Political opportunists and “Loonies” have taken the Republican Party hostage.
Since the day that former President Donald Trump descended on that escalator in 2015, the fringe right have seen it as an opportunity to advance their own self interests. I do not believe any of the far right congressmen and women believe the conspiracy theories that they espouse to their rather gullible constituents.
Representative Greene is a prime example of this new threat to our country, civics and stability of our democracy. The congresswoman have peddled in conspiracy theories that one might believe came straight out of a sci-fi novel or movie. She has insinuated that the California wildfires were started by a rich conglomerate of Jewish people who put a laser in space to spark the wildfires. She has claimed that the attacks on our nation on September 11, 2001 was a false flag operation and that the mass shootings at Stoneman Douglas High School and Sandy Hook were staged. Imagine losing a child or a loved one in a shooting, and then hearing a congresswoman claim it was staged! Greene can’t or won’t imagine that because she knows that kind rhetoric will yield her more donations.
Do I believe that Greene actually believes any of this nonsense? Absolutely not! Greene is a well educated woman who was lucky that a seat in her state became available and she pounced on it. Did anybody know who Greene was before 2020 election? Probably not, at least not on the national stage. Greene understood that she can capture the national media attention by just being outlandish. The fringe right knows that the national media will cover them if they just go out there and just be downright outlandish and “looney” as the Minority Leader Mitch McConnel described them.
These kinds of beliefs is a not a new phenomenon for the Republican party. Alex Jones and others like him have been peddling and making millions off of spreading outlandish conspiracy theories.
Rudy Giuliani, Sydney Powell, Lin Wood, Jenna Ellis, and other, all saw a gold mine, a base that would believe anything (and even pay for it by money or violence) and they cashed in literally. Representative Greene boasts about how much money she has raised recently over the House’s decision to expel her from committees. Donald Trump used his post-election conspiracies to con his base and literally pay off his debts. His base never questioned it.
The left has its own opportunists, but the difference is that those on the fringe right like Senators Hawley and Cruz and Representatives such as Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz, is that they are banking on incitement and outrage. Their entire careers have been predicated on gaslighting a base. What legislation have Hawley, Cruz, Gaetz or Jordan passed? Almost none, because they are not in government to govern, they are in government to “own the libs.”
I honestly believe that if I was in a room with any of the aforementioned, opportunists and if they could speak their truths, they would say that their base are a bunch of idiots. I am not implying that conservatives or Republicans are idiots but a significant segment of them are. Hillary Clinton was right when she said that the party of Lincoln has been taken hostage by a group of “deplorable” self-serving opportunists.
So how do you reverse this cancer that have plagued the Republican party? I do not think you can. The party is splintered into two categories. The old conservative guard (who allowed this cancer to metastasize in the first place) versus the fringe conspiracists. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel’s attempts to rebuke or distance himself from the “loonies” within his own party, were fruitless. He, almost single handedly created this political Frankenstein. Mitch got his judges appointed but in the process he gutted and demolished decency or rule of law in both chambers.
The GOP have manipulated its base to always vote against their own interests. The poorest counties and parishes are in the most conservative parishes and counties across the country. In conclusion, political opportunism is the cancer that is plaguing the GOP and reversing this trend might prove harder than what the opportunists think it will.
