Thursday 18 February 2021

Clash of the Titans, Trump and McConnell

The very future of the US Republican Party now rests on who will be the victor in the clash of the Titans: Donald President, ex-president, and Mitch McConnell, ex-Majority and now Minority leader of the Senate. I doubt many people think Senator McConnell will win. He may command respect among most of his fellow Republicans in the Senate, he knows the place and how it works better than anyone. But in his desperate effort to swing both ways, as it were, he sided with Trump by acquitting him at both of his impeachment trials, and then, after the second one, he berated the former president and claimed he bore moral responsibilityy for what happened on January 6. The trouble is in politics you can't really have it both ways. McConnell's attempt to try and please everyone failed abysmally. First because he riled Trump so much that the ex-president reacted with fury and contempt, and second, every Republican senator now has to face the prospect of going for reelection in 2022 and 2024 with the row between Trump and McConnell muddying the waters and putting off potential voters. As of today, the Republicans have about as much chance of regaining a majority in the Senate as Trump has of returning to the White House. Only when the row is resolved whch will mean McConnell backing down, will the future look less bleak for the Republicans. It looks to me like the spat with McConnell has given Trump renewed energy to fight back and keep control of the Republican Party. Not that he had lost it. McConnell's future is less easy to predict. He will now struggle to retain the loyalty of his colleagues if his statement of outrage about Trump screws up their chances of being reelected or undermines new Republican candidates hoping to beat their Democratic rivals. With Trump as one of the Titans, McConnell is going to face the fight of his political life. Normally, Who Dares Wins. But not in McConnell's case.

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