By Roy Steele

The embattled Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-GA) is fighting hard for attention and relevance in the halls of Congress, among the media, and in the Republican party. She’s a political rookie who dove headfirst into the deep end. She wants to be useful and productive but is in water way over her head. She seemingly has nothing to do except stir up trouble.

When her proposal to impeach President Joe Biden didn’t go anywhere (due to a minor detail like the lack of a high crime or misdemeanor), she was bored. After treading water for months, she had an idea for a new caucus of House Republicans who think like her. That’s how the America First Caucus was born.

Greene's new project to etablish that new caucus might be dead in the water already. She used lies and right-wing propaganda to justify using racist language, and members of her own party denounced her ideas. Racism didn’t elevate her message and diminished her stature even further as a disaffected member of Congress.

Her hateful reputation and notoriety preceded her arrival in Washington, D.C. Even before the general election, she was widely known for her support and belief in far-fetched conspiracy theories and her incendiary social media posts.

After she won the election, the fledgling Georgia lawmaker pissed off members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. Among Greene’s inviolable sins were social media posts where she alleged that deadly school shootings were staged, pushed untrue conspiracy theories (including QAnon), questioned whether a passenger jet really struck the Pentagon on 9/11, and liked Facebook posts calling for the assassination of the Speaker of the House and other Democratic Party leaders.

While House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) refused to rebuke Greene for her incendiary comments and views, a House resolution was introduced to strip her of committee assignments. The resolution passed after a vote of 230-199.

After the passage of the House Resolution, her effectiveness in representing the people of Georgia’s fourteenth district was largely diminished.

The most important work in Congress is conducted by the various committees in the House and Senate. While she can still participate in roll-call votes, she has no influence whatsoever in crafting legislation. The people in her district lose when they don’t have a seat or representation at the table.

I can only guess that she was bored and needed something to do, so she decided to work on a new project for herself. She wanted to go from being irrelevant to relevant and decided to start a new Republican party caucus in the House that represented her right-wing extremist point of view.

First reported by Punchbowl News, Congresswoman Greene was in the early planning stages of forming her new GOP caucus in Congress. The pro-Donald Trump caucus would be called the America First Caucus, and the aims of this group would be “to promote Congressional policies that are to the long-term benefit of the American nation.”

Doesn’t it go without saying that all bills in Congress should benefit the people? “Benefit the American nation” sounds bizarre and removed from the people somehow.

If you’ve ever heard the Georgia Congresswoman speak publicly, you know that her command of the English language is lacking. While she’s passionate about her ideas and point of view, a good vocabulary and proper grammar are not her strong suit. That’s why I’m certain that the poorly written document was written by her.

“Policies that are to the long-term benefit of the American nation” look innocuous and benign, until you realize that it’s a political platitude that means absolutely nothing. [Bold emphasis my own]

No matter how you slice it, the mission of this caucus is pretty clear. They embrace and support DUMB DUMB Donald Trump and his racist and xenophobic policies, and their political doctrine reflects his obsessions, contradictions, and hypocrisy. In other words, it’s just as messy as he was.

The America First Caucus (AFC) exists to promote Congressional policies that are to the long-term benefit of the American nation. The North Star of any policy proposal will be that which serves the American people, and any consequential analysis of policy platforms must be based on this first principle.

As this implies a degree of ideological flexibility, a certain intellectual boldness is needed amongst members of the AFC to follow in President Trump’s footsteps, and potentially step on some toes and sacrifice sacred cows for the good of the American nation.

I don’t understand what the next paragraph below means at all. From “first principles” and “long-term time horizon” to a “greatly internalized sense of service” to the people, the language just doesn’t make sense. Sadly this paragraph reflects a lack of skillful writing and sounds exactly like the bullshit that the Congresswoman says every day. [Bold emphasis my own]

It is the firm belief of this Caucus that American policy-making needs to get back to first principles, restore a long-term time horizon amongst our nation’s leaders, and instill a greatly internalized sense of service to the American people on part of our elected leaders. As long as these principles are put and kept in practice, the interests of the American people will be safeguarded.

If you read the entirety of the document, you'll see that they continue to push conspiracy theories and lies that are far outside mainstream thought. Facts and evidence matter not to Greene and her group.

Different sections articulate specific viewpoints and policy prescriptions on many different issues. They address subjects like immigration, infrastructure, elections, trade, foreign policy, and the Chinese Communist Party, and ignore important issues like taxes or systemic racism and sexism.

They start with an ‘Elections’ section where the issues aren’t based on facts or evidence. The document perpetuates the election fraud lies perpetrated by Trump, and calls for eliminating all voting by mail, and the implementation of a national voter identification law.

In a section entitled ‘Sovereignty’, the document claims that the United States was founded “on the basis of individual and state sovereignty.” WTF? That statement is either a LIE, or it represents a basic lack of knowledge and understanding of American history, on the part of the author.

It says they want to divest power away from the federal government and want federal power transferred to the states to “restore the balance of federalism.” In the next paragraph, they say they believe in federalism and promises to fight for it! Confused much?

The section entitled ‘Immigration’ has gotten a tremendous amount of attention because of the racism and xenophobia reflected in their views. [Bold emphasis my own]

America is a nation with a border, and a culture, strengthened by a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions. History has shown that societal trust and political unity are threatened when foreign citizens are imported en-masse into a country.

Like me, you might wonder what “Anglo-Saxon political traditions” are. In politics, we call that statement a ‘dog whistle’ because it’s a subtly aimed political message that’s intended only for a particular group to understand. Except in this case, it’s easy for everyone to see and understand this racist trope.

When most of us see or hear Anglo-Saxon in our modern context, it’s usually preceded by ‘white’ and followed by ‘Protestant’, as in White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP. No matter how you slice it, Ango-Saxon is used as an ethnic identifier to indicate white European origin. By omitting the ‘protestant’ this caucus can include all people of European descent (including Catholics).

Academics have called for eliminating Anglo-Saxon from our vocabulary altogether because of its links to white supremacy. Dr. Mary Rambaran-Olm explained why the term is banned in academia.

Generally, white supremacists use the term to make some sort of connection to their heritage (which is inaccurate) or to make associations with 'whiteness' but they also habitually misuse it to try and connect themselves to a warrior past.

The term became more popular in the 18th and 19th centuries and was used to link white people to their 'supposed origins'.

Hitler wrote of the 'Anglo-Saxon determination' to hold India, while imperialist Cecil Rhodes also regularly used the term.

While Anglo-Saxon is rarely used in modern times to identify someone, I'll admit the only time that I use it is to derisively describe my own ethnic origins.

Marjorie Taylor Greene probably thought she was being clever by leaving out the reference to “white” Anglo-Saxon. Except she isn't very smart, as she employed termidnology that's used by white supremacists.

Promoting “White Anglo-Saxon political traditions” is no different from “Anglo-Saxon political traditions.” Rightly the reference to Anglo-Saxon set off alarm bells among the GOP rank and file because Greene’s America First Pro-Trump Caucus represents white privilege, racism, and exclusion. They reject equality and inclusion, which are the true founding principles of the United States, to push their un-American point of view.

Will anyone be held accountable for this?

If Marjorie Taylor Greene has so much time on her hands and she’s looking for something to do, she should go back to college and learn how to write, learn how to communicate. and learn about American history.

Marjorie Taylor Greene's short tenure in Congress has earned her a failing grade to date, and she lacks the integrity, intelligence, and chutzpah, to ever find any redemption.

America First Caucus Policy... by Roy Steele