Why the Marjorie Taylor Greene episode sets an uncomfortable precedent

Like her mentor and hero, Donald Trump, used to be, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican member of the US House of Representatives from Georgia, is a significant presence on social media, and controversial with it. Her Twitter autobiography sums her up succinctly: “Congresswoman for Georgia’s 14th CD, Christian, Wife, Mom, Small Business Owner, Proud American, 100% Pro-Life, Pro-Gun, Pro-Trump, #MAGA, Likes =/= Endorsements”.

Ms Taylor Greene is in the news because her Democrat opponents in what she terms the “House of Hypocrites” have stripped her if her membership of House committees. Technically they are able to do this because they presently enjoy a majority in the House. However, the convention is that nominations for a party’s allocation of committee memberships are a matter for the party concerned. Her colleagues in the Republican Party, albeit with substantial dissent decided she was a fit and worthy person to take such roles. Predictably the argument has morphed from one concerned with Ms Taylor Greene’s personal views and values into a battle between the “cancel culture” and “free speech”.

The reasons for Ms Taylor Greene’s difficulties are not difficult to uncover. Fur better or worse, she is a militant Trumpist, given to conspiracy theories to an absurd degree. Even by the sometimes batty standards of her own corner of the political undergrowth, the tribune from Georgia harboured unlikely notions about the world around her. For example, in 2018 and 2019 she indicated apparent support for the execution of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a “bullet to the head”. An interlocutor in April 2018, referring to the Iran nuclear deal signed by President Obama, asked Ms Taylor Greene on Facebook: “Now do we get to hang them ?? Meaning H and O ???” The H and O probably stand for Obama and Hilary Clinton.

Ms Taylor Greene replied: “Stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off.”

This exchange, and others, took place before she was elected and she has distanced herself from such remarks and expressed regret about some of her views. She, or whoever was running her Facebook page at the time plainly had little regard for America’s unhappy history of assassinations and of lynching, whoever wrote those words. Ms Greene has also entertained fantastical QAnon theories about Mr Trump battling a secret cabal if Satanist Democrat child abusers; that murderous school shootings at Sandy Hook and Parkland were staged by anti-gun interests; and that no plane hit the Pentagon on 9/11. On 3 November 2020, the people of Catoosa, Dade, Murray, Polk and the other counties comprising the 14th Congressional District of Georgia voted by 229,827 to 77,798 to send her to Washington as their chosen representative.

Ms Greene, a little before the voting on whether to keep her away from committee duties, stated that her views had changed in recent times, though her reverence for Mr Trump is undimmed.

open image in gallery

The Congress of the United States of America has had its share of fruitcakes and extremists during its long history – one might think for example of Senator Joe McCarthy or Jesse Helms or Strom Thurmond and any number of segregationist “Dixiecrats” – and no different to any other country’s legislature. Parliaments tend to reflect their voters, and Ms Greene is in fact an authentic representative of an undeniable, if minority and dangerous, current of opinion. As the old saying goes, “don’t shoot the messenger”.

The other uncomfortable fact about this crazy episode is that the Democrats have set a dodgy precedent. One day the Republicans, Trumpist or otherwise, will control the houses of Congress, and could bar Democrats from key positions, citing this breach of convention. It is in truth hard to see what real damage a fringe personality such as Ms Greene could do on any committee, at least not compared to the further damage to the spirit of bipartisanship that the Democrats have just inflicted on Congress. President Biden’s message about healing seems not to have reached his colleagues in the House.