Marjorie Taylor Greene is now in open conflict with President Trump. This is not “fake news” or a mainstream media distortion. Both Trump and MTG are hurling insults from their respective social media accounts.
MTG claims that she is receiving threats because of Trump. Perhaps. But MTG has always been a controversial figure, with no shortage of detractors.
Trump and MTG used to be allies. In many ways, they represented two central planks of the MAGA movement: the septuagenarian, male Trump and the Gen X, female Marjorie Taylor Greene. (Marjorie Taylor Greene was born in 1974.) This feud is not what the Republicans need, going into the midterms, with mixed economic news and the culture wars as hot as ever.
And yet—this was somewhat inevitable. The main problem with the MAGA movement is not that it questions open borders and unfettered tree trade. (These things very much need to be reevaluated.) Nor is there anything wrong with challenging some of the fringe ideologies that have become orthodoxies in our schools, media outlets, and corporations in recent years.
The core weakness of the MAGA movement is—and has really always been—its focus and reliance on a single personality: Donald Trump.
The most resilient political movements are focused on principles, not personalities. Consider the resiliency of the GOP from 1980 through 2009. Yes, Bill Clinton was in the White House during eight of these years. But this was basically three decades of a GOP brand based on the principles articulated by Ronald Reagan—though not the personality of Ronald Reagan himself. (This far more successful version of Republican Party policy is, ironically, the version of the GOP that MAGA now derides as ‘RINO’.)
I saw this coming in the Republican primaries of 2024. It was time to pass the torch to someone other than the 78-year-old Trump, who had more personal baggage than a fully loaded Greyhound bus. But GOP caucus and primary voters in Iowa and other early voting states only had eyes for one candidate.
But that is simply not the American way—and definitely not the Republican way. I recall back in 2008, how conservative commentators would make fun of young Obamatons, who followed Barack Obama blindly. The Democratic victories of 2008 and 2012 were based on the personality and appeal of Barack Obama. Since then, the Democratic Party has lost two general elections, and seated the unpopular Joe Biden for a single term.
But now it is the Republican Party that has become a personality cult. We are less than one year into the president’s second term. With three years to go, perhaps it’s time to refocus on principle, and less on personal loyalty to the man at the top (?)
-ET