A Short Take on ‘The Long Game’

Last updated on: December 15, 2017 at 8:00 am by Coyle Neal

A Short Take on ‘The Long Game’ 2017-12-10T16:42:38-07:00 Coyle Neal

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In early 2016, I argued on Social Media and elsewhere that in Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell we’ve got the best Congressional leadership we’ve had since I’ve been paying attention to politics. To say it another way, it’s the best leadership we’ve had since Tip O’Neill. I argued that these are two principled men who care about fair play and the importance of Congress as an independent institution responsible for leading the nation.

Since Spring of 2016, like most other political scientists I’ve had to eat more of my words than I ever thought possible–which I suppose is a useful exercise in humility for me. Unfortunately, some of the words I’ve had to eat have been about Ryan and McConnell. With that said, I think many of their poor decisions over the past two years have been largely dictated by circumstance, necessity, and the chaos our beloved President has strewn in his wake. I guess what I’m saying is that I still want to like Ryan and McConnell, despite much of 2016 and all of 2017. In part, this is because they do still seem to care about things like procedure.

To that end, I cheerfully recommend Mitch McConnell’s recent biography The Long Game: A Memoir. McConnell has certainly overcome his share of adversity in his life, including polio as a child, moving often during childhood, trying to break into politics as a Republican in a predominantly Democrat state.

Source: Penguin

The personal narratives are interesting and well-written, and frankly are the primary reason to buy this book. The political stuff is good enough, but there’s nothing in the political aspects of the book that’s not already public record. We don’t get much behind-the-scenes narrative, or any opinions that weren’t already available in McConnell’s speeches and other writings.

Still, McConnell’s view of the Senate as an institution is still worth reading. For example, speaking of Harry Reid’s time as Majority Leader of the Senate, McConnell writes:

“…Reid set records for the number of times he blocked Republicans from having any input on bills, or cut off our right to debate. The committee process had become a shadow of what it had been. Major legislation was now routinely drafted not in committee but in the majority leader’s conference room and then dropped on the floor with little or no opportunity for members to participate in the amendment process, virtually guaranteeing a fight…
The key thing about the US Senate is that more than any other institution in any democracy, its rules are designed to safeguard the rights of the minority party. This has been a key to America’s success because it’s helped create laws that are durable, leading to stability over time. Changing a law requires at least some buy-in from the minority, which makes laws much harder to undo, and prevents us from having laws that change every few years” (238)

This is a tough pill to swallow coming from someone who got up to the tax bill hi-jinks a couple of weeks ago. Now, I don’t think a stumble in the current political climate undoes a lifetime of dedicated public service. But it is still concerning, and hopefully he’ll speak to the issue (if he hasn’t already). The last few months aside, McConnell’s view of the Senate and of the legislative process as a whole is a healthy one that I’d like to see more Republicans (and Democrats!) take up.

But McConnell doesn’t just target the Left, those on the Right who would circumvent process come in his crosshairs as well. He writes about the Tea Party extremists:

“These shortsighted and self-interested operatives have exploited [our] natural frustrations [with the Obama years] by sowing confusion and discord among our ranks, splitting our party’s natural coalitions, handing victory after victory to our political adversaries, and enriching themselves in the process. These people not only give a bad name to conservatism, they have had a poisonous impact on our politics. By setting up impossible goals and then decrying those who fail to achieve them, they create an endless cycle of distrust and finger-pointing that empowers no one but themselves and their ideological opponents. They have become a cancer within the Republican Party, and for too long no one was willing to call them out. When I decided to do so, I took a lot of heat. But it was absolutely the right thing to do.

The answer to Barack Obama and the march of the Left is not to rail against one’s fellow conservatives, it’s to make better arguments, build broad coalitions, win elections, and stick together. The changes we seek won’t come quickly or all at once, but they will be more durable when they do arrive because they will have been achieved through persuasion and, ideally, on a bipartisan basis. As Henry Clay once put it: ‘All legislation, all government, all society, is founded upon the principle of mutual concession, politeness, comity, courtesy; upon these everything is based… let him who elevates himself above humanity, above its weaknesses, its infirmities, its wants, its necessities, say, if he pleases, I will never compromise; but let no one who is not above the frailties of our common nature disdain compromises.’ This is a program for success in a body of a hundred strong-willed men and women, each with his and her own interests and views. It requires deep understanding, and ability to listen, great patience, and a willingness to subordinate one’s own idea of perfection for the moment in the interest of achieving long-term goals later on. It means viewing the legislative process as the best means we have for making good decisions collectively.” (253-254)

As Christians, there’s something we should appreciate here. Caution, patience, and following institutional procedures should be intentionally built into our own worldviews and mindsets. We should never support ends-justify-the-means thinking, or assume that just because the other side cheated first we are free to do so as well. Instead, we ought to patiently and quietly work within the rules to achieve our goals while keeping the, well, the long game in view. I sincerely hope that McConnell’s actions of the past year or so have been an aberration, and that he’s just biding his time until he can go back to the kind of quiet and unassuming governance that keeps a republic humming along healthily. In other words, I’d like to see a return of the McConnell of The Long Game and the exit of the McConnell of the 2017 GOP.

Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the City of Man Podcast and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO, where he not-always-patiently awaits the return of maturity and decency to American politics. It isn’t likely to happen in his lifetime…

Previous Post

December 12, 2017

To Kill a Species

Next Post

December 22, 2017 Coyle's Best of 2017

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Action AFI Top 100 Animation Best Picture Winner BFI Top 250 Biography Biopic Books Childrens Christian Classics Classics Comedy Crime Documentary Drama Editor's Choice Family Fantasy Fantasy Films Foreign Historical Historical Fiction History Horror Horror IMDB Top 250 Indie Memoir Modern Novel Musical Mystery Non-Fiction Oscars Philosophy Poetry Popular Literature Reading and Writing Reality Romance Science Fiction Science Fiction Silent Sports Thriller TV Show Uncategorized Western Westerns Young Adult

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What miraculous catch did Peter witness after obeying Jesus?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A gold coin A net full of fish A boat sinking A sea turning red