In the Senate, Everything is Still Going According to Mitch McConnell’s Plan.
Even with Democrats in unilateral control, the Senate Minority Leader manages to maintain his influence.
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With Joe Manchin declaring that he will not vote for the For the People Act or to reform the filibuster, and Republicans continuing to shred Biden’s infrastructure bill because Democrats allow them to do so, it’s safe to say this legislative session feels all but effectively over a mere six months in. It’s incredible that after two years of nothing getting done outside of the Covid relief bill, Democrats are going to have the temerity to ask for money and another vote from the people who elected them into power. That said, while the senseless gridlock might be frustrating to the American people, it’s certainly working out nicely for none other than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
While Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, and other corporate Democratic Senators quietly supporting them behind the scenes might like to pretend as though their refusal to act is in the interest of bipartisanship, Mitch McConnell is using them as the useful tools that they are in order to stall until the upcoming election. It would almost be funny if it wasn’t so infuriating that the man who unequivocally vowed to block the entirety of Joe Biden’s agenda merely gets to sit on his hands while Democrats do the dirty work for him.
As I have said before on a number of occasions, Mitch McConnell is a more effective legislator than the entirety of the Senate Democratic caucus, Joe Biden, and arguably the vast majority of congressional Democrats combined. He knows his role as the Democratic shield to hide behind, and why wouldn’t he be more than willing to play the part when he gets everything he wants in return? Joe Biden is proving himself to be such an ineffective leader he can’t even get the entire Democratic party behind his agenda let alone Republicans. That is, if he even wanted it to be passed in the first place. And of course, Mitch McConnell knows this is exactly the type of scenario that will lead to his party retaking the majority in the Senate in January of 2023.
All McConnell has to do is run out the clock, and he knows it, but so do Democrats like Manchin and…
