Wow this Politico piece about Marjorie Taylor Greene is so, so revealing -- not just about her, but about the kind of person who is drawn to (and becomes a star in) today's GOP. politico.com/news/magazine/…
Key line: "her seat in Congress is less the fulfillment of a dream than the culmination of a desperate, yearslong search for an identity that fulfilled a yearning for affirmation and attention."
It's getting to be a familiar story on the right, whether it's Madison Cawthorn, MTG, or even Trump himself: an insecure person in desperate need of ego reinforcement casts about for some way to be the center of attention, to get the affirmation they need. And then they find ...
... the world of conservative media, where the ONLY requirement for getting attention & fame is willingness to say the most outrageous thing. People like MTG & Trump, so trapped in their own gaping, needy egos, have no fixed view of the external world, no fixed principles ...
... so they are happy to say *anything* -- whatever it takes -- if it gets them the momentary high of attention & ego gratification. It's part of what gives MTG & Trump their weird charisma. They've found their zone, they're riding high, letting it rip.
Today's right -- media, but also political offices -- is filling up with people like this (Shapiro, Wohl, pick a name), people with a bottomless need for attention & affirmation. You don't have to be smart to get attention & affirmation on the right, or kind, or accomplished ...
... you just have to be willing to say horrible shit out loud. That's literally the only reason MTG is in Congress -- she'll say all the horrible shit. It's the lowest possible bar for a human to clear; it just involves suppressing any residual sense of shame.
What happens when you have an entire political apparatus composed of desperate narcissists who were not smart, talented, or emotionally literate enough to get the attention they need anywhere else? Who are united only by shamelessness & addiction to affirmation?
You get the fetid stew that is today's GOP. MTG could not be a more perfect representative of it: no policy ideas, nobody she wants to help, just a litany of conspiracy theories & resentments & a palpable need for attention. It's so gross & sad. </fin>
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