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During a recent stop on her image rehabilitation tour, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) told CNN’s Dana Bash that she is sorry “for taking part in the toxic politics.” It has been, she added, “bad for the country.” A week later, Greene finally did something patriotic by announcing her retirement.
It’s fair to say Greene is one of the most well-known GOP House members in the nation. It could be argued that she is more well-known than House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) or most of the semi-serious members of Congress. Greene, though, is famous for being a quack whose nitwittery has been endlessly highlighted by the media and Democrats to cast the Republican Party as one of hayseeds and conspiracists.
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And, in all fairness, Greene might be one of the biggest ignoramuses to ever serve in Congress, which is no small achievement when one considers that the “Squad” exists. Good timing, absolute loyalty to President Donald Trump, and the ability to mindlessly repeat “America First” slogans have been Greene’s most notable political assets. If I asked you to name a single piece of legislation Greene has sponsored during her time in Washington, you would probably be at a loss, though her most famous bill dealt with the vital matter of banning chemtrails. If I asked you to name an important policy she has championed, an uplifting speech she has delivered, or an area of expertise she has mastered, you would not think of any because there have been none.
Once the president reportedly dissuaded her from running for higher office in Georgia, Greene’s loyalty dissipated. Scorned, she became rudderless and useless. There is nothing left for her, because there was not much there to begin with.
Trump has contended that Greene went “BAD” and became a “ranting lunatic.” This is wrong. She has always been a ranting lunatic and an early adopter of the unhinged conspiratorial notions that have now infected so much of the populist Right.
“I was a victim, just like you were, of media lies and stuff you read on social media,” Greene appealed to the women on The View when confronted with her past. It’s undeniable that the well-earned collapse of trust in both media and experts has created a vacuum that’s now filled by a horde of hucksters. Victims such as Greene are easy marks for online con artists and propagandists because they lack a substantive belief system, organizing principles, coherent worldviews, or historical perspective to repel conspiracies. Asking questions can be an admirable quality of an inquisitive mind. Asking questions such as “Are space-based solar lasers built by the Rothschilds starting California wildfires?” makes you a paranoid dolt.
Greene, of course, was in on the Pizzagate and QAnon stuff from the beginning. She suggested that the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas may have been staged by gun control activists and questioned whether the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was a “massive false flag.” You would be hard-pressed to find a conspiracy on the “Right” that she did not entertain.
Let us also not forget that Greene was one of the first, and only, elected officials to cozy up to the groypers who are being normalized by the online natcon Right. Greene spoke at a 2022 white nationalist junior varsity jamboree in Florida held by Tucker Carlson‘s friend Nick Fuentes, who believes that Jews are “race traitors,” denied the Holocaust happened, and believes segregation was beneficial for black people.
At the time, Greene pleaded ignorance of these positions, contending she was merely there to “talk to an audience” of young people and get “everyone together to save our country.” Her excuse would have been more convincing if she had not heard Fuentes say that “the United States has become the evil empire in the world” and “the Great Satan” and praise Adolf Hitler.
In any event, Greene never once confronted attendees to rethink their identitarian views, as she basked in their applause. Greene is either mind-bogglingly gullible or an ally. With her, both options are wholly plausible.
Let us be charitable and concede it’s the former. Greene is no less credulous these days as she tries to appeal to the Left. She broke with Trump by falling for the Democrats’ scaremongering over Obamacare subsidies during the government shutdown. She bought the Gaza “genocide” hoax just like she bought into Pizzagate. A big proponent of releasing the Jeffrey Epstein “files,” Greene will almost surely take a dive down every rabbit hole that emerges.
I’m often told that it’s “elitist” to mock these champions of average Americans. We need more “normal” people in Congress, after all. That is undeniably true. We have too many lawyers and professional activists running the machinery of Washington and far too few successful Americans who not only comprehend the real-world concerns of a diverse population but have earned respect in their communities.
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To say Greene is a normal American, however, is to contend that a normal American is an imbecile, which is not true. While Washington think-tankers and politicians attempt to backfill Trump-era politics with their ideological preferences, modern populism is largely driven by class aesthetics and tonal considerations. Greene represents an overcorrection on the Right from electing well-heeled corporate-endorsed Republicans to supporting reactionary anti-intellectuals. Indeed, there are millions of “average” Americans who are curious, smart, idealistic, capable, and problem solvers.
The representative of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District possesses none of those attributes. Greene’s resignation from Congress will take effect on Jan. 6, 2026, exactly in time for a lifelong pension to kick in. Now reportedly worth over $20 million, much of which she earned while in Congress, Greene was unable to fulfill a two-year commitment to her constituents because her feelings were hurt. Despite enabling her twice, they should consider themselves lucky. We have always had embarrassingly low standards for electing officials. But they are not often this low.
