Blue State Blues: Mitch McConnell Should Have Resigned

I have long argued that leaders of political parties should resign their positions after political defeat, so I will say again: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) should have resigned after his party failed to win the Senate last week.

Not that anyone, much less McConnell, cares what I have to say.

In 2010, I thought it was obvious that ousted Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) should have left; she is still there. In 2012, I argued then-Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) should have resigned, after his own caucus rejected his “Plan B” tax plan. He only left in 2015. Last year, I argued that McConnell should have quit in protest after being swindled on the “infrastructure” deal.

Now, after losing an opportunity to take back the Senate majority last week, McConnell fought to keep his leadership position, which he has held for 15 years. Evidently, he is obsessed with breaking the 16-year record.

But McConnell offered no reason to maintain his grip on his caucus, no agenda other than working together  with Democrats on “things between the 40-yard lines.”

There are no more such “things,” barring national emergencies. Democrats want radical changes to the American way of life, and the only thing stopping them is that they are still at least one vote short of the margin needed to eliminate the filibuster in the Senate.

McConnell was also strangely passive during the 2022 campaign. He offered no vision to inspire Republican voters, nor did he warn voters about Biden’s judicial appointees.

He cast scorn on candidates backed by Donald Trump and spent millions to help Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) against GOP nominee Kelly Tshibaka in Alaska, despite the certainty that the state would be represented by a Republican, and the need for cash in other races.

He took pride in his margin of victory, winning an internal caucus election 37 to 10, with one abstention. But to the Republican base, the fact that McConnell will keep his post despite a disappointing election is a reminder that the party establishment views its voters with contempt.

In a caucus rich with young, interesting, diverse leaders, McConnell’s continued dominance makes no sense — even as a reward for honorable past service.

Americans are often reluctant to adopt the political practices of other countries. But it is worth noting that resignations are common within the British parliamentary system as the expected penalty for defeat.

Losing an election does not end a political career: Winston Churchill came back as prime minister in 1951, six years after losing the 1945 election. But resignation is an acknowledgment that the voters, for now, want an alternative.

We see very few resignations — not even for egregious failure, as in the case of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, who has let millions of migrants surge across the southern border. And none of the post-Trump officials now hawking books trashing their former boss and benefactor had the integrity to step down when it might have mattered. Resignation is seen as a mark of failure rather than a statement of principle.

McConnell will be remembered by history for his role in saving the Supreme Court from falling under left-wing control, which would have resulted in the erasure of our Constitution by judicial fiat. Beyond that, he has little to offer.

Those who worry that Trump alienates moderate voters should also consider that McConnell and the establishment he represents alienate the core Republican constituency. It is long past time for him to go.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.