OK, so I’ve gone all Wonkette with that headline. But I’m incensed that the Republicans in Congress could not bother to do even minimal policing of advocacy of violence in their own ranks, and that a congressman who represents part of Cobb County puts out a statement trying to turn this into some sort of majority overreach issue.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is appalling, but I can’t do anything about her. It’s up to the counties adjacent to us on the west and north to decide whether they want an embarrassing conspiracy theorist and supreme nutcase representing them.
It was well known that she was a believer in the bonkers QAnon conspiracy theory while she ran for office. To be charitable to her voters, they might not have known that she believes the Parkland shooting were staged, that that Democrats eat babies, and that she created a menacing Facebook post where she stood in front of photos of three Democratic congresswomen holding a rifle, or that she “liked” a social media comment calling for Nancy Pelosi to be shot in the head.
And we’re not talking about youthful indisgressions, folks. The social media posts were between 2018 and September of 2020 (right before the election).
Rep. Barry Loudermilk weighed in on the House Democrats removing Greene from her with the following excerpt from his newsletter:
“While I disagree with many comments made by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, especially those she made before she was an elected member of Congress, this motion by Democrats for the House to remove her from her assigned committees is unprecedented, and sets a very dangerous precedent. Just as Nancy Pelosi has twice used impeachment as a tool against a political rival, she is further abusing her power as Speaker to remove a Republican from committees because she does not like some of the things Rep. Greene has said.”
That’s good to know. He doesn’t agree that Democratic members of Congress should be murdered. Just that members of his party who do advocate for the murder of Democratic members of Congress should not face any consequences, especially since it was way back in (check notes) September when they did so.
For my own part, I can’t do anything at all about the presence of Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress. It’s up to her voters, the Republican Party, or Congress itself to deal with her dangerous clownish antics.
But I would hope if we’re going to have a viable vibrant two party system that members of Congress would police their own ranks against violent incendiary rhetoric.
And don’t try to “both-sides” this. While you might be furious at some of the positions of Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, none of them have advocated the murder of Republican officials.
Marjorie Taylor Greene has repeatedly approved of social media posts advocating the murder of Democratic politicians. In fact mass executions of opponents of former president Trump was one of the primary stated goals of the QAnon movement.
THIS … IS … NOT … NORMAL … FOLKS!
And Loudermilk’s statement that “I disagree with many comments made by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene” needs a bit of work before it looks like a statement that a responsible member of Congress should make.
Shame on him! Not only did Rep. Loudermilk verbally shrug his shoulders in response to Ms. Taylor Greene’s murderous language but he voted NOT to remove her from her committee assignments after the GOP voted to do nothing to show their disapproval of her violent words. Loudermilk needs to be asked if he was one of the GOP congressmen who gave her a standing ovation in the Republican caucus meeting. I bet he was. The situation reminds me of the words of a powerful hymn, “Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide.” Loudermilk has decided and he is just fine keeping the GOP as the party that does nothing to those who would overthrow the US Government and destroy democracy in America. He needs to be voted out!