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Mitch must be delighted

It is January 2009, Mitch McConnell is Senate minority leader. He gathered his caucus and promises he will do everything possible to ensure President Barack Obama is a one-term president. McConnell spends the next four years trying to do just that. While following this course of obstruction and gaming Senate rules Congress failed the American people in enumerable ways.

This meant that the hope and promise of electing our first black president was not allowed to come to fruition. What does this mean? It means that while McConnell was unsuccessful in his plan to limit Obama’s presidency the American people got screwed many times over.

It is now January 2017 and Donald Trump has been elected president. McConnell is now the Senate majority leader and does everything he can to support the new President’s agenda. That agenda quickly proves to be big business friendly, extremely xenophobic, isolationist and overtly racist – all of which are detrimental to the American people. The Senate and House quickly passed a tax bill that reduced the taxes on the wealthiest, eliminated lower bracket deductions and further increased the gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots.”

Happy now, Mitch? You, and the Freedom Caucus in the House, have finally succeeded in creating the national chaos and divisiveness you’ve long wished for. While Trump faces the PR disaster of the shutdown and is bombarded daily with charges and accusations McConnell sits there, grinning. The federal government is weakened. McConnell’s fondest dreams are fulfilled. Mitch must be delighted now.

Gil Beyer

Sandpoint, Idaho

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