Shunned by the RNC

Booing Mitch McConnell is a metaphor for what Trumpism has done to Reaganism.

The Republican Party of Reagan is dead and Donald Trump is pissing on its grave. The new ticket of Trump-Vance supports bailing on our allies and embracing our enemies. Trump indicated that he won’t support Taiwan if China invades. Vance has said the U.S. will likely end its support of Ukraine. They may pull us out of NATO. They support tariffs instead of free trade. They want to shut down any immigration despite the needs of business and industry. The only unifying policies are tax cuts for the rich, opposition to equal rights, and support for a federal ban on abortion.

For Mitch McConnell, the humiliation is now complete. He was booed at the Republican convention as he announced Kentucky’s delegates. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

McConnell spent his life building a Republican Party with a core value of winning at any cost. He refused to support passing any significant legislation during the Obama years, arguing that making Obama a failed president was more important than governing. He undermined the institution of the U.S. Senate, refusing to appoint Democratic judges and then ending the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. He reached the pinnacle of his career when he stole the Supreme Court and packed it with rabidly partisan justices.

McConnell made the mistake of trying to play both sides in the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol on January 6. He rightly blamed Trump for the attempt to undermine the election and then he refused to hold him accountable. The new Republican Party will never forgive McConnell for telling the truth about Trump despite protecting him from accountability.

McConnell’s humiliation and his acceptance of it epitomizes the modern GOP. People who told us for decades that that the GOP stands for a conservatism that embraces a strong national defense, the spread of democracy, small government, free trade, and high moral standards have abandoned their principles for Trumpism, rationalizing that the Democrats are worse. The party that once went to war for democracy is now surrendering to populism.

A former two-term Republican president, his vice-president, the 2012 Republican nominee for president, his running mate, and the vice-president who served under the current GOP nominee are not welcome at the Republican National Convention. Think about that for a moment. The tribalism is stunning and disturbing. I’m embarrassed for my Republican friends who lost their principles. I guess I now wonder if they had any in the first place. They were either lying then or they are lying to themselves now.