Mitch McConnell was never a conservative. Now more people are realizing it.

During President Trump’s first term, there was one thing that annoyed me more than anything else. President Trump treated then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as an ally. He never was. He has never been an ally of President Trump and he’s never been an ally to conservatives. He is The Swamp, and now more conservatives are coming to this realization.

Finally.

The “evidence” that McConnell was one of the good guys came in the form of is confirmation of the President’s nominees. He often touted his own success in getting more judges confirmed than any of his predecessors. But his role as Senate Majority Leader demanded such actions. He didn’t do anything special. He didn’t work behind the scenes to sway Democrats into voting to confirm the President’s picks. He didn’t take control of his caucus to make sure there were no dissenters. He scheduled votes and they happened, usually along party lines. He was like a middle manager writing out the weekly schedule for his employees. That’s it.

Now, McConnell is going full-force against President Trump in an attempt to erase any potential for a future Trump run. One does not have to be a Trump-supporter to realize this is not just an attack on the former president. It’s an attack on his tens of millions of supporters who make up the conservative base of the Republican Party. Even non-Trump-supporting conservatives are in McConnell’s crosshairs because they represent nonadherence to the status quo. They oppose The Swamp, and therefore they inherently oppose McConnell’s agenda.

As we continue making plans to relaunch the American Conservative Movement, we do so with the understanding that we are not just going to be fighting Democrats. We must fight the Republican Establishment just as hard, and in some cases we must fight them even harder. They do not represent conservative governance even if they pretend to embrace it during election cycles. They must be removed and replaced with real patriots who believe in limited government and the primacy of the individual American citizen.

The GOP must not be viewed as the only viable option. It must be partitioned in the minds of conservatives between those who are true conservatives and those who wave the Constitution around during election time only to betray it once they’re in office. Mitch McConnell is the de facto leader of the latter.

We do not need leaders who talk a big game during campaign season or pretend to be strong when they know their strength will not be tested. We’ve seen the former in many forms over the years. The best example of the latter is how McConnell handled Obamacare. When Barack Obama was in the Oval Office, McConnell was able to put over a dozen clean Obamacare repeal bills on his desk. The moment Donald Trump sat in the same chair, McConnell delivered exactly zero Obamacare bills. Why? Because he knew President Obama would veto them and President Trump would sign them. That false strength epitomizes Mitch McConnell’s entire political career.

Let’s dispel this fiction that Mitch McConnell has somehow changed. He has always been a Republican Establishment shill. He has always been a top dog in The Swamp. His GOP is not worthy of our support.