Is Mitch McConnell conservative? The Smoke Filled Room makes a very clear and convincing case for NOT. Found on Facebook here:

Senator Mitch McConnell is in the fight of his life: holding onto the job that keeps him separated from the plight that average Kentuckians experience. He doesn’t understand poverty, middle class, or even how small businesses operate.

The senior senator may have first run with an honest conservative outlook, but over thirty years of a comfortable position, growing government, he has turned his back to his constituents.

Mitch McConnell on Congressional Paychecks

McConnell has consistently voted to raise congressional pay. Currently, U.S. senators appropriate $174,000 each out of taxpayers dollars. Senate majority and minority leaders have a public salary of $193,400. The average salary in Kentucky is $49,000. If McConnell was “one of us” and was fiscally conservative, he wouldn’t be voting for raises and would be voting for pay cuts.

He hasn’t had honest-to-god job experience, since he has been publicly paid since the 1970’s, and for a decade before, worked for politicians who were also out of touch. His voting record is very telling, as well.

McConnell has a record of voting for abortion, gun control, and big government. Even more so since 2007 when he became minority leader.

Mitch McConnell on Guns

On guns, McConnell voted for three Democrat amendments prohibiting the sale or transfer of guns unless state-approved safety precautions were taken, to spend taxes on the Department of Education (a department McConnell supports, even though it violates parental rights in education) to spread gun control messages in schools, and requiring that all guns be sold with trigger locks.

Not to mention, McConnell recently voted against the Rand Paul amendment to block the PATRIOT Act (a law violating the peoples’ privacy McConnell votes for) from obtain gun records, and he cut a deal with Democrats to confirm a very anti-gun ATF Director, Todd Jones.

He also voted for the Democrat 1991 Crime Bill that would have enacted a waiting period for handguns and a ban on automatic weapons. Mitch McConnell is for gun rights the same way President Obama and Senator Reid are: isn’t.

Mitch McConnell on Abortion

On right to life, McConnell voted for federal funding of abortions in 1989, for $25 billion in foreign aid that overturned a ban on using U.S. dollars to promote abortions, and for federal funds to go into abortion counseling that President Bush vetoed and then McConnell voted to override said veto.

Mitch McConnell is just as pro-life as President Obama and Secretary Clinton are: isn’t.

Mitch McConnell on TEA Party Groups

He has a pro-gun and pro-life rhetoric, but not only does his voting record says otherwise, but so does he since he wants to “crush” the tea party groups who oppose gun control and abortion.

Mitch McConnell on Bailouts

Mitch McConnell voted for the $700 billion TARP and $300 billion Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailouts, which was paid for on the backs of Kentucky taxpayers (he said of TARP “the Senate at its finest”).

He has voted to raise taxes and grow government consistently since the 1990’s. And things didn’t change when he became minority leader, where he often allied with Democrats at the expense of conservatives; such as with the fiscal cliff tax hike.

The senior senator is a fan of bailouts, big spending, and higher taxes. As the Courier Journal pointed out, “The Senate Conservatives Fund a political action committee that opposes the deal ending the shutdown that Senate Minority Leader McConnell helped orchestrate, charged that it contained a provision in the legislation that amounted to a ‘Kentucky kickback.'”

The provision authorized about $3 billion in bailouts and boondoggles. While Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz opposed the deal, McConnell helped Democrats increase government and spending.

Mitch McConnell on Kentucky Jobs

McConnell’s voting record reveals what he thinks about hard working people. He has played a prominent hand in passing regulations and budgets that harmed private-sector jobs – not to mention his preference for public-sectors ones.

His support for deals that raise taxes on workers and small businesses is also undiscerning. He also tries to take credit for Democrat deals and for the private sector, which he tries to regulate away.

Mitch McConnell on Obamacare

Not to mention his support for Obamacare funding, which harms the health industry and individual rights. When Senators Paul and Cruz fought to defund Obamacare, McConnell went to the wall to fund it.

He has also voted to expand more government healthcare, which limits the rights of patients to decide their own care. McConnell just doesn’t understands Reagan’s words, “I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.”

Mitch McConnell vs. Alison Grimes

The campaign and supporters of McConnell claim that his primary challenger, businessman and military veteran Matt Bevin, won’t be able to beat the Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in the general. Despite the fact that most polls taken in the last few months show McConnell and Grimes neck and neck, just like Bevin is neck and neck with the same Democrat.

If McConnell was as strong and conservative as he claims, then he would be doing better in the polls. Democrat Congressman from Kentucky John Yarmuth says, “You can make a case that Mitch is easier to beat than Bevin.”

Conservative Heavy-Hitters Endorse Matt Bevin, not McConnell

This is reinforced by the fact Bevin has earned the endorsements of some Republican heavy-hitters Senate Conservatives Fund, FreedomWorks, Republican Liberty Caucus, Gun Owners of America, Northern Kentucky Right to Life, The Madison Project PAC, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Mandy Connell, and many other conservative groups and individuals.

Even the change in demographics will affect the election – people are tired of McConnell. Even McConnell supporters know he is big government, but vote out habit, but that could very well change Tuesday.

If Kentucky wants to be a state to have two limited-government conservatives, it can be if Matt Bevin is elected.