Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is just starting to get a look at the freight train of discontent headed his way after pledging for nearly a decade to deliver legislation without ever putting an ounce of thought into how to actualize his promises.
Not only did a host of conservative leaders send him a letter saying, "It is time for you and your leadership team to step aside," one group went even further to provide McConnell with a window into his future. The Washington Post writes:
Addressing reporters in a conference room inside the Capitol Hill office of FreedomWorks, a hard-right organization, five of the activists said that if McConnell does not step aside, they will wage an effort against him in next year’s midterm elections that will take the form of television ads and other advocacy in individual campaigns where his allies are on the ballot.
“If Mitch McConnell does not step down, we foresee a scorched-earth disaster from a furious Republican base that will take it out on elected officials in 2018 and again in 2020,” said Brent Bozell, the president of the Media Research Center. “It will begin simply by staying home — and rightfully so.”
On top of that message from organizations that are thought to represent the GOP base (who even knows what that "base" is anymore), Steve Bannon is promising a primary challenge to almost every McConnell ally in the Senate up for re-election next year.
McConnell is beginning to feel the squeeze of the vise grips between grassroots discontent and donor-backed efforts.