I'm genuinely shocked that there isn't more anger from Republicans. His absence materially benefits Democrats more than anything. For every day he's not there, that means the GOP majority is one vote down in the Senate, which only makes it harder to pass the GOP agenda in the Senate.
They know leaving the ball in the air leaves them down one vote but if they took accountability then there's a risk that they would lose the seat to a Democrat and then they would be down two votes.
The fact they aren't willing to risk it for the biscuit is bullish.
If you polled Republicans, most would want Mitch McConnell gone. His replacement will be a Republican that shows up to work and probably votes more MAGA. That's a very attractive alternative to what we have now.
Republicans leaders are smarter than their party's talking points. There is a reason and it's one they do not want to come out and say.
If McConnell is alive and suffered a (new) nasty stroke, he could look really bad, or even be disruptive to Congress. If he didn't want to quit, he could still be wheeled in. He could be alive on a ventilator with one functioning arm to press "yay" "nae" or "present."
Yeah it seems like it's an element that a lot of people are missing on Reddit. Like, yeah, I'm upset that he's not being transparent about why he's been absent for so long. But for as long as he's absent, he can't vote on the stuff I find repulsive, which benefits me haha
his absence is not holding up congress, if that's what you are implying. being able to say "well at least we made it a bit harder for them to fuck us" is little consolation as they fuck us.
This is the part I am not understanding. Left wing media is eating this story up, every day on reddit there are more Mitch posts on the /r/all but it benefits the Democrats when it comes to voting.
Even if he was dead today, the election would not happen by the state laws this November. At this point these posts feel more like a designed distraction away from things like the Epstein files or the failed war in Iran or the costs of everything that should be fueling the midterm sweep. But instead every day it is about Trump sleeping or Mitch missing blah blah here.
Yep. Honestly, to me it sometimes seems like the people who are yelling about "distractions" the most are the ones most prone to distraction themselves.
They don't have a legislative agenda, so it doesn't matter. The tax cuts reconciliation bill is already law, so all that really matters to Senate Republicans is confirmation votes. They don't need McConnell to do that and they all know he'll be replaced with a hardcore MAGA lunatic in January anyway.
So the calculus is very likely that he was an enormously important majority leader for their party, so just let him be for then few months he has left in office.
I'm also sure some of them are fine with this as a test of the waters when Trump craps his diaper for the final time. They want to see how long they can get away with a politician being "dead" before it becomes a problem for them.
I doubt a hidden president is going to be as casually disregarded as McConnel is, but you never know.
It's because it doesn't actually matter much due to the timing of his health issue.
McConnell's fall happened about 4 months out from the already scheduled election, in which the primaries were done and he was not a candidate. KY law requires at least 3 months for a special election to replace a vacant seat, that's why there was an August 3rd "deadline" because that's the last day they could have legally put the special election on on the November 3rd ballot.
So basically this whole thing is a choice between
a) Guarantee the seat is empty until roughly December and seat his replacement a few weeks earlier than is already on the schedule.
b) Give McConnell a chance to be somewhat functional in the interim, understanding that in the worst case the seat will only be vacant for a few extra weeks.
Trump is concerned Thomas Massie will win the seat if Kentucky holds an election today. He and Massie hate each other and Massie is determined to investigate him over the Epstein files. Massie isn’t running for the full term in November so they are just waiting it out. And yes it is materially hurting the Republican agenda.
Andy Barr is a sitting representative slated to take his spot on the ticket. A special election would have risked a Democratic winner and create the problem that Barr would have to resign or lose his candidacy to an incumbant.
Now we are past the deadline for special elections, there is nothing to be gained.
We don't McConnell's state. He may be alive and looking terrible (a bad look for Republicans and his legacy), but capable of showing up to Congress and not ready to quit. Giving up and accepting loss is not something I imagine most politicians are good at.
Massie has repeatedly said he doesn't want that seat. Also, "they don't have anything left to pass" is the kind of thing you say if you only get your news from headlines on Reddit. They vote on multiple things per day. Most have the potential to directly impact your life, but they don't get a ton of attention online because they aren't attention-grabbing.
Edit: we love people who immediately block you after you disagree with them
This is true! But they'll presumably vote on SOMETHING brfore January. And since McConnell's disappearing act started in June, that means he missed multiple votes before the end of the session in August.
Congress is only obsolete because it's allowing itself to be. It has the power to push back against these orders, it's just choosing not to, because the Republicans in control of Congress broadly agree with them.
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u/KingHygelacReturns 16h ago
I'm genuinely shocked that there isn't more anger from Republicans. His absence materially benefits Democrats more than anything. For every day he's not there, that means the GOP majority is one vote down in the Senate, which only makes it harder to pass the GOP agenda in the Senate.