On its face, McConnell and Trump have very little in common. The latter is a wealthy, bombastic, narcissistic outsider with no knowledge of policy and no obvious political skills except the unrivaled ability to mobilize his base; the former is a canny, understated insider with a demonstrated ability to wrangle votes to obstruct Democratic initiatives. The interesting thing, however, is that on Obamacare replacement, they are in exactly the same position; both of them simply want a win, and neither has any apparent interest in the contents of the legislation. Why?
In Trump’s case, the answer is obvious; his ego demands victories regardless of their impact on the American people. With McConnell, there are a number of possible answers, including personal ambition, but the most plausible one is that he thinks losing on Obamacare replacement is a greater threat to the GOP majority in the Senate than the adoption of hideously unpopular legislation that will cost millions of GOP voters their health insurance.
In other words, McConnell probably believes that screwing over red voters will cost him fewer votes than breaking longstanding promises about replacing Obamacare. I think he’s wrong about that, but American politics are so tribal today that the correct answer is not self-evident.