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| Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) |
I support action being taken against Boebert in the coming weeks if the Democrats so choose. Her statements have continued to be appalling her entire time in Congress, starting just days into her tenure when, during the terrorist attacks on January 6th, she tweeted the locations of several members of Congress, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which drew appropriate condemnation and calls for her to resign for endangering the lives of her colleagues. Lauren Boebert's comments about Omar would get her fired from virtually any other job in America, almost as soon as she said them. That can't happen in Congress, but censuring her isn't necessarily a waste of time, and neither is kicking her off of committees, similar to what Speaker Pelosi has done to Marjorie Taylor Greene or Paul Gosar in the past year.
But I want to talk about something I think Democrats are doing wrong here, and it's that they aren't taking stopping people like Boebert seriously, because due to gerrymandering you can't beat Boebert in a traditional sense. Boebert is an extreme example of a Republican, so let's go with someone whom Pelosi and the establishment Democrats have worked with for decades-Mitch McConnell. I repeatedly have seen calls from Democratic senators shaming Mitch McConnell over his votes on the infrastructure bill or for holding up voting rights legislation. They are acting like this is some sort of moral high ground, that they are going to be able to shame Mitch McConnell into doing something, to suddenly have an epiphany that what he's done the past two decades as leader was for naught, and he's found his moral compass. And to this I say: "I'm tired...and give me a break."
Few figures in American politics have such a specific code-of-conduct as Mitch McConnell. McConnell is not Donald Trump (or Lauren Boebert) for a couple of reasons. First off, McConnell is smart, and he does have, not necessarily principles, but certainly some beliefs. He believes in tax cuts for the rich (and the rest if there's room). He believes in cutting government programs, as many as will be feasible without losing the two things he truly loves: the Senate majority and judicial seats. McConnell is not Trump in the sense that he's delusional-McConnell knows when he's defeated, and he knows when a conversation is worth moving on since you can't win the one you're on. He also knows the value of the next day; part of the reason that McConnell wanted Trump to concede & get on with it was that he thought it would save David Perdue & Kelly Loeffler's seats in Congress, and with that McConnell's majority (McConnell was right, Trump's focus almost certainly cost the Republicans their Senate majority by emboldening Georgia Democrats). But McConnell doesn't respond to shame, he hasn't for many decades-while unlike Trump he can act polite in the presence of Democrats (he even cracked some jokes with Nancy Pelosi & Joe Biden during the inauguration gift-giving ceremony), shame is not in his vocabulary. He knows only power, and how to get more Senate seats and more judicial vacancies.
I'm not tired with McConnell in this regard. I understand this mentality, and unlike a lot of Democrats, I'm ready to fight it on McConnell's level. What I'm tired of is Democrats insisting on fighting on a morally high ground, rather than trying to take on McConnell the only way you can beat him. I'm not saying Democrats need to lack shame, but what I am saying is that I'm tired of them thinking that shaming Republicans is a winning strategy-it's not. It's time to take a page from the McConnell playbook (one that has been brought to dangerous heights by people like Donald Trump & Lauren Boebert), and run campaigns that focus on maximizing our majority.
The reason for this is that's the only way to beat McConnell. McConnell is never going to lose reelection in Kentucky. Lauren Boebert isn't going to lose in Colorado, not with the current configuration of her district. But you can marginalize these figures by taking away their enablers (or reelecting the people who keep them at bay). Democrats who complain about whether or not Boebert will win or not-who gives a crap? The Democrats have an opportunity to move a 4-3 delegation into a 5-3 delegation if they win the new 8th district in Colorado. That is where all of your energy should go. It should go to attacking the Republican in that district, making them seem like the new Boebert, because that's where your strategy will actually do some good.
Do you think Mitch McConnell stays up at night trying to figure out a way to get Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez out of Congress? No, he doesn't think about her at all, except ways he can tie her to Catherine Cortez Masto and Maggie Hassan...McConnell is only concerned about numbers, and shaming him is never going to change that. I see little evidence that Democrats going after McConnell & trying to shame him does much more than get people to donate to hopeless cases like Amy McGrath. Instead of going after McConnell, point out that Pat Toomey & Ron Johnson are the reasons that the filibuster still exists (not McConnell, and quite frankly, not Joe Manchin & Kyrsten Sinema). Democrats are running a campaign strategy from twenty years ago, one where it felt like shame would work in a conversation, but Boebert & McConnell prove that it doesn't, and it makes us look weak to be fighting such a morally righteous battle that even the most loyal of our base knows we're going to win. We're already struggling to deliver infrastructure bills & judicial seats so that the base feels like something was accomplished heading into 2022...don't add "make Republicans see the light" to the list of expectations Democrats are expected to deliver.
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