Marjorie Taylor Greene’s secessionist rhetoric shows the 'normalization' of 'extremism' in the GOP: historian

23 February 2023

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) has set off yet another controversy — this time, by calling for GOP-dominated red states to secede from the union.

On Monday, February 20, the far-right conspiracy theorist and MAGA congresswoman tweeted, "We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done."

Some conservative Republicans were quick to call Greene out for her secessionist fantasy, including Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and former Rep. Liz Cheney. Romney told the Salt Lake Tribune, "I think Abraham Lincoln dealt with that kind of insanity …. We're not going to divide the country. It's united we stand and divided we fall."

Cheney, in a February 20 tweet, posted, "Let’s review some of the governing principles of America, @mtgreenee: Our country is governed by the Constitution. You swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Secession is unconstitutional. No member of Congress should advocate secession, Marjorie."

But other Republicans have remained silent. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) considers Greene an ally, and many Republicans are terrified of the possibility of being called a RINO (Republican In Name Only) by former President Donald Trump and others in the far-right MAGA movement.

Greene is hardly the first Republican to make incendiary comments. But in an article published by The Hill on February 23, journalist Al Weaver stresses that she enjoys greater prominence in her party than GOP extremists of the past. Greene, Weaver notes, is a "key ally" of the House speaker, sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, and is a "possible" Donald Trump running mate if he wins the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Brian Rosenwald, a historian and scholar at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, told The Hill, "There have absolutely always been gadflies in both parties who were extremists who were kind of going places that no one was comfortable with. Having an extremist in Congress is not new. Having someone willing to say insane and incendiary things (is) not really new. What I think is new …. is that here’s someone saying these things and doing these things and being embraced by leadership."

A Republican operative, interviewed on condition of anonymity, wasn’t especially troubled by Greene’s call for secession and dismissed it as a politician "just trying to stir the pot a bit."

But Rosenwald doesn't see it that way. In his view, Greene’s prominence in the GOP-controlled House shows a growing appetite for dangerous extremism in her party.

The Penn historian told The Hill, "This is the problem with how things get normalized.… Part of the problem the Republican Party has had for probably 40-plus years is they roll their eyes at the fringe of the party. These are the people who are getting more and more popular with their base, and these are the people that are getting the attention and sort of setting the agenda."

Read The Hill’s full report at this link.

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