Mitch McConnell Goes out on His Own Terms

Mitch McConnell will step down as Senate leader in November but intends to remain in the Senate through the end of his current term, which runs through 2026. It’s time. McConnell is the longest-serving party leader in the history of the Senate. He just turned 82 earlier this month, and a series of health incidents in the past year led National Review to editorialize last summer that he should commence planning his exit. Looking over the landscape of our gerontocracy, with presidential contenders who will be 78 and 82 in November, I went further and argued that it’s time to start introducing maximum-age limits on our leaders. But in endorsing McConnell’s decision to go, we can also appreciate the great scale of what he has accomplished.

McConnell’s challenge these days is not just age but longevity. A lifelong Republican dating back to when those were rare in Kentucky, he came to Washington as a legislative aide in the closing weeks of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, joined the Justice Department during the Ford administration, was first elected to the Senate in 1984 at the height of the Reagan years, and has led the Senate Republican caucus since George W. Bush was president. The world, the country, the issues, and the party have changed and changed again many times along the way, and, at a certain point, McConnell stopped changing with them. That is much to his credit in a political climate that has turned too many people into unrecognizable shape-shifters, but it also puts him out of step with the mood of much of his caucus and the people who elect them. Friends come and go in politics, but enemies accumulate; McConnell is past the point at which he could make new friends, while his enemies have piled up.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

Featured Tags

Manage following

Republicans

Mitch McConnell

Mitch McConnell will step down as Senate leader in November but intends to remain in the Senate through the end of his current term, which runs through 2026. It’s time. McConnell is the longest-serving party leader in the history of the Senate. He just turned 82 earlier this month, and a series of health incidents in the past year led National Review to editorialize last summer that he should commence planning his exit. Looking over the landscape of our gerontocracy, with presidential contenders who will be 78 and 82 in November, I went further and argued that it’s time to start introducing maximum-age limits on our leaders. But in endorsing McConnell’s decision to go, we can also appreciate the great scale of what he has accomplished.

McConnell’s challenge these days is not just age but longevity. A lifelong Republican dating back to when those were rare in Kentucky, he came to Washington as a legislative aide in the closing weeks of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, joined the Justice Department during the Ford administration, was first elected to the Senate in 1984 at the height of the Reagan years, and has led the Senate Republican caucus since George W. Bush was president. The world, the country, the issues, and the party have changed and changed again many times along the way, and, at a certain point, McConnell stopped changing with them. That is much to his credit in a political climate that has turned too many people into unrecognizable shape-shifters, but it also puts him out of step with the mood of much of his caucus and the people who elect them. Friends come and go in politics, but enemies accumulate; McConnell is past the point at which he could make new friends, while his enemies have piled up.