Thread by @GregTSargent

Marjorie Taylor Greene approved of executing Dems, yet she'll get little to no punishment. But the story here is much bigger: GOP failure to police extremists goes back half a century.

“The dictum now is ‘No enemies to the right,'" @RuleandRuin tells me:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

@RuleandRuin I talked to @RuleandRuin, who wrote a book about the GOP.

He offered great insights about what brought us to this point.

Today's GOP base thrives on "jihadist ecstasy" about Trump, he says.

GOP won't "police boundaries against kooks and extremists."

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

@RuleandRuin There's a great paper called "The Long New Right" that tells the story of the GOP/conservative movement's failure to police extremists for the last 50 years.

It's highly relevant to the insurrection and Marjorie Greene's lunacy.

I summed it up here:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

@RuleandRuin Two good points about what brought us here, from @RuleandRuin:

* Unpopularity of GOP agenda increasingly requires firing up far-flung low propensity voters

* Explosion of extreme right wing media opens path to notoriety for people like Marjorie Greene:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

@RuleandRuin Amazingly, GOP leaders think holding Trump accountable for insurrection would cost them new voters he's brought in.

McConnell is backing off separating GOP from Trump due to this calculation.

And @tripgabriel reports GOP leaders in PA think this too:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

@RuleandRuin @tripgabriel Last point:

Everyone laughed when Marjorie Taylor Greene called for Biden's impeachment even before he took office.

But in an important sense, in this respect she really isn't that much of an outlier in today's GOP:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…