Anyone who has read this column knows that I am no fan of Marjorie Taylor Greene or of her colleagues like Matt Gaetz, Madison Cawthorn, and the 45th president.
They are populist Republicans, who prefer emotion to logic, mediocrity to merit, and some vague and mysterious will of the people to a representative form of government. I am an elitist Republican who prefers achievement to bellowing, mental clarity to appeals to base biases, and understated competence to shrill demagoguery.
But sadly I don’t get to decide who sits in Congress for Georgia’s 14th congressional district. The voters do. As such, the legal effort to deny them the opportunity to vote for Marjorie Taylor Greene, no matter how odious she is, is a direct slap at American freedom and should be turned down flat.
Leftists are using an obscure section of the 14th Amendment that was designed to punish post civil war Confederates to try and keep her off the ballot. The amendment says no one can serve in Congress “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.” They say Greene helped plan and spoke in favor of the January 6th “insurrection.” Ergo…
However, their premise is wrong because it wasn’t an insurrection it was a riot. A bunch of slobbering populist goobers running wild on Capitol Hill does not the firing on Fort Sumter make. Hell, Democrat slobbering goober members of Congress run wild there all the time and they get to stay on ballots.
The trial on the issue is going on now. Ron Fein, the lawyer for the fascists against Greene, has said this: “The most powerful witness against Marjorie Taylor Greene’s candidacy, the most powerful witness in establishing that she crossed the line into engagement in insurrection is Marjorie Taylor Greene herself…The leaders of this insurrection were among us, on Facebook, on Twitter, on corners of social media that would make your stomach hurt.”
On the stand Greene has stuck to her script and stonewalled. When asked if she advocated January 6th hijinks, she responded, “I was talking about the courage to object.”
When Greene conveniently forgot certain previous statements on social media and when pressed on them got hostile with Fein he said, “Ms. Greene, I’m just asking questions.” She countered, “I’m just answering.”
Greene’s lawyer got it right. “They want to deny the right to vote to the thousands of people living in the 14th District of Georgia by removing Greene from the ballot…Our democracy is at stake,” James Bopp said. “Right here, right now. Because they want to deny the right to vote to voters in the 14th District. These voters have a right to vote for the candidate of their choosing.” Bingo.
So yeah, did she perhaps help plan but definitely defend the January 6th riot? Yup, the record shows she defended the rioters. Does Greene have the right as an American and a member of Congress to say what she damn pleases? Yup. Was it an insurrection? Nope. Thus, should Marjorie Taylor Greene stay on the ballot in the Georgia 14th CD? Absolutely. Hopefully the voters there will do what the court should not.