The Message and the Messenger: Marjorie Taylor Greene, a "National Divorce," and the Implosion of Government

MTG's push for a "National Divorce" isn't about secession, it's about furthering the planned destruction of oversight and weakening the federal government

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The tweet came on February 20th.

Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 @mtgreenee

We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are… https://t.co/Azn8YF1UUy

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the most attention-seeking politicians in modern history, had successfully carried out her task: getting political and media circles to talk about a so-called “national divorce.”

Reactions were predictable. Some decried her for seemingly calling for a new Civil War, for the secession of so-called “Red States” from the Union. Others met the moment by welcoming such an arrangement, laughing about how they wished the national divorce could be realized and pointing out that “Red States” receive more federal funding.

Watch my immediate reaction warning that MTG’s antics were part of a larger attempt to shift discourse and present dangerous notions on behalf of the donor class

It was a masterstroke, and from a tactical standpoint you have to hand it to the people who cooked this entire situation up. Even from the wording and presentation of the original tweet, you could tell that Greene had not formulated the idea on her own and had been coached by one of the many and inescapable conservative think-tanks or institutes that pilot these programs. It had been strategized and honed for perfect rhetorical impact.

The purposes were as follows:

• Further the division between states and individuals, which is a state of play that benefits the wealthy by dismissing interdependence and undermining empathy and solidarity

• Highlight the concept that an overseeing federal government is tyrannical and in need of “reform” and/or complete dismissal

• Create in “Red States” safe laboratories for experimentation with oppressive and regressive legislation that might stem any Democratic or progressive gains

• Weaken political and cultural opposition to Right Wing policies until such a time that they can be acceptable on the national stage

Again, Greene did not dream this up, as has been made apparent by subsequent tweets and media appearances in which the initial idea, which was used as a splash of introduction, has been developed from the original controversial hot take to something the entire Republican Party can rally around.

PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 @patriottakes

Marjorie Taylor Greene on her national divorce proposal: “We want our own safe space and we deserve it.”

Here, what seemed to be a call for secession is shifted into a “reasonable” call for belligerents in the culture war to recognize things are getting too dangerous and possibly retreat to their separate corners. This comes, obviously, while the Republican Party has turned into one of the most historically and reviled political parties and is only able to maintain power in a handful of states and relies on minoritarian relics like the Electoral College and the makeup of the Senate, not to mention aggressive and ceaseless gerrymandering and revoking of individual voting rights, to continue as a national force.

Because MTG is now mainstreamed within the GOP she is the perfect messenger for this particularly tact. The rolling out of the talking points was sensational and attention-grabbing, triggering a response that both condemned her while highlighting that many liberals in “Blue States” would be more than fine to see “Red States” go. In fact, for some, it seems like the only means of dealing with our intractable divides and problems.

Unfortunately, that’s a terrible and dangerous perspective. Republicans are aggressively attacking public education, rolling back the progress of the 20th century and protections for people of color, women, and even children, and scoring victories using the stolen Supreme Court to reshape national politics. The balkanization that neolibearlism has wrought, meanwhile, has allowed mobilized opposition to largely die on the vine, as we witnessed with the overturning of Roe V. Wade, which left the “Red States” and their women to fend for themselves.

The belief at this point is that “Red States” deserve what they get. The people there are either racist, sexist, or unwilling to leave, all of which are damning. If they are abandoned, which the Democratic Party has largely done already, this oppression will only worsen. The Biden Administration’s unwillingness to address federal voting protections and civil liberties also speaks to this problem as the states, including Ron DeSantis’s Florida, have been allowed to run wild in carrying out these think-tanks and institutes’ agenda, all of which are funded by the wealth class who wants nothing more than to leave the federal government in tatters.

But that doesn’t this “divorce” would be permanent. Or that the federal government would remain weakened. This is a multi-part project that intends, in this moment, to continue lessening federal power until it is almost nonexistent - which, is almost where we’re at currently - until such a time that the GOP and the agenda they front can be viable on the federal level. It is part of the larger push to forward a reactionary and conservative movement throughout the United States. Control over education, voting, and this intentional feeling that we are not only divided but should reject interdependence in totality, spurs this goal forward, and we’re watching it speed up in a hurry.

Focusing on MTG as an individual certainly isn’t hard. She’s a clown and a character who revels in our dislike and disdain. But it obscures the larger picture that the GOP and their backers need to obscure. We have been divided and we are being conquered. Talk of this “divorce” is a weaponized tactic that both creates fantasies of division for both sides of the aisle while also furthering the possibility of balkanized states as a real “solution.”

We’ve already seen governors with presidential ambition spar in this mindset. As the federal government has been intentionally turned into slog that can only bail out corporations while ignoring most of the issues affecting the people, the states and their leaders have taken the baton and run with it. This is already resulting in some migrations of the ideologically-driven wealth class, including a move of parts of Big Tech to Texas. This leaves, of course, enlargens political divides, but also a growing vulnerability to poorer people who can’t afford the move and must bear the brunt of the exodus.

There will be no “national divorce,” at least not in the foreseeable future, but as I detail in my book THE MIDNIGHT KINGDOM: A HISTORY OF POWER, PARANOIA, AND THE COMING CRISIS, history is often made and determined based on stories. Ideas derived from Christianity, historical narratives, and even myths like possible utopias, Atlantis or supposed “lost civilizations,” can push forward real material conditions and change the world forever. This is an ingenious creation from a Right Wing world that has been increasing and bettering their appeals.

Unfortunately, we’re watching people who should know better fall for it again and again.

For more on this subject, how we have been intentionally divided, and how we might come to defeat the growing authoritarian movement, order yourself a copy of THE MIDNIGHT KINGDOM: A HISTORY OF POWER, PARANOIA, AND THE COMING CRISIS.