Marjorie Taylor Greene's ideology isn't just QAnon. It's also MAGA. Greene endorses violent warfare against the opposition, just as Trump did. Republicans won't meaningfully hold her accountable for this, just as they're acquitting Trump for it. My latest: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
We still don't have an answer to this question.
At the meeting where Republicans gave Marjorie Taylor Greene a standing ovation for supposedly renouncing some of her views, did any of them confront her over her endorsement of executing Democrats?
The idea that Democrats represent such a ferocious, all encompassing enemy that no accommodation with them is ever possible -- no matter what -- is MAGA ideology.
Even acknowledging legitimate electoral outcomes constitutes intolerable capitulation:
For more on the overlap between the QAnon and MAGA ideologies, see this excellent @jasonintrator deconstruction of the MAGA propaganda video shown just before the insurrection, which captures this basic idea that permanent warfare against Dems is required: justsecurity.org/74504/movie-at…
@jasonintrator This, from the MAGA propaganda video shown before the insurrection, is truly sick stuff, pure authoritarian agitprop.
Note that it syncs up with what Marjorie Taylor Greene is saying to incite a state of permanent warfare against the Democratic enemy:
Good to see: By moving on reconciliation, Dems show they're learning. They're wise to McConnell's scam, in which he used filibuster to *withhold* cooperation. Going big on spending now could boost faith in govt and undercut Trumpist populism. My latest: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Here's how Mitch's scam works:
He claims the filibuster facilitates bipartisanship. But the truth is the opposite: He uses it to *withhold* bipartisan cooperation, for cynical purposes.
Reconciliation makes bipartisanship *more* likely, as I argue here:
If Dems go big on spending now to address deep injustices revealed by the pandemic, it could revitalize faith in government and clear political space for sanity on immigration and climate.
There is a clear link between the GOP dilemmas over Marjorie Taylor Greene and Trump's impeachment. In both, Republicans largely still have not unambiguously declared that political violence is wholly intolerable and has no place in their ranks. My latest: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Republicans who criticize MTG keep focusing on her conspiracy theories. They use phrases like "nutty" and "loony lies."
I call BS. Greene has also *endorsed the execution of Democrats.*
Rs should say more about that, too. But that's dicey for them:
Dems are investigating whether the suppression of DHS intelligence about violent white supremacy and right wing extremism -- done to bolster Trump's campaign agitprop -- may have helped exacerbate the insurrection at the Capitol, @RepAdamSchiff tells me: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
@RepAdamSchiff The post-Trump fumigation will have to be epic.
We need a full reckoning with Trump's use of large swaths of the government to manufacture a left-wing terror threat and downplay violent right wing extremism, and the ways all this led to the insurrection:
Republicans are now openly boasting of their plot to win the House through extreme gerrymanders. This alone should dissuade Biden and Dems from negotiating down the stimulus to secure bipartisanship. Dems may have only 2 years. Make them count. My latest: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Media is getting snowed by the GOP proposal. It's a double-whammy of bad faith. It's meant to create the impression that Rs are willing to do *something* amid two major crises while also creating a bogus way to claim Biden is reneging on "unity" promise:
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:
@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.
@SenSchumer@maddow 2) Schumer vowed that this time, Dems won't get snookered by GOP bad faith.
But Schumer also framed the stakes in a good way. He said Dems are united behind the idea that *delivering in a big way* is key to restoring faith in government and democracy:
@SenSchumer@maddow 3) Schumer also said a failure to go big will risk disillusionment and another Trumpist demagogue.
If so, restoring faith in government/democracy isn't about achieving bipartisanship for its own sake. It's about the scale of the program Dems deliver on: