The real reason Marjorie Taylor Greene is willfully destroying House Republicans’ prospects

| 9:09 am EST February 9, 2023
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The scene was so absurd, you’d have thought The Onion scripted it. President Joe Biden, fresh off a historically strong midterm performance, delivered his State of the Union address even as Marjorie Taylor Greene cartoonishly heckled him while dressed like Cruella de Vil.

But it really did happen. And while Biden played his hand savvily, House Republicans tripped over themselves to help hand him a victory – and it’s not because they’re dummies. It’s because they each have their own agendas, none of which adds up to a collective winning strategy.

Take, for instance, Marjorie Taylor Greene. She’s many things, all of them negative. But she’s not particularly stupid. She knows that she represents one of the most derangedly anti-government, anti-progress House districts in the nation. You want proof? Think about how she behaved the previous two years. Then consider that she was reelected in 2022 by nearly forty points. Her hideous district loves her hideous behavior. She’s surely already using her behavior during the State of the Union to bring in a huge fundraising haul from the right wing trash in her district, as well as from right wing trash around the nation. Sure, a large majority of the nation despises Greene. But she doesn’t care about that, because her only constituency is right wing trash.

Of course any functioning House Republican leader would immediately shut down Greene’s antics, because while Greene’s behavior is good for her personally, it’s terrible for the Republicans’ overall prospects. Control of the House in 2024 will be decided by a few dozen moderate swing districts, and the Republicans seeking reelection in those districts will struggle due to the perception that they all support Greene’s monstrous behavior.

But while Kevin McCarthy is a dummy, even he understands that Greene’s antics are likely to cost the Republicans five to ten House seats in 2024. He surely wants to stop Greene. It’s just that he can’t afford to shut her down. If he does, she and her allies will withdraw their support for McCarthy, and he’ll lose his speakership. He’s choosing his own personal desire to remain Speaker over his party’s overall prospects.

The same goes with George Santos. The Republicans all know that Santos’ continued presence in Congress is harming the Republicans’ overall outlook for 2024 (just ask Mitt Romney). But while Republicans like Romney would surely get rid of Santos if they could, the only person who can get rid of Santos right now is McCarthy. And because McCarthy can’t afford to lose even one vote for Speaker, he’s unwilling to oust Santos.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is choosing her own deranged yet lucrative personal agenda over the good of her party. George Santos is choosing his own weird personal agenda over the good of his party. And Kevin McCarthy is choosing his personal ambitions over the good of the party by refusing to shut either of them down. This leaves the Republican Party with no one watching out for its prospects – even as the Democrats seem to get more savvy at messaging by the day.