Ira Shapiro, The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America, (Lanham, MD: Roman & Littlefield, 2022) ISBN 9781538163979, 241 pages
In the first sentence of his preface author Ira Shapiro declares The Betrayal as “the most catastrophic failure of government in American History.” A brief discussion of constitutional checks and balances reminds readers our Constitution should be able to prevent autocratic takeover of government. There follows a summary listing of failures of government with Mitch McConnell directing the Republicans and the U.S. Senate, along with a reminder that Trump needed McConnell more than McConnell needed Trump.
The book has eleven chapters and a brief epilogue. The first chapter reviews some Senate history from not that long ago when Mike Mansfield managed the Senate and persuaded Republicans and Democrats to respect each other and their constitutional duties. The second chapter reviews the career and work of Mitch McConnell before Trump took office; especially during the Obama administration.
The remainder of the book covers the period from Trump’s 2016 election to the end of 2021. The chapters recount Mitch McConnell managing his political agenda and on multiple occasions managing Trump during Trump’s first term. McConnell worked hard to repeal Obama Care but fell short, his only personal failure. Next, Shapiro narrates the maneuvers that put Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. There follows the story of saving Brett Kavanaugh for another Supreme Court seat.
After the Democrats took charge of the House following the mid-term elections, McConnell announced his return to obstructing Democrats and Congress in any way possible. The House voted to impeach Trump after his attempt to extort political favors from Ukraine officials, which McConnell predictably opposed and defeated. Shapiro narrates McConnell’s strategy for a Senate trial with its foregone conclusion.
By now in early 2020 with the Covid-19 Pandemic under way, Shapiro tells the story of Trump at his “super spreader” worst with McConnell “curiously disengaged” while occasionally maneuvering between common sense and partisan politics as suited his personal agenda. Then RGB dies and McConnell swings into action to get Amy Coney Barrett, a Scalia protégé, onto the Supreme Court before the 2020 election.
Next comes the 2020 presidential election in a chapter entitled appropriately “The Big Lie.” McConnell refused to condemn Trump for this election denial, which he described as “a few legal inquiries.” When McConnell belated realized that Trump’s misconduct had ended his run as majority leader, he finally got angry enough to speak against him and defend the election in a Senate speech Shapiro quotes in its entirety. Unfortunately for McConnell his speech was delivered on the morning of January 6.
Shapiro recounts daily events leading up to the attack and then a concise discussion of the January 6 events. The attack was so violent and so obviously planned by Trump that the House Democratic majority had enough votes to bring another impeachment. The account of the impeachment and trial follows where Shapiro provides the evidence that McConnell could have delivered the Senate votes to convict, but found an excuse to vote in Trump’s favor.
The book winds down considering the prospects for President Joe Biden in a Senate with a 50-50 split that included erratic allies like Joe Manchin and opponents like Mitch McConnell. A foul mouthed and disruptive ex-president, still a profitable topic for media coverage, attacked every Biden effort.
The stories narrated through the book come peppered with the conduct and quoted views of many people. Of course, there is Trump, but other names come up many times such as dithering Susan Collins, the amoral Lindsey Graham, Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, Lamar Alexander, Amy Klobachar, Charles Grassley, Joe Manchin, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Rudy Giuliani. Still the book remains primarily about the political misconduct of Mitch McConnell and his legacy. Shapiro suggests a legacy for McConnell, but given the brevity of his comments he appears more inclined to be let McConnell’s record speak for itself.
While the record is clear, Shapiro uses his final pages to remind us McConnell served as majority leader longer than anyone while suggesting a broader and more damaging legacy than what he did to remake the Supreme Court and save Trump from his various follies. While these make up the primary topics of the book, Shapiro mentions McConnell’s work cutting taxes for the rich, deregulating corporate America, and his fight to end Biden Administration efforts to address climate change, an especially unconscionable misconduct for an 80 year old who will not live to bear the consequences of his work. In summary conclusion, “McConnell has ultimately come down on the side of polarization and disunion rather than compromise and reconciliation.” From McConnell’s published memoir, he comments “there is not a page in it that shows concern about the people of Kentucky.”
The book ended without exploring polarization and disunion in more detail or how much McConnell has pursued the corporate agenda like a devoted follower and paid employee. Corporate America promotes and benefits from the racial and ethnic hatreds that divides the electorate. Division turns the working class into warring factions and keeps them in feeble disarray while allowing corporate America to take their wealth by intentionally impoverishing the working class.
The book reads easily as well organized and well
documented journalism. There are 30 pages of notes and a four page essay on
sources that serves as a bibliography for any interested readers. Betrayal
serves as another book on the continuing decline of the United States. Remember
the book’s publication date of 2022; well before the second term. Maybe
disunion should be replaced by disintegration
