The betrayal How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans abandoned America

Ira S. Shapiro, 1947-

Book - 2022

"Shapiro documents the challenges facing the Senate during the Trump administration, arguing that the body's failure to provide leadership represents the most catastrophic failure of government in American history. He also evaluates the Senate during President Biden's first year in office and looks forward to the 2022 Senate elections and beyond"--

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Subjects
Published
Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield [2022]
Language
English
Main Author
Ira S. Shapiro, 1947- (author)
Physical Description
xviii, 293 pages ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781538163979
  • Preface
  • 1. The End of the Last Great Senate
  • 2. McConnell's Bitter Harvest
  • 3. Handling Trump
  • 4. Saving Brett Kavanaugh
  • 5. To Impeach or Not to Impeach
  • 6. The Sham Trial
  • 7. A Politicized Pandemic
  • 8. The Banana Republic Confirmation
  • 9. The Big Lie
  • 10. Acquitting the Insurrectionist
  • 11. Good Faith, Bad Faith
  • Epilogue
  • Acknowledgments
  • A Note on Sources
  • Notes
  • Index
  • About the Author
Review by Choice Review

Though it breaks little new ground--the author concedes his research was based on "publicly available sources"--The Betrayal is nevertheless a good summary of the Trump presidency and the role Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell played by aiding the President while privately despising him. Lamenting the demise of a supposedly once-robust US Senate, Shapiro, a long-serving Senate aide, chronicles Trump impeachments, the Kavanaugh hearings, and the COVID pandemic. Shapiro argues that at critical junctures, McConnell eschewed traditional Senate norms, making him complicit with Trump in undermining US democracy. This strong indictment of McConnell conforms with other accounts and raises the question of whether politics is merely transactional, with the ends justifying the means, or whether the integrity of norms and rules are sacrosanct. Republicans may read Shapiro's book and admire McConnell's hardball tactics, which produced the results they sought. Democrats, while licking their wounds, may find some solace in the belief that those results were tainted by less-than-fair play. In both cases, Shapiro's book offers a skillful portrait of an important leader during a turbulent and crucial time in American history. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. --Richard J. Gelm, University of La Verne

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review

Kentucky's Mitch McConnell has been the Republican leader of the Senate since the Obama administration and has built a reputation as the most ruthlessly partisan, obstructionist leader of the Senate since--well, since ever. In this well-researched and thoroughly documented history, Shapiro details how McConnell obstructed a number of Democratic social initiatives. For instance, he fought Obama to kill or gut the Affordable Care Act as well as blocking some of Obama's judicial appointments, most famously for the Supreme Court. On the flip side, McConnell served as an enabler for Donald Trump. Not only did he ensure Trump's acquittal during two separate impeachment trials, he pushed through three Trump Supreme Court nominations with record-setting alacrity. Shapiro's chronicle doesn't stop there--the extent of McConnell's scorched-earth politics makes it clear why Washington has been either deadlocked or regressive. Anyone interested in social justice or the advancement of the ideals of democracy can read this chronicle and come away knowing one of the principal political villains of the twenty-first century.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Historian and lawyer Shapiro (Broken) argues in this blistering if familiar takedown that Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has prioritized his own career and the Republican agenda above America's interests. Though the "democratized" Senate of the 1960s and '70s "met the challenge of history" by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and investigating Richard Nixon's role in the Watergate break-in, today's Senate Republicans are committed solely to obstructing Democrats and toeing the party line, according to Shapiro. He delves into McConnell's efforts to stop the passage of the Affordable Care Act, prevent President Obama from appointing a Supreme Court justice after Antonin Scalia's death, and oppose "blue state bailouts" during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Showcasing McConnell's willingness to compromise his own beliefs and the country's security to achieve political goals, Shapiro notes that McConnell voted to acquit former president Trump after the January 6 Capitol riot, despite declaring at the impeachment trial that Trump was "practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day." Though he doesn't break much new ground, Shapiro draws an incisive portrait of McConnell and credibly concludes that he and his fellow Republicans have broken the congressional system. This forceful critique hits home. (May)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Another painful account of the decline of American political discourse. During a four-decade career in Washington, D.C., Shapiro served 12 years in various Senate staff positions, but only during the 20th century, when that institution functioned more or less as the Founders intended. He writes that its decline began during the 1990s but accelerated two decades later, when "Mitch McConnell and his Republican caucus repeatedly and deliberately took actions they knew to be wrong and failed to take actions they knew to be right." Entering the Senate in 1984, McConnell quickly established his hard-conservative reputation, abetted by the pugnacious Newt Gingrich, among others. By 2008, McConnell had risen to minority leader and proclaimed a goal of making newly elected Barack Obama a one-term president. His tactic was not to propose alternative legislation but to oppose everything. He did not have the votes to defeat the Affordable Care Act, but his denunciation of "Obamacare" as socialized medicine resonated with voters, who gave Republicans a victory in the 2010 elections. Even today, polls reveal that Americans tend to deplore "Obamacare" but approve of the Affordable Care Act. Becoming Senate majority leader in 2015, he blocked nearly all of Obama's judicial nominees, including to the Supreme Court, resulting in a massive influx of conservative judges after the election of Donald Trump. Aware, like most Republicans, that the new president was a loose cannon but wildly popular, McConnell kept his focus on conservative interests and electable Republicans, even when this irritated Trump, who preferred sycophants. Although he received no thanks, McConnell quashed potentially embarrassing investigations and ensured that the two impeachment trials fizzled. This is an informative but deeply discouraging book; few Republicans will read it, and few Democrats will quarrel with its conclusions. In the past, Congress has endured periods of paralysis, corruption, and violence but then recovered. Readers can only hope the current breakdown is temporary. A vivid attack on "the most partisan Senate leader in modern history" that is unlikely to change anyone's mind. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.