In assessing the long decline of the Republican Party from Eisenhower to Trump, we have to take special note of the Congressional Republicans who have been able to leverage their relative anonymity to fundamentally screw up American political institutions. Newt Gingrich comes first, with his maximalist approach to politics, eventually leading to things like the Hastert Rule that created parliamentary levels of party loyalty in a congressional system not designed to handle this.
When I look at John Boehner or even the Zombie Eyed Granny Starver Paul Ryan, I see men with whom I share almost zero policy objectives. But I see men who are hamstrung by the constituents they represent and the party they must work within. Boehner in particular was a guy who wanted to legislate and lead, but couldn't because his co-partisans are nuts.
Mitch McConnell, however, stands alone. No single person has been more responsible for the degradation of our governing institutions over the last 20 years. Sure, Trump will pass him any day now, but Donald's gonna Donald. McConnell, frankly, should have known better. The Senate was always a borderline dysfunctional institution. He busted it to a million pieces.
I certainly hope we have a situation in 2019 where Trump tries to appoint a conservative to the Supreme Court and the Democrats deny him the opportunity. But I'm just not sure we have a Democratic party willing to fight that dirty. Or maybe McConnell has sufficiently altered the landscape to represent his own twisted version of what American governance should look like.
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