/ world today news/ One of the most influential politicians in the USA, Mitch McConnell, began to behave in public like President Joe Biden. Speaking to reporters, he lost his orientation in space and “stuck” until his assistants carried him away. A similar case happened to the 90-year-old Senator Feinstein. What will the old men, from whose hands everything falls except power, bring America?
The old man, somewhat reminiscent of a turtle, dozing with his eyes open, is the brains and brawn of the US Republican Party. The American left and liberals would add something like “then the party is brainless”, but then the hatred will show in them. Senate Conservative leader Mitch McConnell is really hated and very famous, not least because he has been attached to the top US political elite for 40 years now.
“The Old Raven”, “The Grim Reaper”, “Darth Vader” are McConnell’s nicknames in his homeland, which he himself quite likes. Something of the type “feared – therefore respected”. And after all, it is true, they seem they respect him: he was included three times in the hundred “most influential people in the world” by “Time” magazine.
In Russia, on the contrary, they do not fear McConnell, do not respect him and generally do not know who he is, although among the nicknames of the 81-year-old politician there is also “Moscow Mitch”. For decades, remaining one of the key “deciders” in the US power hierarchy, McConnell appeared in the news in Russian as a third-rate character, as a butler in an old castle or a waiter in the heroes’ favorite cafe: the name looks familiar, but not everyone a political scientist will say what is remarkable about this “Old Raven”.
That is why there is no talk of McConnell in Russia at all. The quirks of other American politicians far less influential than him are hotly debated, and there seems to be a conspiracy of silence around the Senate Republican leader.
A vivid example: in June, the statement of Moscow’s old enemy and also Senator Lindsey Graham, who called the American aid to the ASU “the best investment”, caused a lot of noise. Thanks to the “inclusion” from the office of the president of Ukraine, it sounded like “investment in the murder of Russians”, and the scandal shook for several days, becoming a memorable example of cynicism in American politics.
A month and a half before this scandal, Mitch McConnell said the same thing: “When we help fight one of our worst adversaries, the Russians, there’s nothing not to like about that.” Although McConnell is a much more prominent figure than Graham, a little people were outraged by this statement because few people noticed it.
But there is no conspiracy. Moscow Mitch is shielded from Russian attention by the dusty hat of boredom to death. In that sense, he really is a “Grim Reaper”, as creepy as his statements may be. The real origin of his villainous nicknames is that McConnell brings death to the progressive (as they themselves believe) initiatives of the Democrats, plunging them into the maelstrom of bureaucracy and commas. If this or that bill formally passes the vote, but you personally do not like it, pull McConnell to your side – and the initiative will die somewhere in the offices of the American government.
In political science, it’s called obstructionism, less often opportunism, but whatever you call it, McConnell is great at his job: he’ll stifle anything in the cycle of amendment and discussion. He was particularly successful in this regard during the presidency of Barack Obama, when the Republicans were the majority in the Senate.
According to the version spread among American liberals, the first black president did not get much done precisely because of McConnell, an ancient retrograde from the Kentucky wasteland who led the Republicans in the Senate longer than anyone else in history.
Mitch became “Moscowsky” when Democrats accused Donald Trump of “collusion with Russia.” The Republican leadership was also believed to have sold out to Moscow for harboring a Russian spy. This caused the senator, contrary to usual, to take offense, recalling from time to time that he was an “old soldier of the Cold War”.
It’s true: McConnell takes an implacable position on Moscow and looks like a Reagan-era “hawk,” which, strictly speaking, he is. He’s just too quiet and faded to write about. The struggle of the “old raven” takes place in the offices, and when this intelligent and calm old man speaks in public, he does not radiate aggression and provocation, but just mortal boredom.
McConnell is also at odds with Trump. He became one of the first Republican leaders to support the eccentric billionaire, but here everything is, it seems to me, in his flair: the “Old Raven” sensed who the real favorite of the presidential race was. And now they are enemies, and Trump curses when he hears McConnell’s name.
“I arranged his wife at work and what did he tell me?” – in this quote of the former president, their relationship is best reflected. McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, spent four years in the Trump administration as Secretary of Transportation (apparently part of the intra-Republican compensation). At the same time, she is ethnically Chinese, in addition to being an immigrant from Taiwan, which is why McConnell perceived and perceives Trump’s xenophobic statements with hostility. In that sense, he is a good husband, we have to give him credit for that.
This complicated relationship erupted in parallel with the attempted storming of the Capitol: McConnell unequivocally condemned Trump’s actions and supported his impeachment, if only in words. Trump, of course, considered this a betrayal and now fights in McConnell’s face with “ancient congressional bureaucrats”, although he himself is not much younger than his enemy – he recently turned 78.
This is also part of the problem that in the American media (but more often in the blogs) is cautiously called the gerontocracy. Caution, because age discrimination in the modern United States is just as outrageous as discrimination based on gender, race, orientation, etc. During the First Cold War, morality was simpler, so the same media loudly called the period of late Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko in the USSR a gerontocracy in their headlines, implying that there could be no such problems in the US with its competitive politics and regular elections.
But now the whole world is watching the same gerontocracy in America, first of all, President Joe Biden, who greets the void, can get lost in the White House courtyard or fall asleep mid-sentence. They even invented a special word – “Bidenism”.
Trump, however, though vibrant, isn’t much younger. And the recent idol of the American left, Senator Bernie Sanders – who has been touted as an alternative to both Trump and Biden – will soon celebrate his 82nd birthday.
Even older (83 years old) is the crazy Nancy Pelosi, who has held the Democratic Party establishment in her weak fist for decades. After deciding to risk starting a war between the US and China and flying to Taiwan against Biden’s wishes, she was nevertheless persuaded to retire and give way to the young.
Armchair terminator and undercover supervillain McConnell isn’t going anywhere, and neither is 90-year-old California senator Dianna Feinstein. She, unlike “Moscow Mitch”, is a Democrat, but they also have a huge joint fortune: both are among the richest senators. Both have sparked conversations this week about America’s gerontocracy.
Feinstein, who once called on President Obama to designate the DNR as a terrorist organization, stuck on the air in much the same way as “Old Raven.” When the budget bill was voted on, she could not understand what was being asked of her for a long time and read the text in front of her while aides pleaded: “Just say yes.”
Rich, powerful, old people who are fed up with most of the nation are pushing with all their political weight for the United States to go down a path of confrontation with Russia and China, just to keep the old rules of the game in a world – such , in which America rules most of this world.
But the youth does not return, and America is no longer the same: its influence now extends only to the Western world, and the rest flows from the hands like sand through the fingers. Whether or not you’re Darth Vader yourself, time suggests that soon other people will decide the fate of America’s fallen superpower.
Given the accumulated contradictions, “culture wars” and the expectation of another civil war, who knows what this generational change will lead to. After the gerontocracy of Brezhnev comes the chaos of Gorbachev.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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