Mitch McConnell

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• SOURCE: Governing
  10/13/2021
  

  How Did the Senate Get Supermajority Gridlock?

  by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

  The framers clearly intended for majority rule in the passage of legislation in the Senate. So how did we get to the point where a majority can't do anything? 

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• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  10/1/2021
  

  The Disturbing Precedent for McConnell’s Debt-Ceiling Brinksmanship

  by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

  Mitch McConnell's use of Senate rules and the body's disproportionate representation to ensure that Democrats who represent 41.5 million more people than Republicans are unable to govern. His tactics echo those of the antebellum Slavocracy. 

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• SOURCE: Heather Cox Richardson
  5/3/2021
  

  Letters From an American, May 2, 2021

  by Heather Cox Richardson

  Mitch McConnell's demands that the Department of Education reject a proposal for social studies education that emphasizes antiracism shows that his party is more interested in using education to wage a culture war than in actually improving civics and history education. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  2/15/2021
  

  McConnell’s Task: Purging the Crackpots and Bigots

  by Kevin M. Schultz

  William F. Buckley Jr. was able to advance conservative ideas by publicly dissociating from antisemites, Ayn Rand cultists and John Birch conspiracists on the right-wing fringes. Mitch McConnell's problem leading America's conservative party is that all those groups are back with a vengeance. 

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• SOURCE: New York Magazine
  1/31/2021
  

  All the Lies They Told Us About the Filibuster

  Columnist Jonathan Chait considers the politics of the Senate filibuster and Adam Jentleson's new book "Kill Switch," concluding that much of the mythology of the filibuster as a check on knee-jerk legislation is bogus. 

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• SOURCE: Mother Jones
  1/26/2021
  

  The Senate Has Used the Filibuster to Block Civil Rights Bills for Decades. That’s Another Reason for Dems to Ditch It

  When the Senate filibuster was used sparingly, it was almost always to stop civil rights legislation. Now, it's used as a matter of routine to stop legislation. Democrats can choose to keep the filibuster or pass laws, but not both. 

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• 11/1/2020
  

  Reconsidering "Court Packing" as Restoring Governing Norms

  by Greg Bailey

  The Republicans' choice to push through Amy Coney Barrett's nomination with the backing of a minority of the country means a new Congress must consider corrective action in the name of justice and democracy.

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• SOURCE: New Yorker
  4/12/2020
  

  How Mitch McConnell Became Trump’s Enabler-in-Chief

  by Jane Mayer

  Finally, someone who knows him very well told me, “Give up. You can look and look for something more in him, but it isn’t there. I wish I could tell you that there is some secret thing that he really believes in, but he doesn’t.”

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• SOURCE: NBC News
  7/8/19
  

  Sen. Mitch McConnell's great-great-grandfathers owned 14 slaves, bringing reparations issue close to home

  No news articles were found in which McConnell has previously spoken of his ancestors being slave owners. 

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• SOURCE: The Washington Post
  10-25-18
  

  Trump is right: Mitch McConnell is one of the greatest Senate leaders of all time

  by Ross K. Baker

  Liberals don’t have to like McConnell, but they should recognize his skill.

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• 9/15/18
  

  These 15 GOP Senators from the Past Could Show Mitch McConnell and His Colleagues How to Do the Job

  by Ronald L. Feinman

  The list includes liberals, conservatives and moderates.

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• SOURCE: Political Wire
  10-11-17
  

  McConnell Moves to Speed Approval of Judges

  “No longer will ‘blue slips’ be allowed to deny a nominee a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and vote on confirmation.”

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• SOURCE: Tonic
  6-23-17
  

  Mitch McConnell Refused to Meet With Group That Funded His Polio Recovery

  by Jesse Hicks

  He received treatments as a child at FDR’s Warm Springs. But turned his back on the March of Dimes when they came calling.

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• SOURCE: CNN
  2-9-17
  

  Silencing Elizabeth Warren: Gag rules have a long, dark history

  by Manisha Sinha

  When Sen. Mitch McConnell declared of Sen. Elizabeth Warren that "she was warned" and yet "she persisted," he sounded like a throwback to a time when conservatives sought to silence abolitionist women like the Grimke sisters, and before them the black woman abolitionist Maria Stewart, who dared to speak out against slavery.