Mitch Miscalculated Bigly

AP Photo/Susan Walsh

Stu Cvrk reporting for RedState

So glad to see President Trump get a second wind now that he has been acquitted for life for a second time! (As an aside, will San Fran Nan make a third try? Entirely possible given the incurable Trump Derangement Syndrome among most House Democrats.) The subject of his ire has become Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (RINO-KY), who stooped to a new low in his post-acquittal floor speech during which he finally displayed his true anti-Trump sentiments

McConnell said the former president was “practically and morally responsible” for the attack on the Capitol on January 6. …

“This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out,” McConnell said.

But McConnell wasn’t done, as he reemphasized his disdain on Monday:

“There is no question former President Trump bears moral responsibility. His supporters stormed the Capitol because of the unhinged falsehoods he shouted into the world’s largest megaphone. His behaviour during and after the chaos was also unconscionable, from attacking Vice President Mike Pence during the riot to praising the criminals after it ended,” he wrote.

McConnell’s goal is to separate President Trump from his supporters as a repeat performance of his somewhat successful efforts to destroy and marginalize the Tea Party (who have never really gone away). An organized Tea Party was a direct threat to the political class and McConnell’s key backers at the US Chamber of Commerce. He was happy to reach across the aisle to undermine upstart Tea Partiers who dared to question their “betters” in Congress during the disaster for the country that was the Obama regime. And those “betters” included Establishment Republicans like McConnell, who were ready, willing, and able to make deals with Barack Obama to the detriment of Main Street Americans.

McConnell capitalized on Democrat-media attacks on the Tea Party. After beating down his own Tea Party-backed challenger in 2014, he was happy to work behind the scenes to undercut Tea Party people at every opportunity and elect “his kind of candidates” – those he could control through campaign contributions and other perks – as opposed to the limited government conservatives whom the Tea Party supported. And those senators he has helped elect and reelect over the years provide his power base and bloc support as minority (or majority) leader. McConnell and his cohort are all compromised, and thanks to President Trump, more Republican voters – and other Americans – have figured that out.

McConnell wants to use the same double-barreled strategy (direct attacks in conjunction with Democrat actions) against President Trump’s 75+ million supporters to regain Establishment Republican control of the Republican Party. Except that strategy won’t work this time for a variety of reasons:

• McConnell’s public attacks galvanize support for President Trump, reminding them of all the reasons they despise back-stabbing Establishment Republicans. And everyone knows a RINO or two in their own home states who fill that bill.
• The Tea Party morphed into a core element of Trump’s support base, which has the same concerns about political corruption and the ongoing undermining of the Constitution and cultural institutions.
• The Tea Party-cum-Trump activists are smarter and even more red-pilled than they were in 2009. Once politically awakened and self-aware about Democrat-RINO-media lies, many of the Trump base are never going back to complacency and are hard at work retaking control of local Republican organizations from old RINOs.
• Trump supporters aren’t just white Republicans; they include a broad spectrum of Americans, including many minorities, independents, and even Democrats (or former Democrats!).
• Democrat support for BLM and Antifa shocked Trump supporters who support law and order and the police. Trump Republicans aren’t going to give control of their party back to Establishment Republicans, who were virtually silent about the violence in 2020. The only question is whether Trump independents and Democrats will join in that battle, too.
• Biden’s rash of transparently anti-American executive orders engenders no pushback from Establishment Republicans. Americans are shocked at the destructive actions taken by the left-wing Biden administration. The very public reversal of President Trump’s agenda is an in-your-face reminder of the true Biden-Harris globalist and socialist agenda, and it’s the antithesis of “Making America Great Again.”
• Trump Republicans are aghast at the perfidy and traitorous actions of RINOs in Congress who voted to impeach in the House and convict in the Senate. Support among Republican voters for a third party is at an all-time high, signaling political disaster for Establishment Republicans and McConnell’s compromise agenda.
• Their home state Republican Party organizations have already censured many RINOs in Congress who voted to impeach and convict. Home state Republicans know that Establishment Republicans have bailed out on President Trump and are taking action. Primary challengers to some of those RINOs have already declared themselves, too.
• The Tea Party was amorphous and essentially leaderless, with no real national figure around whom to rally. President Trump isn’t going anywhere and has thrown down the gauntlet!

And that last bullet is the most important roadblock to McConnell’s plans. President Trump’s scathing Tuesday memorandum skewered McConnell up one side and down the other, and by extension, the Biden regime:

Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again. He will never do what needs to be done, or what is right for our Country. Where necessary and appropriate, I will back primary rivals who espouse Making American Great Again and our policy of American First. We want brilliant, strong, thoughtful, and compassionate leadership.

That excerpt could not be clearer: President Trump is not going to leave the political scene any time soon. His declared intention to support primary challengers to McConnell’s Establishment Republican cadre in the Senate is very welcome news indeed to those Americans who are furious over the raw deal given to their president over the past four years by the political class – especially RINOs and NeverTrump Republicans. If anything, those attacks turned him into a martyr and a legend, as well as the standard-bearer for “draining the swamp.”

McConnell’s petulant remarks on the Senate floor after the Democrats’ impeachment gambit was destroyed by President Trump’s team were prepared in advance. He openly declared political war on someone he thought was completely damaged politically, possibly believing that there would be no resistance or pushback from President Trump. Only a creature of Washington, DC, would think that. One would think that McConnell would have figured out that that is not in Donald Trump’s nature after watching him in action over the past four years!

McConnell is now on the receiving end of a major political counterattack aimed at the heart of his political power from the legion of irate Trump supporters across the country. Neither President Trump nor his supporters are going to go quietly into the night. His base is still loyal, with 53% of Republicans backing him as the Republican presidential candidate in 2024 in a post-acquittal poll. He and his supporters will not let The Hologram and those Establishment Republicans who are rolling over to the Democrats overturn the Trump agenda without major pushback.

The battle for the heart, soul, and future of the Republican Party is on. McConnell miscalculated bigly. It is up to Kentuckians and the rest of us to make him pay dearly. President Trump is leading the way.

The end.