Marjorie Taylor Green is a money-raising machine.
Marjorie Taylor Green is a firebrand and un-typical of Republican officeholders, but the Jackson confirmation hearings demonstrated that she is not an outlier. Most GOP politicians do not oppose her. They follow in her draft. She is saying--crudely--things Republicans believe. Or sort of believe. Or at least refuse to say they do not believe. Senators Cruz, Hawley, Cotton, and Lee all have obvious presidential ambitions. They picked up the pro-pedophile theme and used it repeatedly in criticizing Jackson in her senate confirmation hearings.
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| LA Times |
To most Americans Marjorie Taylor Green's comments sound "ludicrous," as the L.A. Times headline reports, quoting Senator Susan Collins of Maine: "She obviously can say whatever she wishes, but that’s clearly ludicrous and sadly typical of what I expect of her."
There is a reason ambitious GOP senators would pick up a pedophilia theme that is so extreme and viscous on its face that it is surely a net-negative for most voters. It is opposite of sober Pence, who represents a return to solid, conservative GOP sanity. Yet ambitious senators are crowding into the MTG-adjacent lane, not Pence's. Why? Because the kinds of things Marjorie Taylor Green says are not ludicrous to many Republicans.
A significant number of GOP voters tell pollsters at PRRI, the independent and non-partisan Public Religion Research Institute, that they believe the government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who run a global child sex-trafficking operation.
Really. Satan-worshiping pedophiles.
Public belief in Q-Anon themes persisted throughout 2021 and continue into 2022. It has not exhausted itself over time, nor in Trump's absence from the White House. Q-Anon believers represent a significant plurality of the GOP primary election voter. Q-Anon believers and mostly-agreers skew toward poorer and less educated Americans, especially in the American South. Believers primarily watch Fox, Newsmax, and One America News. Q-Anon believers skew Republican, with 25% of all Republicans believing the major themes of the Q-Anon message. The presidential candidate who has the support of that block can win the GOP nomination.
The message in yesterday's blog post, and in many previous to that, is that the brands and policies of the two parties are being shaped by their extremes. Politicians hoping to appeal to the general electorate first need to be compliant with the reliable, activist partisan voter. For Republicans in 2022, that means making the claim that pedophilia--possibly by Satan-worshipers--is a widespread problem carried out by people who represent the Democratic establishment, most recently Judge Jackson.
Do Cruz, Hawley, Cotton, and Lee believe Judge Jackson is pedophilia-friendly? Of course not. But they say it because a lot of GOP voters want to hear it because they believe it. Or sort of believe it.
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8 comments:
"Mostly disagree" is the funny one.
I'm trying to imagine that particular thought process. What is it exactly that you don't agree with?
Are they just Satan worshipers who aren't pedophiles who run...etc.?
Or non Satan worshiping pedophiles...etc.?
Or...?
Need some clarification.
I would note that Republicans are avoiding debates in the primary, probably so they don’t have to say ridiculous things. Or maybe they actually believe that crazy stuff but know some Republicans would be turned off by it.
This satanic pedophile thing goes all the way back to the 1990s hysteria over satanic daycare centers.
A clinical psychologist I know once told me that you would be amazed and horrified if you could see the questions you can get wrong and still score 100 on an IQ test. 100 is the average; half of the people in this country aren’t that smart. There are many in this great land of ours who fool you by walking upright. It’s no surprise that such a population is vulnerable to incredibly stupid ideas.
There will always be crackpots on all sides of every issue. There is no way around that.
A real world system must be capable of operating correctly in the presence of random noise and erroneous input. The Internet has turned out to be a very effective amplifier of random noise and errors. It remains to be seen whether our system of government will be capable of evolving to handle this new challenge.
Has there ever been a Satan-worshipping pedophile?
I thought the pedophiles were all connected to the church.
Whackos need representation too, but who would have thought there were so many? Marjorie Taylor Greene is just your typical Trumplican, the GOP’s base, and they're busy getting rid of all the Whackos In Name Only. Between Trump and Green, you’re looking at the once and future face of the Republican Party.
Someone has figured out how to keep AOC and the other squad members quiet lately.
Perhaps the Democratic leadership has hired some good campaign strategists. 😉
Someone has figured out how to keep AOC and the other squad members quiet lately.
Could it be that the squad figured it out for themselves after seeing how poorly their strategy for passing Build Back Better worked out?
…
Nah…
I can easily believe the second and third statements. But the first-the one about the satan-worshipping pedophiles? 16% of americans believe or mostly agree (which I interpret as believing it’s likely, but have seen no actual PROOF. ) If the word “republicans were subbed for “Americans” I wouldn’t almost have choked to death on my puffed grass.
I also was suspicious of the polling company, since its name looks religious. But it appears to be pretty unbiased: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/public-religion-research-institute-prri/
Overall, the data are pretty frightening!
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