My Thoughts on AOC's Comments about Marge Greene

Should Dems should align with people like Greene on certain issues?

AOC launched a heated debate among Democrats with her comments at a forum this week where she specifically referenced former Rep. Marge Greene on the question of whether Democrats should ally or join with right-wingers on individual issues if they agree with them on that point only. This is a subject that comes up often lately as some members of the MAGA movement are criticizing Trump more openly and more often in recent months.

This is what AOC said:

“I personally do not trust somebody like Marjorie Taylor Greene—a proven bigot and antisemite—on the issues of what is good for Gazans and Israelis. I don’t think it benefits our movement to align with white nationalists. I don’t think it serves us.”

Many on the left agreed with AOC, but she also got criticism from some Democrats. Drop Site’s Ryan Grim’s post accurately represented people who disagreed with AOC’s comment:

“MTG sacrificed her political career to stand against genocide, against Trump, against the Epstein Class, and to defend the survivors of Epstein’s trafficking. If that doesn’t earn credibility I don’t know what possibly could.”

Mehdi Hasan posted this reply to Grim’s comments:

“The problem with this argument Ryan is that Liz Cheney also sacrificed her political career to stand up to Trump and took far more shit for it, from both right and left, than MTG. I can’t stand Liz Cheney and I don’t think Harris should have campaigned with her so much but I just wonder why we can’t be consistent on this stuff.”

For me, the key words in AOC’s remarks are “align with” and the key words on Grim’s post are “earn credibility.”

My position, which I have made clear on social media posts, in articles I have written, in articles written about me, and in podcasts over many years is that the single biggest weakness of the MAGA movement is that many of the factions hate each other and are selfish grifters. They also have strong fundamental disagreements with each other on some important issues. But these things were set aside in the past because their central organizing principle is idolatry of a man and mutual hatred of the libs, not a coherent or consistent set of beliefs or ideas.

The way that this movement is ultimately going to come apart is for these divisions to be amplified whenever possible, because they have a tendency to rapidly spiral out of control since the movement is also fueled by deceptive and vicious social media accounts. Trump’s departure from the scene is not necessary for the current Republican/MAGA coalition to come apart. In fact, you could make the argument his current term has become the catalyst for the unraveling.

My view is that when Greene, Tucker Carlson, Thom Tillis, Thomas Massie, Megyn Kelly, Laura Loomer, Nick Fuentes and others rip each other, attack Trump, or Republican leadership in Congress, that is something which should be amplified. It does not mean we are making them heroes. It does not mean we agree with them about anything else other than the single point they are making. It does not mean we want to join with them. It does not mean we vouch for their character. It means that criticisms from within their own movement do more to divide them than anything any Democrat can say. And that is useful.

I continue to criticize each of these individuals on a regular basis, but I choose not to use the moments when they are ripping Trump or ripping each other as the time to swoop in and criticize them for other things. That is not the time. I prefer to let their attacks on each other stand on their own and marinate. It is not necessary for me to chime in that I don’t agree with Greene on abortion when she’s is ripping Trump on Iran. It is not necessary for me to go after Massie about J6 while he’s attacking Trump on Epstein. I go after them plenty, I just don’t go after them while they are attacking each other because I don’t really want to get in their way when they are doing that.

So, should we not “align with” people like Greene on certain issues because we don’t trust them or don’t agree with them on other issues? I guess it depends what that means. I don’t think we should praise them, share stages with them, invite them on our podcasts. I also don’t think we should even amplify their positions on those issues unless they are making a specific criticism of Trump and/or Republican policy or actions. And even then it should be extremely rare. When they try to do it without mentioning Trump, I call them out for being afraid to say his name. When they do it while naming Trump, that is when I amplify it.

Does their criticism “earn credibility” with us as Grim argues? That also depends on what that means. What are their motives? Are they criticizing Israel’s Gaza policy simply because they are antisemitic (which is definitely the motivation for many) or because they genuinely care about the people of Gaza and are disgusted and horrified by Israel’s conduct during the war? AOC is right to be distrustful of their motives.

For me, it’s about compartmentalization. On the extremely rare occasions when a Republican openly criticizes Trump or their leadership on Epstein, Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, military spending, the national debt, J6, the ballroom, gerrymandering, disaster relief, Trump’s pardons or other issues, I will amplify their positions because I believe doing so helps our cause on that particular issue. Does that mean that I “trust” them, admire them, or want to invite them into the tent?

No, it definitely does not.

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