Monday, July 29, 2019

Moscow Mitch is Mad

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was mad about being called "Moscow Mitch" today in a speech where he decried "modern-day McCarthyism" and claimed calls for election security a hoax. And he may have a point--not about the "modern-day McCarthyism" thing, because no, honey, that's not what McCarthyism means; and also not about the election security being a hoax thing, because if we consider our democracy of any value, we should prevent threats to our ballot, which are real.

No, I think the point, although it's buried in a bunch of bluster and finger-pointing, is that Mitch McConnell is not, in the strictest sense, a Russian asset, even if he refused to blow the whistle on Russian interference regarding the 2016 election and his state appears to be reaping a reward, of sorts, for his assist in a cover-up. He's also received donations from voting machine lobbyists, and it should be well understood that there are other countries besides Russia with an interest in attacking our elections and undermining our faith in our government. And of course, Mitch McConnell mostly just cares that Republicans win elections.

Basically, McConnell isn't so much a Russian asset as a partisan broker with a pay window open for anyone. Don't narrow his sights to Moscow, please! 

What makes this sort of laughable is that he just seems so stricken! Who me? Treason?  

Well, yeah, McConnell--or something very close. Protecting our elections shouldn't be a partisan issue, unless you just don't care whether the American people are actually the ones choosing our leaders, and don't mind someone else having the power to do that.  Instead of being mad, and instead of accusing our national intelligence agencies who do report insecurities in our election system or perpetuating a hoax, he could do the right thing, if he still understood what the right thing was.

Otherwise, he better get a tougher shell, and stop minding if people call him out for what he's pretty apparently doing right in front of our faces.

 

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