Marjorie Taylor Greene (QAnon, Ga.) might be a preternatural dope, but that’s still doesn’t excuse her speaking at the junior varsity Ku Klux Klan jamboree this weekend. Greene pleaded ignorance, claiming she was merely there to “talk to an audience” of young people. That’s right. An audience that cheers dictators and racists, led by someone who believes Jews are “race traitors,” denies the Holocaust happened, and believes segregation was beneficial for black Americans. And she wasn’t there to challenge this audience but to bask in its applause.
If it weren’t for Paul Gosar, and now Greene, hardly anyone would care about these white-nationalist confabs — other than perhaps fans of the Daily Beast or Media Matters. Not only should House GOP leadership condemn the two because it’s morally correct; they should do it for reasons of self-preservation. On social media, conservatives grouse that there’s a double standard. Democrats, they say, never condemn their extremists, they celebrate them. That’s a double standard worth living with. After all, any denunciation of Omar, Tlaib, or any other Squad member lacks credibility if House Republicans can’t publicly take the position that hanging out with (actual) white supremacists is deplorable.