Marjorie Traitor Greene

 For all the good electoral news that came out of Georgia, the election of an absolute lunatic to the GA-14 Congressional District was...bad. Along with Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene represents the cutting edge of GOP insanity. A purveyor of crackpot conspiracy theories, this pair's stupidity is matched only by their cruelty.

These are garbage people.

Here is the real test. What will the GOP do about them? There might be evidence that they conspired with the putsch crowd on 1/6, and they could be arrested. Maybe, but I doubt it. Unfortunately, they will likely need to be expelled from Congress first, and that would require GOP votes and I think you can see the problem.

As Karen Tumulty notes, the problem extends beyond Greene. As she puts it, Trump has basically demonstrated that you can say any damned stupid thing and there are no consequences for it among fellow Republicans. One of the rallying cries for the Lincoln Project was "country over party." The GOP has not heard it.

And why should they? They picked up seats in the House. While they got crushed in the popular vote, they came reasonably close to winning the electoral college. Trump's unique awfulness and incompetency made it impossible for him to steal the election in court. If you're the GOP, however, you've seen how he motivates a certain low-information/bad-information voter. Much of that is invested in his person, rather than the party. Why try and purge your party of the madness of people like Lauren Boebert when they actually win elections for you?

The problem, as I see it, is that January 6th will recede down the memory hole by the time the 2022 elections roll around. Democrats will need to tie every GOP Senator and Member of Congress to Boebert and Greene, and then hope that people will recall the horror show that happens when you allow the QAnon nutters anywhere near the seat of power.

Ideally, we get the pandemic under control by summer, and Democrats ride the gratitude for that to solid gains in 2022. The new strains of Covid, however, are worrisome. If it keeps mutating (which it will) it could escape containment. If Democrats lose control of the House and/or Senate in 2022, rabid crazies like Greene and Boebert will drive policy, because people like McCarthy will be scared of them. We've seen it with Trump. They will strip Liz Cheney of her leadership position before they will censure a woman who suggested we shoot the Speaker of the House in the head.

The GOP has to cease to exist as it is currently constituted.