Amply be-chinned Mitch McConnell is looking to make life more difficult for President Stupid’s 2020 Goat Rodeo challengers, who happen to make up about 1-in-5 Dim senators! Let’s explore!

LATimes:

“When you have that high a number of U.S. senators who are in a Democratic primary for president, obviously you can cut a pretty wide swath through the field by simply forcing them to take a position on an issue,” said Josh Holmes, McConnell’s former chief of staff and political advisor.”

On Monday, Mitch forced a vote on an forced-birth bill that will never pass but puts everyone on record. Naturally that led to noted monogamy fan and family-planning enthusiast Prznint Horndog (five-known children from three different women) to tweet:

Senate Democrats just voted against legislation to prevent the killing of newborn infant children. The Democrat position on abortion is now so extreme that they don’t mind executing babies AFTER birth….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 26, 2019

…which as is traditional from Comrade Trump is big, bold, lie.

“Next, McConnell has teed up a vote soon on a sweeping climate change plan called the Green New Deal. Though most Democrats support stronger environmental protections and McConnell definitely does not, he’s bringing up a binding resolution to highlight some of the Democrats’ most extreme ideas, hoping to draw out divisions between progressives and moderates.

“The votes are among several McConnell is expected to force this year on high-profile issues, including Medicare for All, which has also fractured Democrats.”

While there are some dividing issues there, there is nothing that forces a Senator to vote on these showboat resolutions.

“One option is for Democrats to vote “present” instead of in support or opposition, effectively neutering the vote. In 2017, when Republicans tried to force a vote on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) Medicare for All plan, nearly all the Democrats banded together to vote “present” instead of showing party divisions.”

Now, the world has changed since 2017, and perhaps the Dims might find some of their vestigial spines and actually go on record with something like being opposed to climate change or being in favor of not killing their constituents via lack of healthcare. And of course, there are Dims like Manchin who are from so-called Energy States and representing their actual constituents means voting against the Green New Deal. I think it’s stupid, but it is true.

And of course there are some Senators deeply beholden to corporate interests, and some of ’em are running (and you know who I mean). Voting present gives them a way out.

Others are bolder:

“Other Democrats said they were eager to show their support for an idea that could differentiate the increasingly crowded Democratic primary field.
“I don’t know what [McConnell’s] intentions are exactly,” said Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). “But I’m in favor of it,” she said of the Green New Deal.”

This is a sword that can cut both ways, though. McConnell knows that the electorate is changing, getting younger and the Yutes of Today have a different set of values and concerns (oh, like living to be Mitch McConnell’s age) and climate and healthcare resonate with them. The 2020 Goat Rodeo really could be the last hurrah for the Boomers.

We note that in 2020, twenty-two GOP senate seats are up for re-election, and some of those are from states that did not vote for Trump (Colorado and Maine, for instance), and he could be setting up Collins and Gardner.