The Republican establishment is "nervous" about 2020. They see gaining back the House as all but out of reach, and the White House as no safe bet because it’s currently held by an unstable and deeply unpopular would-be autocrat. So they're making the Senate their firewall.
"If we lose the presidency—and if I had to guess right now, the odds are 10 percent we get the House back—the Senate is the only check and balance," one former Republican Senate chief of staff told The Hill. Note the assumption that the Republican Senate only acts as a check and balance when the White House and House are in Democratic control. "If we don't keep the Senate, we're basically screwed. I hate to just cut to the chase, but that is exactly what the [National Republican Senatorial Committee] is running with."
What they're running with, or to be precise against, is "socialism." Because the idea of trying to halt the death of the planet with the Green New Deal or to provide universal health care that everyone can afford with Medicare for All is supposed to be terrifying. That's why McConnell has declared himself the "Grim Reaper" of all things good proposed by Democratic presidential candidates. "If I'm still the majority leader in the Senate think of me as the Grim Reaper […] I guarantee you that if I'm the last man standing and I'm still the majority leader, it ain't happening. I can promise you," he told Kentuckians in a campaign stop this year.
It's an apt description of what McConnell is actually doing and planning to do, because the policies he's talking about are actually life-and-death. But they're sticking with it. "The socialism charge in particular works well with some of the soft Republican voters, suburban voters that Republicans have struggled with in the Trump era" said a national Republican strategist. He says it's what Republican Senate incumbents and challengers are going to run on.
Life and death. They are running on McConnell's ability to prevent things like gun laws that would save lives. They're running on McConnell's promise to not only stop Medicare for All, but to continue to destroy the Affordable Care Act. They're running on destroying the globe and pretty much everything existing on it sooner rather than later.
Literally life and death—and they've decided to choose death as their "firewall."
Let's make it the end of this iteration of the GOP. Please give $1 to our nominee fund to help Democrats end McConnell's career as majority leader!