Mar 4, 2024
Mitch McConnell’s cowardly and anti-democratic legacy
This episode is a very special one because I'm excited to announce that here at Flux, we are adding another podcast to our network, The Electorette, hosted by Jennifer Taylor-Skinner.
To introduce Jennifer to the Flux audience, I wanted to bring her on Theory of Change to talk about her program, and to discuss a big news event, the retirement announcement from Sen. Mitch McConnell, who will be resigning as the Republicans’ leader in the Senate. There's a lot to talk about with his legacy. And I think it's pretty clear at this point that Mitch McConnell paved the way for Donald Trump in many, many different ways, and we'll get into that.
The video of this episode is available. The conversation was recorded March 1, 2024. The transcript of the audio follows. Because of its length, some podcast apps and email programs may truncate it. Access the episode page to get the full text.
Cover photo: Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican Leader, at the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Richmond, Kentucky. October 11, 2023. Credit: PEO ACWA/CC 2.0
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Audio Chapters
00:00 — Flux is adding a new podcast to our network, "The Electorette"
05:06 — Mitch McConnell announces he's retiring and didn't designate a successor
09:49 — McConnell attacked democracy for decades but he is despised by far-right Republicans
21:15 — Although Donald Trump and McConnell hate each other, they were still close allies
24:49 — Nikki Haley's doomed presidential campaign is an echo of the death of Republican foreign interventionism
30:33 — Haley and the quandary of right-wing women being in a party that wants to control them
39:37 — Alabama supreme court granting full rights to embryos is the latest example of how extreme Republicans have become
43:22 — Issues and ideas to watch in the general election
Audio Transcript
The following is a machine-generated transcript of the audio that has not been corrected. It is provided for convenience purposes only.
MATTHEW SHEFFIELD: Welcome to Theory of Change, Jennifer.
JENNIFER TAYLOR-SKINNER: Thank you, Matthew. I'm happy to be here.
SHEFFIELD: Yeah, it's, exciting, and I'm glad to have you as a member of the Flux Network.
And so before we get into the topic of the show, though, can you tell my audience and the Flux audience just a little bit about your show and how long you've been doing it and what you do there?
TAYLOR-SKINNER: Sure. The Electorette, it's a play on the word electorate, of course, Electorette. I started the podcast, I think in mid or late 2017, a lot of things were happening in 2017. We know what the biggest thing was, of course, it was, Trump's inauguration, the election after the 2016 election. For me, I was really frustrated at all of the misogyny in the media and in the political discourse, directed at Hillary Clinton.
And we don't need [00:02:00] to revisit that. There was a huge problem. I mean, there was a huge problem. And one of the primary reasons why I believe that she lost. And what I wanted to do with the electorate was to get people used to hearing women in leadership roles. Hearing women express their expertise in the context of politics, because I think that's, that, that's part of the problem.
If you look at some of the statistics, like very few of the experts back then, at least who were talking about politics on television were women. Right. And so I wanted to kind of change that with the electorate. And so what I do is on the electorate, I interview only women or people, anyone who isn't a, man, about things that are really important in politics right now. Anything that's important to social justice or any cultural issues. And we kind of have these in depth conversations about, what's happening, and that's what The Electorette is. And it's been really helpful for me.
Actually, it's been kind of cathartic for me after that kind of post [00:03:00] 2016 PTSD or trauma we all have. But yeah, so I've been doing it for a while now. It feels like it hasn't been that long, but it's been a while. So that's what The Electorette is.
SHEFFIELD: Yeah, it's also and it's also important, I, do want to say, from my standpoint, that I feel like that the podcasting space, especially the political podcasting space, doesn't have enough women in it as well, and that's a serious problem.
A lot of men, regardless of what their race, they don't have as much at stake when it comes to these far-right policies that are being shoved on everybody now with increasing frequency, like a lot of them, they just. It just doesn't, it's not as real to a lot of men.
And that's why I personally, try to have as many women on my shows and, work with women because it is an imbalance that needs to be corrected, I think.
TAYLOR-SKINNER: Yeah. And I just want to clarify that it isn't a lot of people when they think about podcasts, [00:04:00] like The Electorette, they think it's a show about women's issues and it's not because all issues are women's issues, right?
It's about all issues, we can talk about the economy. We, we talked about climate change. The thing is that the, conversations that you're getting are through the lens of women, right? So climate change will affect everyone of all genders, all races. It'll affect some people more than others, but the solutions will look different through the lens of someone who is.
We'll be more affected through the lens of someone who's marginalized through the lens of a woman. So that's what I wanted to do. So it isn't just about women's issues. I mean, if you want to categorize abortion as a woman's issue, it's, sure, that's fine. Abortion isn't just a woman's issue.
I just want to make sure that's clear. So it isn't just issues like that. It's anything that you can think of, but through the lens of, women. So men, listen to The Electorette to, or if you're not a man, anyone, everyone's welcome.
SHEFFIELD: Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Well, and yeah, I'm excited for people to be able to do that in a [00:05:00] somewhat greater numbers. So I'm, glad to have you on board.
Mitch McConnell announces he's retiring and didn't designate a successor
SHEFFIELD: All right, so the news topic that we're going to go through today, I think is that it's one that is pretty significant is, which is that Mitch McConnell who is now the longest serving Senate majority leader in history announced this week as we're recording that he was going to be resigning.
In November and that he would serve out his, term in office but he would step down as the leader of the Senate Republicans and, and it's it's a little weird because I feel like to some degree, the. It didn't get as much coverage as I thought it would. Did you feel that way at all? I mean obviously we have this hellish news cycle.
TAYLOR-SKINNER: Right, we have a hellish news cycle. I mean I feel like, so granted it only just happens, right? And like you said, we have a hellish news cycle. I think there was a, [00:06:00] bombing or a, a, bomb scare, I think in Alabama that happened, on the same day around the same time.
So there's a lot of things to cover. And honestly, that maybe there was probably more coverage of it online between, Politicos and, going on about, why they're so happy that Mitch McConnell is stepping down. I think that maybe some of the, joy on the left, on our side was maybe a little kind of premature or misplaced because, Mitch McConnell, when he does step down as majority leader, he's going to be replaced by someone who is younger and who's probably more extreme.
I'll just say that.
SHEFFIELD: Yeah. Well, and, definitely somebody who will be more even more, beholde…