Marjorie Taylor Greene's Playground Politics
Unserious people can lead to serious consequences.
When talking about the various ghouls, leeches, and clowns that comprise the ever-thinning Republican majority in the House of Representatives, a specific moment comes to mind. In the final season of Succession, the imperious head of the Roy family concisely measures his adult fail-children with these withering words, “… you are not serious people.”
The Republicans of the House are not serious people, but what does it mean to be unserious? As Marjorie Taylor Greene has so kindly demonstrated this week, being an unserious person in politics is being insincere, out of your depth, and without a plan. A great example of this: just yesterday, MTG reminded everyone that she’s officially threatened to trigger a no-confidence vote against Speaker of the House Mike Johnson if he so much as breathes a cent of support in Ukraine’s direction.
MTG can be broadly understood as a MAGA Republican, which, like other radical conspiracy theories today, is ideologically incoherent and unintelligible. There is neither logic nor follow-through nor consistency to MTG’s politics because her politics do not draw on a specific cause or philosophy or even dogma. MTG’s politics can be best understood as a series of knee-jerk impulsive acts that are either counterattacks against her enemies or reactive scrambling to loudly toe the line of Donald Trump, which itself can change with the direction of the wind. This makes Greene an inherently craven political actor, one who’s more attracted to reckless grandstanding than to a plan. To see this in action, all one must do is say the words “Jewish space laser” to her, and Greene will lose her shit. It’s not that reporter’s fault that MTG posted about this very concept on social media and is therefore accountable. Greene seems to believe that because she would like to forget the dumb shit she says, so too must we all. It’s almost like MTG speaks and acts thoughtlessly and has no idea what she’s doing or something!
This looseness of speech, this say-anything-fuck-logic approach belies MTG’s unserious nature and exemplifies the anti-government politician model that seems quite common in the Freedom Caucus; “vote me into this system that I will totally destroy!” is their essential message. And in a way, MAGA Republicans are serious about that: they are very much interested in destroying as many mechanisms of regulation as possible so they and their donors can rebuild those mechanisms in their favor. Setting aside how repugnantly anti-American and anti-democratic this MAGA mission is, will Greene’s move against Johnson really serve that mission? And if embroiling the party in yet another internecine conflict does in fact serve the party goals somehow, does MTG know that? I ask because this tilt against Johnson seems so poorly organized that it appears more like political theater than an actual move with a plan behind it. Quoth the moron:
“Let me tell you, when he forces that vote, again, under suspension with no amendments, and funds Ukraine and people find out how angry their constituents are about it, that’s going to move the needle even more,” said Greene.
One imagines that when Greene says “their constituents,” she really means “Donald Trump,” the functional sole constituent of the Republican party. One also imagines that if Trump (and by extension his pet Republican party) weren’t such eager lapdogs for a foreign despot like Vladimir Putin (who has a vested interest in seeing Ukraine’s support eroded), they would probably be all for defending Ukraine, at least as much as they want to see Gaza burn. Saving white Europeans while actively arming an invasion to kill people of color in the Middle East is a classically American brand Republicans usually love.
So what is Greene actually threatening to do here? It’s clear she doesn’t want continued support for the defense of Ukraine but in terms of a brass-tacks if-this-then-this plan, will she trigger the no-confidence vote if Johnson tries to move forward with the aid package? Well, I don’t know! And neither does MTG:
“I’m not saying I have a red line or a trigger, and I’m not saying I don’t have a red line or trigger. And I think that’s just where I’m at right now. But I’m going to tell you right now: Funding Ukraine is probably one of the most egregious things that he can do.”
In Greene’s own words, “where [she’s] at right now” is in a state of both having a trigger and not having a trigger. Perhaps we can call this Schrodinger’s Stand: wherein a politician alludes to a point of no return or a Rubicon-esque line, but can’t identify where it is or even basically confirm its existence. Note that Greene calls aid to Ukraine “egregious,” yet cannot identify a reason why. If it’s “the constituents,” then why do voters not want aid for Ukraine? MTG doesn’t elaborate on that for us, possibly because MAGA politics are just a handful of rote assumptions.
If I were to be charitable about MTG’s maneuvering here, I could point out that this vagueness is itself a weapon meant to catch Johnson on his back foot and place MTG in a position of greater influence. He doesn’t know where the line is, so in theory, he’d have to dance to Greene’s tune to get out of this mess and retain his Speakership. Such a situation would allow MTG to essentially name her price and get whatever she wanted in return for backing down from the no-confidence vote.
It seems likely Greene’s game here is to assume the “maverick” mantle last worn by Florida Rep Matt Gaetz, a creature generated by AI with the prompt, “a mushy shark-faced man with more teeth than the Osmond family.” Gaetz didn’t appear to have much of a plan either, at least not outside the general goal of “retain and grow your power.” Even though this is broadly the game of the Republican party in general (to maintain power at all costs), when applied to a single political actor, it’s an inherently anti-communal goal that ultimately conflicts with the rest of the party. Gaetz is a great example of this: he pulled no end of smarmy contrarian stunts which solidified his individual position at the cost of his standing in the party. Basically, when Gaetz held the party hostage with the easily-triggered no-confidence vote, it generated a lot of influence for him but ultimately put him on the outs of the party because his individual goal of holding more power conflicted with what the party as a whole was trying to do.
So it goes with MTG now: she’s conjuring the specter of a no-confidence vote to force Johnson’s and the party’s hands without an apparent plan for what to do with that power. It tracks that this impulsive, unserious school of politics would flower so strongly in the party led by Trump, a doddering old racist whose whims change policy with the direction of the wind. Besides, he’s made a career of unserious politics, one that’s still ongoing and carries tremendous potential for pain.
For as unserious as Greene, Gaetz, Trump, and the rest of their weasels ultimately are, the consequences of their politics are anything but. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused untold levels of destruction and death and those levels will continue to rise as MTG and her ilk dance their unserious jig through the Capitol building. The Palestinians of Gaza are dying in an unthinkable genocide at the hands of an Israeli invasion force armed with American weapons. War crimes are being committed with American implements, Ukraine could fall under the crypto-fascist rule of Russia, and all Republicans like Greene can do is play their silly games to shift a little more power and a little more cash in their direction. Marjorie Taylor Greene and the MAGA Republicans are unserious people, but the damage their foolishness is causing is incalculable. Carry far and wide the truth of craven, unserious Republican graft, but remember always how serious the damage they can inflict will be.
Democrats needs to start publicly questioning her connections to Russia. No one has this much of an aversion to funding for Ukraine unless they have some personal stake in them losing. This isn't just about it not being our problem either. I have no doubt she'd give Israel the entire GDP if they asked for it. She's made no funding for Ukraine the hill she wants to die on. Someone needs to ask why.
As long as she and Gaetz run in reliably safe gerrymandered districts, they will continue to act without consequences.
At least Boebert is feeling the heat-these two are bad faith actors who would be happy in the Duma, the Supreme People's Assembly or the National Assembly. Hell Gaetz only has his seat because of daddy.
Congress has never been great-there have always been a subset of freaks, zealots, and idiots. The difference is they are in charge now.