Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a chilling remark this week, saying, “The enemy is within the House of Representatives.” When questioned by reporters about Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s abhorrent behaviors, Pelosi said Republicans want to bring guns onto the floors of Congress, have threatened other members of Congress, and is protecting a member who proclaims the Sandy Hook Elementry School and Parkland School shootings were staged and that the California Wildfires we’re caused by Jewish lasers from the sky.
Since the January 6th violent Trump-incited insurgency at the Capitol Bldg. Congressional Republican leadership has exposed its full-on commitment to the lie that the presidential election was fraudulent and stolen from Trump. That lie led to 5 people being killed at the Capitol insurgency and has started a movement based on anti-government ideology, violence, racism, anti-Semitism, and propaganda over facts. Presidents Ronald Reagan and Abe Lincoln are rolling over in their graves.
The embrace of Taylor Greene by the Republican party will not end well for them. Despite Trump’s hold on his base, Trump’s presidency did not end well. He lost re-election, was impeached for a second time, lost both houses of Congress to the Democrats, and left the U.S. with the worst economy since 1948. Trump defends against being held responsible in any way for the tanking of the economy by blaming the COVID-19 pandemic. However, where that defense collapses is in the reality that he lied about the severity of the virus, led an anti-masking campaign, and promoted bizarre anti-science treatments instead of providing leadership and funding for testing and contact tracing. Claiming he did a great job until COVID came along is like a surgeon expecting praise and credit for performing half of a competent surgery and then taking no blame for botching the end of it.
Most therapists rarely see patients who hold beliefs like those held by Marjorie Taylor Greene. Such beliefs are most common in people suffering from serious psychiatric illnesses where thinking styles do not align with reality. She has promoted beliefs held by the fringe group QAnon, who promotes the narrative Trump is waging a secret war against Satanic pedophiles in government, business, and the media. They also promote the eventual execution of Hillary Clinton and other Democrats.
Taylor Greene’s belief that the dead bodies of the children murdered at those school shootings were staged is seriously disordered thinking. Just as bad would be her knowing the shootings were real and spreading a lie for political gain. Her cruelty shown towards the grieving parents of the victims of school shootings indicates a rare form of disordered character. Additionally, Facebook posts from 2018 and 2019 have Taylor Greene supporting cries to have Nancy Pelosi assassinated. Republicans such as Senator Mitt Romney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger have publicly declared her an embarrassment to Congress and not a true Republican, however, the majority of Republicans are cowering in silence. In alignment with Trump, Taylor Greene attacks non-Trump supporting Republicans as viciously as she attacks Democrats. Trump and his supporters within the government show loyalty to staying in power and the promoting of conspiracy theories and disinformation over loyalty to party or country.
On Twitter the other day, Taylor Greene tweeted she had spoken with Trump and that ” she has his backing.” She has become the symbol of the degraded character and disordered intellectual functioning of the majority voice of the Republican party. In his embarrassing ousting from office, Trump appears to still be committed to spreading fringe conspiracy theories, use power-hungry corrupt members of the Republican party, and manipulate hate-group militias to help him desperately hang on to power and complete his goal to transform the American democracy into an autocratic form of government.
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s moment in power, like Trump’s, will implode because her character flaws will ultimately be rejected by the character and strength of our Constitution and the majority of the American people. Honoring the voices of those who voted for her must not be the determining factor in whether our government tolerates hate-based, conspiracy theorists holding office.
While Minority leader Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans in Congress spread the lie of a stolen election and incite more violent intentions against our government, President Biden is undistracted by the GOP circus and undeterred in his commitment to ending the pandemic and providing economic relief to the American victims of Trump’s incompetence.
