Mitch McConnell, the minority leader of the U.S. Senate, has for six years wielded the filibuster as a weapon in his rebellion against a founding principle of the United States of America: self-governance by majority rule.

McConnell’s revolt shows he believes Americans cannot govern themselves because, basically, he thinks the majority of Americans are wrongheaded. As any monarch would, he believes the minority is justified in overriding and ruling over the majority.

McConnell is the filibuster king, master of all that he and his minority minions can obstruct. With the filibuster, he zealously bludgeoned to death bills passed by a majority in the House and supported by a majority in the Senate. What was intended to be a precision tool McConnell brandished as a machine gun, murdering all majority-supported legislation in sight. Filibuster is derived from the Dutch word for thieving pirates. It is the minority stealing voting rights from the majority.