Extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene are the
real face of the new Republican party
Lloyd Green
Trump is out of office, but his spirit lives on. The
rage and resentment of his base will define the party for a long time
‘Greene publicly advocated executing Barack Obama,
Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, and blamed California’s forest fires on a
Jewish laser beam from space. She also branded the Parkland massacre a hoax.’
‘
Sat 6 Feb
2021 11.10 GMT
Republicans
in the House of Representatives remain enthralled to Donald Trump and fearful
of his base. On Thursday, 95% of the chamber’s Republicans refused to strip the
freshman member Marjorie Taylor Greene – a gun-brandishing, hate-spewing,
conspiracy-monger – of her committee assignments. The deadly aftermath of the 6
January insurrection changed nothing.
Trump is
out of office but his spirit lives on. The anger and resentment of the
Republican rank-and-file will likely define the party’s trajectory in the
coming months and years. QAnon is now a pillar of the party, as much as the
House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, may disavow knowledge of its existence.
Greene’s
sins are real, not imagined. Over the years she has blamed California’s
wildfires on a Jewish laser beam from space, claimed 9/11 was an inside job,
and suggested that school shootings were staged. In 2018 and 2019 she endorsed
social media comments that appeared to support the assassination or execution
of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. (Recently, Greene has partly
walked back some of her more disturbing past remarks.)
Sadly, the
Republican party has morphed into a fever swamp fueled by racially driven
animus tethered to a fear and loathing of modernity. A normal political party
would not have someone like Greene holding office. But Republicans these days
function like a fringe grouping.
Likewise,
the mob that attacked the Capitol cannot simply be discounted as an outburst of
conspiratorial rage. The insurrectionist horde left a trail of dead and
wounded. Military veterans, real estate brokers and seemingly upstanding
members of America’s middle class filled the rioters’ ranks. Deep-pocketed
Republican donors reportedly helped make the carnage possible.
Yet the
discontented-disconnect that propelled Trump’s 2016 electoral upset threatens
to undermine Republican efforts to reclaim the House and Senate. In January,
tens of thousands of voters exited the Republican party. In Arizona, Colorado,
Maryland, Pennsylvania and Utah, the party suffered a cumulative loss of more than
30,000 voters from its rolls.
The Republican party has morphed into a fever swamp
fueled by racially driven animus tethered to a fear and loathing of modernity
Politics is
about addition, not subtraction. An exodus of college-educated suburban moms and
dads is not what McCarthy needs to wrest the speaker’s gavel. Likewise, this
hemorrhaging will not assist Mitch McConnell in dethroning Chuck Schumer from
his perch as the Senate majority leader.
Liz Cheney
retaining the no 3 slot in the Republican House leadership does not alter this
pocked and toxic landscape. Cheney’s hard-fought victory over 61 benighted
colleagues is testament to her own grit and the desire of the Republican
party’s top-guns to keep the existing power structure intact. Nothing more.
Cheney and
Greene each carried the day among the House Republicans, but the Georgia
freshman actually garnered more of their backing. Cheney’s upward arc is done,
while Greene is free to embark on an endless fundraising binge and tweet to her
heart’s content. Freedom can be another word for nothing left to lose.
Indeed, on
the state level, religious-like devotion to Trump is the operative creed of the
realm. Those who refuse to kiss the ring are the new heretics.
Arizona
Republicans censured Cindy McCain, the late senator’s wife, for backing Joe
Biden. They also blasted Doug Ducey, the state’s Republican governor, for
refusing to steal the election.
In Wyoming,
10 Republican county organizations have censured Cheney for supporting Trump’s
impeachment, and more are expected in the coming weeks. Already, Cheney faces a
primary challenge.
Meanwhile,
Nebraska’s Ben Sasse confronts possible censure in his home state. He earned
their wrath for condemning Trump’s efforts to subvert democracy. Once upon a
time, Sasse wrote a book subtitled Why We Hate Each Other.
For the
record, Sasse is one of only five Senate Republicans who opposed dismissing
impeachment charges against the 45th president. He also declined to back Trump
four years ago and last November too. A church-going Presbyterian, Sasse framed
things this way: “Politics isn’t about the weird worship of one dude.”
Really?
Even now,
Trump is the top choice for his party’s 2024 presidential nomination. Beyond
that, more than three-quarters of Republicans believe there was widespread
voter fraud despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. For many, the truth
is too much to handle.
Regardless,
Trump’s big lie has taken root and will not soon disappear. The demographic
tectonics and disparities that spurred Trump to power are still with us.
Biden’s election didn’t change that.
Practically
speaking, only a string of consecutive electoral losses may snap the
Republicans out of their enchantment with the ex-television reality show host.
Until then, Trump will remain the Republican party’s dominant force. In
Greene’s words, it is his party, “it doesn’t belong to anybody else.”
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