It’s not too surprising that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said nothing about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s support for a “a national divorce,” in which “red states and blue states” are kept “separate.” After all, the California Republican feels indebted to the right-wing Georgian, so it wasn’t realistic to think he’d scramble to denounce the latest example of her radicalism.
But it was easy to imagine McCarthy privately reaching out to the GOP congresswoman, asking her to maybe dial back her rhetoric about the dissolution of the United States, since it’s the sort of thing that doesn’t do anyone — Greene, her party, her country, et al. — any favors.
All of which leaves us with a handful of possibilities. Either McCarthy didn’t bother to ask the extremist lawmaker to tone down her latest nonsense, or he did and she’s ignoring him. HuffPost reported overnight:
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has clarified how her proposed “national divorce” might look, and it’s as disturbing as it sounds. … In Greene’s estimation, a so-called national divorce would not bring a civil war but would instead give states more power to govern themselves. Under this system, Greene suggested, red states could temporarily strip Americans who move from blue states of the right to vote and could implement laws to openly discriminate against LGBTQ people.
All things considered, it’s probably best not to invest too much time and energy into considering the merits of Greene’s bonkers vision. It’s not a serious proposal; she’s not a serious policymaker; and no one in positions of authority will subject her “plan” to serious scrutiny.
But that doesn’t mean it’s irrelevant.
First, we’re still waiting for GOP officeholders to make clear that they have no use for such madness. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox condemned Greene’s rhetoric as “evil” this week, and Sen. Mitt Romney, a fellow Utahan, made related comments yesterday, describing her…
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