Mitch McConnell Marched with MLK - who knew?

[DemocraticWing]

4. He was an aide for John Sherman Cooper

Cooper was a liberal Republican (remember when those existed?) Senator from Kentucky in the 1960s, and a strong supporter of the Civil Rights Act. There's some more info on how that impacted McConnell here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/us/politics/mitch-mcconnell-republicans-civil-rights.html

I actually think what's happening with McConnell is something you're seeing with a lot of white people. They see the progress that has been made and basically take their eyes off the ball, and start backsliding into either ignoring problems or supporting proposals that harm black people. These people would reject the idea that they are racist or help perpetuate racism, but they don't realize their own privilege and biases. Their past actions, to them, have allowed them to run up a score of sorts that excuses their lack of effort today.

I think McConnell is probably a great degree worse than the average person considering what the Republicans have done. It's interesting and somewhat horrifying to see his career as basically a slide from Civil Rights support as a cornerstone of his identity of a Republican, to now his leadership of a party having to rely upon the casual racism and ignorant policies of the modern party.