McConnell is letting his ex-wife go with a wife-beater, to continue my analogy, without any objection.

Elections are a choice. So if that's your analogy, there has to be a choice - an alternative that the ex-wife could have gone with. And so continuing the analogy, McConnell is letting his ex-wife go with a wife-beater instead of a wife-murderer.

That's the key point. For someone who genuinely believes that Democratic policy positions and choices would be bad for the country, any Republican - even a very bad Republican - is better for the country than letting a Democrat win. This dynamic is mocked as "party over country," but that ignores the reality that most partisans genuinely believe that keeping the other party out of power is best for the country also.

I'm sure McConnell regards Trump as loathsome and terrible, and maybe even bad for the country - but I'm equally certain that he regards Joe Biden as bad for the country. Not because Biden is loathsome and terrible, but because Biden holding the office means that all of the personnel and policy choices and permanent appointments from the Executive over the next four years will near-uniformly reflect Democratic priorities, which McConnell generally disagrees with.