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Why Republicans Hate Mitch McConnell

Controversial and unpopular with both the Republican base as well as the Democratic Party, Mitch McConnell has a storied career in government with many legislative accomplishments beneath his belt. Despite this, though, McConnell could never capture hearts-and-minds the way that other politicians could. 

United States Senator and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaking at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. From Gage Skidmore.
United States Senator and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaking at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C.

At 81 years old, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has made quite a name for himself.

Controversial and unpopular with both the Republican base as well as the Democratic Party, McConnell has a storied career in government with many legislative accomplishments beneath his belt. Despite this, though, McConnell could never capture hearts and minds like other politicians could. 

Described by some as a workhorse in the Senate by some colleagues, others on the Left view him as an “obstructionist” while still more (usually on the Right) believe McConnell to be a “turncoat”—or worse, a top government leader compromised by the People’s Republic of China (more on that later).

McConnell the Moderate?

McConnell began his career as a moderate. As a young man, he was known to have traveled from his home in the Deep South to hear Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, “I Have a Dream Speech.” McConnell had a deep sense of right-and-wrong in his youth and was a proud supporter of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. 

A lawyer by training and pragmatist by nature, McConnell was the last of a generation of soon-to-be American politicians whose political affiliations were fluid. He was a Republican. But McConnell recognized that not everything the Democratic Party of the early 1960s was fighting for—such as Civil Rights—was bad. 

Inevitably, McConnell found himself working in the Gerald R. Ford Administration as the deputy assistant attorney general, serving alongside such Republican Party notables as Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia. 

This should have been a tell to anyone on the Right who has come to dislike McConnell. He was always moderate, and having served in the Ford Administration, the last truly moderate Republican to have served as president, most Republican voters should have recognized the limits to his ideological commitment. 

Eventually McConnell would go on to run for the United States Senate in 1985 and win. The longer he served, the more conservative his positions became. Of course, the question surrounding McConnell’s stances in the Senate should be about whether McConnell truly believed what he was doing or was he simply being pragmatic? 

Mitch McConnell is Slippery

From the Reagan Administration onward, the Republican Party’s base shifted increasingly to the Right.

Mitch McConnell, a man who yearned to be an elected leader, knew that he had to appease all elements of the Republican Party to win primary elections where he might be challenged from the Right if he was not careful. 

Once selected as the senate candidate, though, McConnell could move again toward the political center. This has been the pattern for decades with McConnell. Regardless of his personal beliefs, this shifting pattern of beliefs while in office has been a double-edged sword: clearly it has benefited his long career and it has also caused many to distrust him.

Still, McConnell has proven to be an essential figure for the Right at decisive moments in our legislative history. He was decisive in the initial fights against Obamacare. He helped to create the groundswell opposition to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that galvanized the Right in 2010 and led to massive Republican victories in the midterms of that year. 

His wily nature and complex understanding of legislative procedures helped to ensure that some of the more radical elements of the Democratic Party’s legislative agenda did not come to pass, too.

For example, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic Party majority in 2018 passed a series of measures in the House that would have fundamentally changed the nature of the republic. McConnell as Senate Majority Leader simply withheld Republican votes on the measures in the United States Senate, thereby scuppering the For the People Act of 2019, Equality Act, and the Paycheck Fairness Act. All these bills, despite their flowery names, were opposed by many Republicans because of the drag they would have placed on America’s economy.

McConnell, the “Never (ish) Trumper” 

Mitch McConnell has been a letdown in many respects, though. He, like so many Washington elites, loathed former President Donald J. Trump and was constantly looking for ways to undermine and weaken the forty-fifth president. The two men came to an understanding and worked well together on specific legislation that they both wanted. McConnell believed Trump was a loose cannon, and Trump believed McConnell was a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only). 

Both men were probably right about each other.

The problem for McConnell has been his inability to commit to a side in the ongoing political dramas of our time. Notably, McConnell opposed former President Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 Presidential Election. 

In the aftermath of the 1/6 Capitol Hill riot, McConnell condemned Trump. Just when it looked as though McConnell might be outing himself as a full-blown “Never Trump”-type Republican, he scooted back from that line, and refused to support the second impeachment of Trump.

McConnell Loves China? 

There are also claims that McConnell is corrupt coming from many DC insiders and outside of the beltway. He is married to Elaine Chao, whose family has owned a large shipping company (the Foremost Group) with deep business ties to China. While neither Elaine Chao nor Mitch McConnell have direct ties to the Chao family’s shipping company. As family members, though, the couple has received millions of dollars in gifts. 

The Chinese government run a bank that has also given “hundreds of millions of dollars” in loans to the Chao Family’s Foremost Group shipping company over the years. Elaine Chao herself has served in every Republican presidential administration since the Reagan Administration, most recently Chao was the secretary of transportation for the Trump Administration.

We should be clear, there is no evidence (other than the ties between Elaine Chao’s extended family and the Chinese government) that either Chao or her husband, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have any conflict of interest when it comes to their government service and their family’s business. Yet, that has not stopped political enemies of the two from weaponizing this fact against them—a line of attack that has not stuck as the opponents of McConnell have thus far hoped it would. 

Nevertheless, people concerned about these potential ties between the most powerful Republicans in the Senate and Communist China are not wrong to express their concerns. It is also worth noting that Chao likely got the cabinet-level positions she did in various Republican administrations because of her family’s deep pockets and because her husband was the senior most Republican in the senate. 

In fact, as the secretary of transportation, Chao routinely consulted with her father (the head of the Foremost Group) on policy issues and was criticized by government accountability groups for having promoted policies that explicitly favored her family’s shipping business (which meant, on some level, they benefited China since the Foremost Group has such deep ties to China).

How Will He Be Remembered?

When all is said and done, Mitch McConnell will be remembered as a political force in Washington. He will also have left an indelible mark on the Senate as an institution. But what made him such a force in the Senate has also made him suspect in the eyes of many voters. If his goal was to stop the imposition of radical policies by the Democratic Party, then he has mostly failed. 

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Yet, if his mission was to simply be remembered as a skilled technocrat, he will be remembered. The reason people hate Mitch McConnell so much is because he is an operator who behaves coldly and in a deeply, almost cynical, calculating mindset. 

Whatever your opinion of McConnell, he is a deeply fascinating member of our government who will be remembered for decades to come. He might not have been the greatest champion of conservatism but McConnell has left his mark on the rich tapestry of American political history.

A 19FortyFive Senior Editor, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at American Greatness and the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (May 16), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.

Written By

Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who recently became a writer for 19FortyFive.com. Weichert is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as a contributing editor at American Greatness and the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (March 28), and Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (May 16). Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.

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