You never truly appreciate what you have until you lose it.
Mitch McConnell, the longtime leader of the Senate Republican Conference, announced Wednesday that he will step down from his role in November.
McConnell joined the Senate in 1985, assumed the outgoing role in 2007, and intends to complete the six-year term he won in 2020.
But his decision marks the end of nearly two tumultuous decades in which McConnell has emerged as one of the most powerful figures in American politics.
When the history of this era is written, or at least by honest and insightful observers, he will be remembered as the most effective conservative in government since Ronald Reagan.
Mr. McConnell has often been the target of right-wing flamethrower attacks who blame him for failing to pass conservative legislation.
Indeed, hours before Mr. McConnell announced his decision, Sen. Josh Hawley called Mr. McConnell “a symbol of everything that’s wrong with Washington.”
It is difficult to think of a more juvenile and civically illiterate claim.
As Republican leader, McConnell did not put his own interests first. He subordinated them to his fellow people and served them with pleasure.
It is extremely difficult to pass ideologically-related bills in a system like the United States, which has many veto points.
The White House, the House, the Senate, the filibuster are all in the way. The only years McConnell benefited from a unified Republican administration were 2017 and 2018.
He led the way in what legislation could be passed in that short period of time, but a lack of focus from the White House, an unruly caucus in the House, and a narrow majority in his own chamber limited the triumvirate’s maximum potential. This prevented him from reaching his full potential.
But downhill, and occasionally hampered by headwinds, McConnell developed a reputation as a singular political genius and an American patriot that is now his legacy.
In 2016, McConnell persuaded Congress to take the bold step of keeping the Supreme Court seat open following the sudden death of Antonin Scalia until after the presidential election in November of that year. I succeeded in persuading him to agree.
Without McConnell, one of the court’s greatest scholars would have been replaced by Merrick Garland.
And if Hillary Clinton had won the presidential election, Garland would have given way to an even worse candidate.
Instead, Mr. McConnell, Donald Trump, and Mr. McConnell’s successor in the Senate, Neil Gorsuch, credited Mr. Scalia with securing his own legacy.
McConnell went on to confirm two more Supreme Court nominees, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, under extremely difficult circumstances during the Trump era.
In both cases, Mr. McConnell won by allowing one of his more moderate and vulnerable colleagues to defect, but by protecting everyone else.
And what did he win?
Roe v. Wade has been overturned, ensuring a constitutionalist majority on the court for the foreseeable future. That alone should be enough to leave conservatives with a cloud over their coffee Thursday morning.
After all, there’s a reason Democrats have given Mr. McConnell all sorts of grandiose and perhaps derisive nicknames, including Nuclear Mitch, Midnight Mitch and Darth Vader.
they are afraid of him.
But for all of Mr. McConnell’s partisan accomplishments, he remains true to certain timeless principles and the Constitution, even though many other members of his party fall short of those standards. Ta.
McConnell on January 6 opposed efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and condemned Trump after the Capitol riot.
Critics say his vote against convicting Trump in his subsequent impeachment trial was evidence of his bigoted priorities, even if he was unable to persuade his colleagues to do the same. They argue it’s fair to say they should have voted to convict.
But most of these criticisms lack nuance and reflect a lack of understanding of American politics or McConnell’s motivations.
McConnell is a practitioner of the art of the possible.
That art can also serve as damage control, rather than a fateful pursuit of perfection.
And Mr. McConnell remains a staunch defender of America’s moral and practical leadership on the world stage, even as he faces criticism from within his own party for doing so.
“We must reject the vaguest and shortsighted views of our obligations,” McConnell declared this month, in a rebuke of the isolationist right, just before the Senate passed aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Most of his fellow Republicans voted no.
In 2013, Mr. McConnell warned Democrats against using the nuclear option to push through President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees.
“You’re going to regret this, and you may regret it a lot sooner than you think,” he said.
Many of Mitch McConnell’s critics on the left and right will come to regret his departure from leadership, and they will do so much sooner than they think.
Isaac Schorr is a staff writer at Mediaite.
