By Matt Underwood https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/593339-mcconnell-breaks-with-rnc-jan-6-violent-insurrection
Sure. He said this immediately after the impeachment, and even said Trump was responsible… except he declined to hold Trump responsible.
You misunderstand McConnell’s grand plan. He’s using the courts he tricked Trump into assembling to fuck him at every turn (election results, his tax returns, now J6) while supporting traditional conservative principles (minor wins for religious rights, campaign finance, likely wins for guns and abortion in Corlett and Dobbs coming out this summer). And while the courts destroy him piece by piece, the J6 committee led by two McConnell Republicans exposes the real dirt behind him and leaves him with his pants down for the Federalist Society graduate DOJ to come and collect. That’s why he didn’t convict at the impeachment trial but warned that Trump was responsible for everything and justice would come. He knew what he was doing, just didn’t want his caucus to get their hands dirty so as to lose support from the base.
Hey I remember when in Italy, Spain, and Germany the state apparatus made an alliance of convenience with the Fascists because conservative values threatened by scary left ideas of human value.
Well, they thought they played the “long con” as well. McConnell thinks he’s playing a long con, but make no mistake he is no longer even remotely in control. They eat their own and if he keeps it up he’ll be on the menu sooner rather than later.
There’s no way out for him at this point. This isn’t a mastermind at work but a scared old fool that is coming to terms with the meaning of Pandora’s box. Oh don’t you worry he’ll pretend to his last breath as if he was some puppet master and not a pawn of a fascist movement he himself spawned.
McConnell certainly played a role in getting us to where we are, but I think at this point the unified Republican front is self-sustaining. The steadily radicalizing base is on high alert for anything that could indicate a GOP politician isn’t 100% on board with every part of the agenda. Any deviation, no matter how small, is ripped into by other members, as well as farther-right contenders out for blood.
Very few of them will risk incensing the voter base. They’re the reason Kevin McCarthy – who was shitting his pants on 1/6 and denounced the insurrection at the time – almost immediately walked back his comments and started pretending that it was a peaceful protest with friendly discourse. They’re the reason no Rs dared to cross the aisle to vote for things like the most recent COVID stimulus bill and the infrastructure package: despite the things provided for in those bills being quite popular even among their red-state constituents, a vote in favor would still be slammed as betraying the party to side with the enemy.
GOP politicians have lost much of their sway over the average Republican. Every day sees the angry mob further untethered from party leaders and reality in general, and I think most of them are doing whatever it takes to save their own skin at this point.