Opinion: On Presidents' Day, Greene calls for "national divorce"
Greene spends Presidents' Day calling for secession
To most people, Presidents’ Day is a day when we pause to reflect on some of our nation’s greatest leaders. Leaders like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.
No President is perfect, and our country is as divided as ever. But the President’s top priority is to bring everyone together, no matter their race, religion, gender, who they voted for or who they love.
This brings us to Marjorie Taylor Greene, an avowed racist and a conspiracy theorist who just so happens to roam the halls of Congress. Early Monday morning, Greene expressed support for what she calls a “national divorce” between red states and blue states.
“We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government,” she said on Twitter. “From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”
Perhaps the Congresswoman is unaware that we fought a bloody civil war to prove that secession is illegal. Maybe she forgot that the Republican Party was founded on an anti-secession platform. Or maybe she really genuinely believes that it is time for a “national divorce.”
Regardless, views like this from a sitting member of Congress would have been unthinkable a decade ago. But you and I both know that Greene will not be punished for this and it will be old news by tomorrow morning. If you ask me, this reflects poorly on the state of our political climate.
What’s even more depressing is the fact that Greene is not alone in these beliefs. A June 2021 survey found that most Republicans supported leaving the U.S. and forming a new country. The number was particularly high among Republicans in the south — the same states that were part of the Confederacy.
“The jump is most dramatic where support was already highest (and has the greatest historical precedent) — among Republicans in the South, where secession support leapt from 50% in January/February to 66% in June.”
We know that views like this have only become mainstream in American politics. But the fact that Greene — a member of Congress — would spend Presidents’ Day expressing such beliefs is insulting to every President who fought to keep this country together during our darkest times. It is an insult to the millions of men and women who put on uniforms every day to defend our country. More than anything, it is insulting to the country that Mrs. Greene took an oath to support and defend.
This is not going to be the last time she says something ridiculous. I’m willing to bet good money that this will soon be overshadowed by a statement that is somehow even more ridiculous than this. But I have stopped asking myself when she will be punished for her actions and beliefs, because it seems like she only gets rewarded for them — she rakes in millions in campaign donations every time her name is in the news. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave her some of the best committee assignments on Capitol Hill. There has even been speculation that she is on former President Donald Trump’s running mate shortlist for 2024.
Truthfully, I feel that the only way she can stop being amplified is if we stop giving her the attention she wants. But between a 24/7 news cycle and her large internet following, this political climate was tailor-made for her.
My last question: what exactly is Mrs. Greene’s definition of a blue state? Because if it’s a state that voted for Joe Biden and elected two Democratic U.S. Senators…