Posted on 05/15/2021 11:47:55 AM PDT by RandFan
The furor over Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-Ga.) treatment of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has sparked new worries that lawmakers could be in danger from their own colleagues.
Fears about growing incivility and polarization in American politics have been climbing for a generation. But the concern has reached a different order of intensity since the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, when members of Congress literally feared for their lives.
Greene’s encounters with some of her Democratic colleagues, along with a confrontation between a Greene staffer and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), show just how febrile the atmosphere on Capitol Hill has become.
In an exchange witnessed by The Hill’s Scott Wong on Friday morning, a Greene staffer challenged Swalwell over the Democrat wearing a mask. Swalwell retorted, “You don’t tell me what to f---ing do.”
Soon afterward on Twitter, Swalwell said Greene’s aide had attempted to bully him, adding, “I told the bully what I thought of his order. Predictably, he went speechless. I regret I wasn’t more explicit.”
Now there are calls for increased security, even as fencing near the Capitol remains in place since the days after the insurrection.
Democratic lawmakers who are less high-profile than Ocasio-Cortez are also expressing alarm.
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) told this column that there has been “a real, marked difference” in the atmosphere at the Capitol since the Jan. 6 attack.
“I have friendships on both sides of the aisle. But I have to say, even I really feel the tension,” Boyle said. “I have my own suspicions of certain colleagues of mine who are down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theory and egging on the insurrectionists — people that would literally want me dead.”
Republicans bridle at those kinds of remarks. But Boyle said that Jan. 6 marked the first time he had begun to seriously think about his own safety.
Like many public officials, he said he had no wish “to live in a cocoon” because of security fears. But in one example of heightened awareness, he said he now removes the lapel pin that identifies him as a member of Congress unless it is required.
Boyle freely acknowledged that others in his party are more likely to be targeted than he is. Asked whether fellow Democrats fear for Ocasio-Cortez’s safety, given her lightning rod status for conservatives, he replied, “As far as Alexandria or any other of my colleagues who seem to be the people who Fox News goes after — and none of them seem to be white males, coincidently, I’m sure — I do fear just a lone nut out there who goes down this rabbit hole, believes these conspiracies, believes the big lie.”
“It is a genuine concern. I have seen several of my colleagues have to walk around with security protection, and it concerns me. These are my friends and colleagues,” Boyle added.
Ocasio-Cortez’s office called for increased security measures after Greene followed her in the halls of the Capitol and began shouting at her on Wednesday. The exchange was witnessed by two reporters from The Washington Post, which first reported on the matter the following day.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that the House Ethics Committee ought to consider examining Greene’s conduct relating to Ocasio-Cortez, which she termed a “verbal assault.”
Greene for her part denies “screaming” at Ocasio-Cortez and says she was trying to engage the New Yorker in debate.
Greene’s innocent-sounding explanation sits incongruously with her past record. She at one time promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory — which she says she now regrets. She also expressed support on social media for a call to imprison or kill Pelosi.
On Friday morning, video emerged from February 2019 — before Greene was elected to Congress — in which she shouts through the mailbox of Ocasio-Cortez’s Capitol Hill office.
In the now-deleted video, unearthed by CNN’s KFile, Greene warns that the New York congresswomen, first elected three months previously, is “bringing God’s judgement on our country.”
Greene also says, “You need to stop being a baby and stop locking your door and come out and face the American citizens that you serve.”
Ocasio-Cortez, asked about the video on Friday, told reporters, “This is a woman that’s deeply unwell and clearly needs some help.”
Some lawmakers are dismayed by the fact that a figure such as Greene draws so much publicity for her antics, a trend that they think devalues the actual work of legislating.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) worried that “the sophomoric tendencies of some have to be offset, and there just needs to be more attention on the serious work that Congress needs to do.”
But in a clear jab at Greene’s actions against Ocasio-Cortez, Kaptur also stressed that “haranguing other members should not be allowed. It is uncivil behavior, and it is setting a very poor example to the nation.”
“Congress has always had show horses, work horses, and bullies,” Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) said in an email. “Most of us – Democrats and Republicans – are focused on doing the work. It’s called governing, and it is important.”
That dynamic is itself part of the problem. For years, the incentives in American politics — and much of the media coverage of it, especially on the right — have rewarded the most militant voices.
Former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) wrote in his recent memoir of his dismay in realizing that a number of colleagues were more interested in cable news appearances than legislating — and that they could derive real political power from those appearances.
The pattern cannot be disentangled from the influence of former President Trump, who horrified his critics throughout his political rise by his propensity for insults and vulgarity — and, in doing so, delighted the Republican base, won a primary against numerous more seasoned GOP opponents and ultimately won the White House.
