke” agendas. In fact, at the end of last month, as the first Republican presidential candidate on the ballot in South Carolina, Ron DeSantis's first act was to unveil his new "anti-woke" agenda in an attempt to win over the state’s voters. However, he’s getting backlash from that as donors see it as a losing issue.

A recent New York Times poll found Republican voters preferred law and order candidates over those who focused on “woke” ideology” by a margin of two to one.

Then there’s the Supreme Court that, like an albatross, hangs over the heads of GOP candidates, who can thank Mitch McConnell for that. SCOTUS has swung so far to the right, and they’re not even close to being done swinging. After the anti-affirmative action and anti-LGBTQ+ votes this summer, the Court is only going to go further next year — right in the middle of the 2024 election — by potentially overturning same-sex marriage.

The GOP proudly supports racists within its ranks, i.e. Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, who defended white nationalists by calling them Americans. And Arizona Republican Rep Eli Crane, who, on the House floor, referred to Black people as “colored.” Putting these public comments in ads by Democrats will give voters a great sense of what the Republican Party is all about, i.e. old white, bigoted men.

Republicans have also extensively pushed their anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives, when most Americans overwhelmingly support our community. Roll Call recently wrote, “The Republican preoccupation with transgender issues, which has resulted in hundreds of bills at the state and federal levels, may excite the party’s evangelical base. But analysts say all that enthusiasm for restricting the rights and health care of about 0.6 percent of Americans risks putting off swing voters.”

Then there are guns, lots of guns, lots of ads about guns that include Republicans holding guns, pointing guns, vowing to allow you to keep your guns. Just like the abortion issue, guns appeal only to a very narrow, and predominantly older segment of the population. Last month, Politico reported on a YouGov survey that showed, “Gen Z and millennial Republicans are more likely to believe in tougher gun laws than older Republicans and that young conservatives’ support for the idea has grown in the past year.”

This is a party that has not passed any significant piece of legislation, and frankly stands for absolutely nothing that matters to the American people. They will dwell on the 2020 presidential election because Trump will force the issue. They will push Hunter Biden as a priority that has nothing to do with so-called kitchen table issues. They’ll push to impeach Biden cabinet secretaries, and President Biden himself.

As CNN reported this week, “Many House Republicans privately say that it appears to be a foregone conclusion: Biden will face an impeachment inquiry in the fall and could be just the fourth U.S. president ever charged with high crimes or misdemeanors — and that it might all happen by year’s end.”

This is all a complete waste of time, and the American people, particularly moderate Republicans, Independents, and Democrats will see right through it. When Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, and the rest of the clowns start crazily spouting off about the president, it will backfire mightily.

Honestly, the best way for Biden to improve his poll numbers will be if Republicans start an impeachment process against him.

Democrats, on the other hand, have given the American people health care, bridges, roads and rail, climate change initiatives, jobs, staving off inflation, and are the true law and order candidates who exposed the truth about what happened on January 6.

Finally, during all of this, there is one incredibly huge variable that likely will drown out any attempts Republicans make their pathetic platform heard — 24/7 all day, every day about Donald J. Trump.

No one in their right mind can predict what will happen if there are trials interspersed with the Republican primaries, and then the presidential campaign after the conventions. But one thing is for certain, Republicans have themselves only to blame for creating a much-magnified media monster that is Trump.

If we thought his presidency was a 24/7 reality show for four years, these next 14 months will make his presidency look like child’s play — literally and figuratively. Never mind that never in our history have we as a country faced a former president with multiple indictments, but we’ve never had a candidate for president with multiple indictments, and a front-runner with multiple indictments.

All of Trump’s legal troubles — complete with a cascade of big-name witnesses, earth-shattering testimony, and jaw-dropping revelations — will overwhelm the media, and us. Every detail who will be breathlessly reported and analyzed. There will be no room for anyone in the primary to nudge into that space.

And every utterance by Trump, whether showing off with gaggles at the foot of his plane, or his rampages on Truth Social, will be front-and-center. DeSantis vs. Disney? Yawn. Nikki Haley who? Tim Scott who? Mike Pence? Oh, he ratted on Trump, f--- him!

In the words of Richard Nixon, “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.” We know Trump is more crooked than a coat hanger, but that will only be validated by courts of law. But, in the meantime, we will be crucified with coverage.

How will anyone break through the constancy of Trump? They won’t, and they — and us because we will have had it with him — can blame the Republicans in the Senate, namely McConnell for not removing him from office when he had the chance (twice).

Similarly, blame Pence, Mike Pompeo, McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, and others in the Trump administration for not invoking the 25^th amendment, and pushing Trump off his throne.

Everyone always talks about how Chao’s husband, McConnell, is on some higher level of intelligence. That will go right out the window next year. He’s to blame, not only for Trump, but abortion, guns, racism, and just about everything else that is old, dated and out of touch with the American populace.

Can anyone imagine McConnell going out and campaigning for his caucus? He will be booed and heckled beyond recognition. If he froze in front of TV cameras, how is he going to navigate the hate coming from MAGA? They are aware of how much Trump despises McConnell.

McConnell looked like a fool when he admitted, in not so many words, that Trump should be impeached prior to the Senate’s vote on whether to dispose of Trump. McConnell cowardly voted not to remove him. McConnell couldn’t have it both ways, and he was stupid enough to think that he could, i.e. trash Trump while trying to curry favor by saving him.

Next year, at this time, when you are overawed with Trump, Trump, Trump, you can thank Mitch McConnell, whose nicknames include Moscow Mitch, Grim Reaper, and Midnight Mitch.

You can add another one, Moronic Mitch — the senseless, stupid man who created Mega Media Monster Trump.

John Casey is senior editor of The Advocate.

Views expressed in The Advocate’s opinion articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.