House Democrat Ro Khanna embraces Marjorie Taylor Greene during a press conference with Epstein survivors. Don’t rush to throw open your arms to the former Trump sympathizer. (Photo credit Roll Call)

On redemption road

Marjorie Taylor Greene. The name evokes images of double-wide trailers and gullible constituents riding in pickup trucks while they make pilgrimages to Stone Mountain, Georgia, to pay homage to Confederate traitors. MTG was once the most vocal of redneck MAGAs, using her platform as a member of Congress to degrade the body politic in America.

Stunts like acting out during President Biden’s State of the Union address cemented MTG as a crass, out-of-her-element dingbat. Dressed like a Halloween caricature of herself she made a fool of herself by standing up, like a drunk college coed at a football game, and shouting “liar” at Biden. Or recall when MTG gleefully posed holding an assault rifle, to curry favor with National Rifle Association-loving voters when she ran for Congress.

MTG was the queen of hardcore MAGA, often appearing at Trump’s side as his most loyal enabler while pushing racism cloaked in the America First lie.

Awareness comes calling

Then reality found a sliver of space in MTG’s brainwashed, conspiracy-peddling head. (In a moment of reflection during a recent interview, MTG admitted to having drank the Kool-Aid saying, “’cuz we’re just not brainwashed anymore.”)

The first crack in MTG’s relationship with Trump and MAGA came when she discovered her adult children’s healthcare costs were about to double. Suddenly, affordability mattered.

How could a member of Congress not have known this? MTG admitted she had not read the Trump Republican so-called Big Beautiful Bill. MTG’s Johnny-come-lately anger about unaffordable healthcare proved she did not care about constituents’ who were distraught about being financially ruined by the cost of healthcare. At least not until she realized her own family would suffer, too.

Green lamented that her Gen Z kid’s jobs will be taken by AI and they “will never be able to afford life [a house, health insurance, car insurance].”

The official breaking point came when Trump backtracked and refused to release the Epstein files. Of all the Trump lies this one struck a nerve that lit a fire within MTG. The result was the bridge connecting MTG to MAGA was irretrievably burned to the ground. This led to MTG quitting Congress.

MTG brandishing a rifle, making a fool of herself, and about to kiss a suspected pedophile. (Photos credit Georgia Recorder, Washington Post, The Guardian)

“MAGA was all a lie”

So says Marjorie Taylor Greene. In a blistering, and maybe unintended assessment of herself, MTG ripped Fox News, the network where Greene built her brand by gorging on a buffet of lies and conspiracies.

“People watching Fox News are Baby Boomers. They are the most brainwashed generation because they eat that crap all day long. They’re spoon-fed the propaganda on TV,” said MTG.

My reaction to MTG’s assessment is yes, Fox viewers are brainwashed and many of them are uneducated Baby Boomers. But the young people who salivate over the fake-Christian, racist, misogynist, homophobic, antisemitic bullshit offered up by Turning Point USA are equally brainwashed. Fox viewers and Turning Point supporters both are cultists, same as Charles Manson’s followers and Jim Jones’ followers were cultists. MAGA is a cult that endorses criminal behavior including treason, pedophilia and murder.

While she appears to have come clean, MTG was a significant piston in the growth of the MAGA cult.

Is she for real?

As do many Republicans, MTG hides behind an almost always visible cross necklace that adorns her neck. It is a pretend gesture, considering the hellish filth most Republicans wallow in. Is MTG aware of the biblical story of the Apostle Paul’s resurrection on the road to Damascus?

Hopefully, given her stature and platform, MTG’s awakening is sincere and will influence wayward MAGAs. Many MAGAs are surely wrestling with the embarrassment of having fallen for Trump’s lies, and seek to save face while rejecting what they know is immoral and plainly wrong.

Anyone who watched the congressional testimony of ICE victims Marimar Martinez, Aliya Rahman, Martin Rascon and Renee Good’s brothers knows this country is at the breaking point. Citizens outraged that Trump destroyed the East Wing and is in the process of destroying the Kennedy Center know this. All who fear that war (Civil or abroad) lurks on our doorstep understand this. So do farmers on the brink of bankruptcy and those among us losing SNAP benefits.

I implore MTG to be like Paul the Apostle. Use your platform as a powerful magnet to pull salvageable MAGA souls away from hell’s brink.

Ignoring what their eyes could plainly see, MAGAs fell for Trump’s lie that January 6, 2021, was a peaceful demonstration. (Photo credit Washington Post)

Trump is a deranged narcissist. Always has been. Yet, for MAGA dunce cap wearers, Trump’s lies went undetected. Despite overwhelming video evidence, MAGA refused to accept that January 6 was a violent insurrection. Thankfully, many MAGAs are sickened by videos of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The videos powerfully refute Trump administration lies that Good and Pretti were domestic terrorists using a vehicle or brandishing a gun intent on massacring ICE agents.

Belatedly, MAGAs are recognizing Trump is a pathological lying madman whose aim is to enrich the already rich at the expense of average Americans. Marjorie Taylor Greene is a microcosm of MAGA, a group of incurious people largely unable to think for themselves. In other words, not the brightest bulbs in the box.

Last November, as part of her resurrection to save her legacy, MTG did an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash. Greene was reminded by Bash that she was a full-throated participant in the toxic politics that led to threats of violence – and actual violence – against other politicians, such as the murder of Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband.

Before her recent conversion from the dark side, MTG posted on Facebook photos brandishing firearms and encouraged MAGA to go on the offense against “the socialists.” On social media, MTG “liked” nutcase rightwing posts calling for the executions of former President Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pressed by Bash, MTG fessed up to operating with a double standard, now that she’s complaining about threats she is receiving from looney MAGAs because Greene abandoned Trump. MTG “humbly” apologized for her prior dangerous embrace of political violence.

MTG should be commended for waking up. She played a leading role in forcing the release of the Epstein files. She’s helped awaken red state voters to the daily peril in their lives, caused by the Trump administration.

The question is, can Marjorie Taylor Greene be trusted?

LIKE PAUL?