In an age less polarized and less driven by social media, it’s easy to imagine a figure such as Greene lingering in obscurity. Instead, she got more than 220,000 votes in winning her election last year. She is also a formidable fundraiser.
Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University, condemned the media tendency to portray both parties as equally culpable for the current poisonous political tone.
Polarization “has gotten much worse, and if there was one phrase I would eliminate from the English language, it is ‘both sides,’” Lichtman, a longtime Trump critic who 15 years ago sought a Democratic Senate nomination in Maryland, said. “It is not both sides. It is coming overwhelmingly from one side, and that one side is the Donald Trump Republicans.”
But even now, the former president retains a firm grip on the party, as was displayed in Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-Wyo.) ouster from leadership earlier this week.
The idea that Jan. 6 was going to mark a turning point, after which American politics would walk itself back from the abyss, seems increasingly unlikely.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere of life on Capitol Hill just gets worse.
“You look at what Trump unleashed and what you see online,” Boyle lamented. “We don’t see the same kind of hate spewed in most other Western democracies. You don’t see in the Republic of Ireland or France or Germany members of their parliamentary bodies having to be escorted by police because there are threats directed toward them.”
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.
Have you seen her workout? She or Lauren Boebert would be formidable opponents for any man in Congress.
Pretty sure those e-mails have to be preserved for posterity. Someone might get a laugh out of it in a hundred years, too.
Setting aside the fact that this mick with a face like a bag of hammers is blissfully unaware that Quincy Jones was definitive about eire down-lows like Stanage:
"Is Hollywood as bad with race as the rest of the country? I know that when you started scoring films, you’d hear producers say things like they didn’t want a “bluesy” score, which was clearly code-speak. Are you still encountering that kind of racism?It’s still fucked up. 1964, when I was in Vegas, there were places I wasn’t supposed to go because I was black, but Frank [Sinatra] fixed that for me. It takes individual efforts like that to change things. It takes white people to say to other white people, “Do you really want to live as a racist? Is that really what you believe?” But every place is different. When I go to Dublin, Bono makes me stay at his castle because Ireland is so racist."
BTW, those of you that see me on the music threads .. follow that link, that is one of Quincy's best interviews ever.
Brooks died seven months after the attack on Sumner so he couldn't accept most of them.
"Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University, condemned the media tendency to portray both parties as equally culpable for the current poisonous political tone.Polarization “has gotten much worse, and if there was one phrase I would eliminate from the English language, it is ‘both sides,’” Lichtman, a longtime Trump critic who 15 years ago sought a Democratic Senate nomination in Maryland, said. “It is not both sides. It is coming overwhelmingly from one side, and that one side is the Donald Trump Republicans.”
Maybe Niall met Lichtman for "lunch" LOFL. It's fairly certain that Lichtman is in Niall's Rolloverdex.
Lichtman is one of those nobodies with an extensive Wikipedia entry that you figure he started and people who aren't his friends finished:
Only one way to resolve this....mud wrestling match.
Probably the mail slot. The author isn't an American and may not know the lingo that well.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her staff should all start wearing Go-Pros. There is nothing quite like video to show AOCs paranoid delusions in full effect.
And if their delusions reach the point where they violently lash out, all the better.
The preposterous commission on the Jan.6 demonstration is a way to keep the lies alive. Now this BS about “feeling” unsafe. AOC and Pelosi’s chair are now totally safe.
There is absolutely no danger from the Right. But the Left has BLM and Antifa along with average urban blacks who can set off deadly violence a any given moment.
The Antifa and BLM ARE TERRORISTS. Liars know it’s true.
They are working on a large scale attack plan against anyone who is a Trump supporter or a plain old patriot. They have to set up “they had it coming-—we all knew they were dangerous and had to be killed” first.
Dirty scum.
Are these assclowns required to supply their own pearls or do tax payers pick up the tab for those as well?
Yes. Exactly. There are 2 or 3 very good eyeglass video cams, exponentially improved on Google Glass. Nick Dyer needs to get a pair of Zetronix or OhO stat.
If conservatives would understand that recording everything is the key to destroying so many MSM Narratives. Predict that it will be the standard in five years.
I hope she's THIS pretty, but she'll become part of the pack, no matter what. ;)
Oh, the drama.
Oh, and by the way, Maxine Waters left the convent to become a politician. She has such a sweet personality, maybe MTG should follow her exemplary life.
The only thing that has changed in Washington, with respect to incivility, is some Republicans are finally pushing back and not taking it in the chin. Democrats have been nasty for years.
Cool. What kind of training?
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