If the US has someone whom historians will look back on as the gravedigger of American democracy, it is Mitch McConnell. He stoked the hyperpolarization of American politics to make the Obama presidency as dysfunctional and paralyzed as he possibly could. As with parliamentary gridlock in Weimar, congressional gridlock in the US has diminished respect for democratic norms, allowing McConnell to trample them even more. Nowhere is this vicious circle clearer than in the obliteration of traditional precedents concerning judicial appointments. (Source: "The Suffociationn of Democracy" in the NYRB)
I think an argument could be made that historians will judge Newt Gingrich's role as Speaker in the 90s as the real culprit, but McConnell's role in the destruction of the Senate has been remarkable for its myopic effectiveness..
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