McConnell’s cheap shot on Warren electrifies Democrats

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did a huge favor for the vast Democratic base and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) with his cheap-shot ploy to silence Warren when she read a moving letter from one of the great civil rights voices in modern American history, the late Coretta Scott King.

When Warren began reading the letter during the debate over Sen. Jeff Sessions’s (R-Ala.) nomination as attorney general, McConnell silenced her by misusing the Senate rule against senators criticizing senators.

At the moment of this fiasco, Sessions was not just a U.S. senator; he was the nominee to be the attorney general of the United States. Warren was exercising her right to discuss the nominee, a man who’s been harshly criticized by many civil rights leaders for his positions on race relations and other matters.

Coretta Scott King was one of the great voices of the civil rights movement alongside her husband, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was the greatest voice of the American civil rights movement and one of the world’s great spiritual leaders.

It was ludicrous and an abuse of Senate rules for McConnell to silence Warren and prevent her from further participating in the Senate debate over Sessions. This move creates substantial ill will from all Senate Democrats, which will make it harder to McConnell to get any Democratic votes when he may need them the most, having a small Senate majority.

{mosads}By silencing Warren so shamefully, McConnell did a huge favor for the civil rights movement by giving drawing attention to the King letter and giving it huge national attention. He did a huge service to Warren by reminding progressives across America why she is a folk heroine for the cause, which will give her a further lift if she decides to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, as many progressives hope she does.

Additionally, and in the long-term perhaps more important, McConnell did the progressive base of the Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party itself, a huge favor by electrifying the base. His actions will help raise tons of money from small donors and lift voter turnout to the skies in the 2018 and 2020 campaigns.

Whatever one thinks of President Trump, his presence will give Democrats one of the greatest turnout lifts in the history of midterm elections in 2018, and will boost Democratic turnout in the 2020 presidential campaign to stratospheric heights.

Democrats have often had a turnout deficit compared to Republicans in midterm elections, but in the 2018 midterms, the pattern will be reversed as liberals, Democrats and all Americans who disapprove of Trump will be hugely motivated to vote and will turn out in tremendous, and potentially historic, numbers.

Democrats today are saying thank you to Warren for taking another position of leadership on the Sessions nomination and continuing her battle to protect consumers and prevent bank abuses while Trump is violating his campaign promises by becoming the latest GOP president to run interference for big banks.

Democrats are also saying thank you to Majority Leader McConnell for his crass attack on Sen. Warren, which will rouse the Democratic base even further and empower even greater Democratic turnout in the 2020 midterm elections.

Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Chief Deputy Majority Whip Bill Alexander (D-Ark.). He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. Contact him at brentbbi@webtv.net.

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