Last week Friday, Andrew Sullivan’s Weekly Dish column was headlined, Are The Wheels Finally Falling Off MAGA? Two nights ago, Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), one of the iconic riders of the MAGA/Trump wave, announced her imminent resignation from Congress.
Greene was unhappy with how the President was treating her:
Greene, who was elected to Congress in 2020 from a rural northwestern Georgia district, made the surprise announcement in a surprise video address that referenced her falling out with Trump. The president branded her a “traitor” and withdrew his endorsement for supporting an effort he opposed to release files from the criminal investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked and used by rich powerful men, should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the President of the United States, whom I fought for,” she said in a statement posted on X. [Politico]
The President’s well-known preference for absolute loyalty came to the fore, and Greene, who formulated the conspiracy theory that destructive California fires were sparked by Jewish Space Lasers, doesn’t seem to have the addiction to prestige brought about by her position that possesses her peers.
She seems to understand that prestige is hard bought and easily lost; maintaining an association with a President who may be irretrievably tainted through his association with alleged child abuser Jeffrey Epstein, she may feel, would destroy that prestige.
I agree.
More importantly, will MAGA disintegrate as more GOP Members of Congress realize their unquestioning loyalty to the President will destroy their most valued possession? Or will their fear of being seen as stuffed shirts keep them in line? I’m guessing it’s the latter, as very few of them have impressed me as having two neurons to rub together.
But we shall see. Greene did surprise me. Is Rep Lauren Boebert (R-CO) next?
These are interesting times.
