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KAHNTENTIONS

KAHNTENTIONS is a blog post written by Gilbert N. Kahn, Professor of Political Science at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. Beginning in 2011 KAHNTENTIONS was hosted by the New Jersey Jewish News which recently ceased written publication. KAHNTENTIONS presents an open and intellectually honest analysis of issues facing the United States, Israel, as well as Jews world-wide.

BY GILBERT N. KAHN

"These are the times that try men's souls."

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Something is Seriously Wrong with The Republican View of Democracy

Shortly before 2010 mid-year congressional election, the incoming Senator Mitch McConnell—Minority Leader soon to become Majority Leader--said that he was going to spend the next two years opposing President Obama’s programs and working for his defeat in 2012. McConnell said that, “The single most important thing that we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

Yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he would spend the next 18 months opposing President Biden’s programs. Specifically, McConnell said for himself and his party that, “One-hundred percent of our focus is on stopping this new administration.” Referring to the Republican Party, he said: "What we have in the United States Senate is totally [sic] unity from Susan Collins to Ted Cruz in opposition to what the new Biden administration is trying to do to this country."


There are numerous problems with Senator McConnell’s remarks but the most serious is that American citizens and the voters of Kentucky have a right to assume that elected officials believe their role in politics is to participate in the governance of the nation. Senator McConnell appears to be defining governance as dedicating his time and effort to avoid governing. McConnell’s governing style is not about helping the American people and improving America’s place in the world; rather it is about winning elections and being able to reward his friends and supporters.


McConnell has been in a Republican leadership role in the Senate since 2007 and has been majority leader since 2015. Even when the GOP did not control the Senate, given the filibuster rule—which he maneuvered to be “reformed” -- McConnell has controlled much of the Senate action, both actively as well as passively. During the time when the Republicans were not in control, he viewed his leadership role as strictly to obstruct. Functionally, obstruction is the antithesis of governing.


Today, for example, it would seem reasonable to assume that the Republicans might favor an infrastructure package. It is even likely that the citizens of Kentucky would like to see bridges, roads, tunnels improved and broadband internet service to be extended to the more remote portions of the state. Specifically, Kentuckians have waited years for the crumbling Brent Spence Bridge connecting Ohio and Kentucky to be repaired. In addition, to Government funding on the needed infrastructure programs have the additional benefit of providing a significant number of jobs, thus aiding the American people further to emerge from the huge economic crisis precipitated by the pandemic.


It would seem that a reasonable minority leader would focus on finding a compromise on some of the Biden proposal, so that long postponed repairs and improvement could proceed. Admittedly, the Republicans would be supporting a Democratic bill, but all those--including Republicans --who supported the bill could campaign for re-election in the knowledge that through this vote they had demonstrated how they had prioritized the needs and concerns of their constituents.


Senator McConnell and his House counterpart, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, however, are not interested in legislating. They are not proposing an alternative agenda or modifications to the Biden proposals. Republicans prefer to energize the Trump wing of the party for the 2022 congressional election contests and legislating be damned.


As the House GOP prepares to remove Representative Liz Cheney from her leadership post for her unwillingness to continue to swallow the Trump Kool-Aid, they could do worse than to heed the long-forgotten motto of one of the great political scientists of the 20th Century Harold Laswell. He posited that human beings are essentially rational, and that politics was an activity to decide, “who gets what, when, and how.” For Laswell, politics was a constructive activity not an obstructive one.


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