Marjorie Taylor-Greene can read the polls. The Insult Comedian is insulted by any poll that shows him losing favor. He denounces them as fake. They’re not. They’re as real as a heart attack for anyone not living in the MAGA bubble. You know the world has gone topsy turvy when Marge is a realist.
I bet you didn’t think I could work a Rodney Crowell tune into a post called Crackpot Crackup. The song’s chorus fits Team MAGA like a blood-stained glove: “Mad house, all topsy-turvy. A ship of fools with scurvy.”
Is the MAGA ship of fools finally sinking? That’s unclear but it’s certainly taking on water from the Epstein Files. I’m looking forward to the vote on the discharge petition, BUT the documents released by the Epstein estate have been devastating. Trump has been lying about something his base cares about. He’s trying to deflect by going after Democrats, but the MAGA DOJ has no credibility, especially after Bondi and Patel declared that there’s no there there. That was, of course, a lie. In the Epstein estate emails, Trump’s name comes up twice as often as any other. Smoke meet fire. Burn, baby, burn.
Here’s the question for the day: Is MTG a butthead or a reformed butthead. I say the former. She hasn’t renounced all MAGA policies, she’s presenting herself as true MAGA while the Kaiser of Chaos flips the bird at his voters. Trump seems to have confused those who belong to his cult with folks who voted for him in a frenzy of amnesia and anti-incumbent sentiment. In 2024, voters forgot what an incompetent president he was. They’re remembering now.
As much as I hate to agree with Jonathan Chait, this nails Marge’s positioning:
Having initially judged Greene to be a wildly uninformed conspiracy theorist, I was similarly predisposed to dismiss her evolution as a kind of revenge for being slighted. But having listened closely to her commentary of late, I’ve concluded that she is up to something more interesting and strategic. Greene seems to have recognized that the president has broken faith with his own followers. That realization may also now be dawning on other Republicans after Tuesday’s electoral mini-rout, but Greene not only saw it happening sooner; she began planning her future around it. She may be planning for a day when the MAGA movement is not led by Trump, or even by a member of his administration, but by a leader who can speak on behalf of its disgruntled base. Somebody like her.”
BINGO.
The slight involved President Pennywise’s refusal to support MTG in the Georgia Senate race against Jon Ossoff. That’s surely part of it, but Marge seems to have awakened, smelled the coffee, and decided things were cutting against her dear leader. She’s one of the first rats to flee the Bad Ship MAGA. She won’t be the last.
Trump has broken up with Marge, calling her wacky. She’s no wackier now than she was when she was inside the pocket of the sinister clown who leads her party:
I’ve been waiting for GOPers to start breaking with Trump: when he’s not on the ballot, he’s poison for them. In New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill’s campaign was overtly anti-Trump. It resonated with voters tired of the White House telling them to fuck off and eat Donald’s shit. People can only digest so much shit.
Marge is not the only MAGA maggot to distance themselves from the First Crackpot. Thomas Massie and Lauren Boebert have also broken with him over the Epstein mishigas. Every time the Insult Comedian insults the Epstein survivors and calls the scandal a hoax, he loses votes on the right. That’s what happens when a president is surrounded by yes men and sycophants. It’s leading to a MAGA crackup:
You say crack-up, I say crackup. Let’s call the whole thing off.
Marge seems disgusted by the sexism of her party’s leaders. You don’t have to be a liberal to understand that Mike Johnson wants her to STFU and go back to the kitchen where he thinks she belongs. He makes KMac look enlightened by comparison. Speaker Yellowbelly is not only a liar and a sycophant, he’s an MCP as far as MTG is concerned. Holy acronym overload, Batman.
MCP is a throwback acronym that stands for Male Chauvinist Pig.
Will more Republicans jump ship? Beats the hell outta me. I thought there would be a MAGA reckoning years ago, but this crackpot crackup feels different. It’s not a hoax.
The last word goes to Nick Lowe:
Instant Update: President Pennywise has flip flopped and urged House GOPers to vote to release the Epstein Files. Has he learned how to count?