It would be fair to describe the McConnell Project as a highly diluted version of Orban’s illiberal democracy. It contains three pillars: a reactionary Supreme Court; gerrymandering; and the filibuster. Taken together, the three pillars do not prevent Democrats from winning elections on a national basis, but they do mean that the left has little ability to effectuate dramatic change at the federal level regardless of the state of public opinion. The Project is, therefore, fundamentally anti-democratic.
The Project has limits, however. It has little power over blue states. It cannot stop the left from raising taxes and increasing federal spending under any and all circumstances. It also leaves the media untouched, which is one of the central features of the Orban regime. That means the government cannot force the left to shut up, which is what reactionaries desire, above all.
The battle within the GOP is between the group of “moderates” that accepts the limits of the Project and a group of fairly similar size which rejects them, and wants to “burn it down.” Since the GOP cannot win elections without both groups, and the extremists appear to be ascendant, McConnell will probably have to choose between his version of the Constitution and reactionary autocracy in the reasonably near future. What will he do? I don’t know for sure, but his open willingness to support Trump in 2024, if the latter is nominated by the party, is pretty compelling evidence that he fears government by the left more than the destruction of American liberal democracy.