By Rosetta Miller Perry
The inane, inaccurate and frequently bigoted remarks of Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene have long made her one of Congress’ biggest embarrassments, as well as horrible evidence that there’s still lots of backwardness and hatred among many of the voters of her Georgia district. That a majority of them put this woman in office remains a state and national disaster.
Does anyone think a Black woman or any woman of color saying and doing the things that Greene has regularly would not have long ago been the subject of a recall effort, if they were even able to win the office in the first place? Just last month Greene’s latest public disgrace was being a key speaker at a white nationalist conference. At this conference, Russia was a given a post-invasion “round of applause,” and Vladimir Putin the same shameful hero worship and adulation Greene and others consistently give former (and an equal disgrace) President Donald Trump.
Last week a group of Georgia voters who’ve had enough of Greene’s antics took action. They asked state officials to block Greene from running for reelection, alleging she is unfit for office because of her support of rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol. They filed a legal challenge with the Georgia Secretary of State claiming that Greene has violated a provision of the U.S. Constitution known as the “Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause.”
While the Tribune supports this action and fully believes Greene participated in efforts to overturn a legal election, we’re aware this challenge probably won’t work. A couple of weeks ago a Federal judge blocked a similar effort by North Carolina voters to disqualify North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn from seeking reelection by alleging his involvement with the rally that preceded the U.S. Capitol riot in January 2021 made him ineligible.
U.S. District Judge Richard Myers in Wilmington issued a preliminary injunction, according to a hearing summary provided by the federal court system. Myers declared the state’s candidate challenge process didn’t apply to a portion of the 14th Amendment designed to prevent congressmen who had fought on the Confederate side during the Civil War from returning to Congress, according to attorneys involved in the challenge and Cawthorn’s lawsuit.
Several North Carolina voters had filed candidate challenges alleging Cawthorn is disqualified because evidence shows he “engaged in insurrection” related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, including the rally in which he spoke and where the presidential election outcome was questioned.
So the probability is strong Greene will receive a similar ruling. But at least this case may publicly highlight her incompetence, bigotry and the ignorance she displays on an almost daily basis. Among her most obvious ridiculous contentions is her insistence that there were no Trump or white supremacists involved in the January 6, 2021 attempted coup.
Greene also claims school shootings at both Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida were planned ‘false flag’ events, despite the number of deaths and documented evidence. She’s labelled the Black Lives Matter organization a “terrorist” group, and has made so many openly bigoted, ridiculous comments even the Republican Party’s main Trump martinet, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, removed her from all committee assignments.
If this woman were just some online nut spewing ridiculous conspiracy theories from a basement somewhere she could be dismissed. But she’s an elected member of the government directly involved in making laws and governance. She is wholly unqualified for the position she has, and wouldn’t have gotten it if she weren’t another privileged white woman.
So while we don’t think there’s much change of it happening, the Tribune salutes and supports those Georgia voters trying to prevent her from running for re-election. Maybe they will win a longshot ruling, but at least they’ll keep this disgusting, hate-filled incompetent and her bigoted comments in the public eye.
