I am one who likes to keep up to date with news and politics, but I tend to avoid the back and forth soap opera that comes from the personality and who said what of Washington.

But lately I haven’t been able to avoid thinking about what has become of Marjorie Taylor Greene. The once MAGA loyal to a fault bombastic warrior of the House has decided to call it quits after speaking out against Trump. MTG has made the rounds on TV on a forgiveness tour, cleaning up her appearance while also voicing her objections to Trump fighting the release of the Epstein files. She has been doing this for months but just recently caught the attention of POTUS when he posted that she was a traitor.

This resulted in her resignation from Congress in a move that shocked many. My problem is how to feel about her. On one hand I would like to have sympathy. She is in fact a victim. Recently on 60 Minutes she revealed that she received death threats to not only herself, but to her son because of Trump’s attacks.

That is wrong and should have no place in our political discourse. She has also had the bravery to fight for Epstien’s victims, has spoken out on the genocide in Gaza, and has discussed the issue of affordability in this country. I agree with her on all that but I hesitate to shed a tear because of how this congresswoman became the infamous MTG.

She is one of the biggest players responsible for creating the toxic politics we now have. She became famous for pursuing and harassing young Parkland survivors, loudly jeering and booing President Biden during a State of the Union, and for her constant fights with democratic counterparts including making fun of a congresswoman’s eyelashes. She has a special stew of classlessness she brings into our discourse.

Even in her farewell statement she spewed false information about immigrants and COVID-19, bragged about defunding public media, and attacked trans people. See she hasn’t really changed and she is not one I would call my ally, but I do think we can learn a lesson from her. That is that this administration demands allegiance but will never grant it. It did not matter how many battles she fought for him, Trump didn’t hesitate at casting her into the pit once she strayed from his path. Thing is that this isn’t unique to Trump, in fact it’s a feature of fascism that we all must remember.

The weapons used against the enemy can and will be used against any and all. We saw this years ago with the tar and feathering of Liz Cheney.

She voted with Trump more than 90% of the time but once she decided that he had gone too far with his actions on January 6th she was done. Trump attacked her and her family and used his political power to prop up a primary challenge to get her out of Congress. MTG is just the latest victim but she will not be the last.

Trump has entered his lame duck phase and will be making bold moves to try and cling to power and relevance. His latest one seems to be an eventual war with Venezuela. One could see many of his current supporters in Congress objecting to this and then they too will be victims of the mudslinging machine that MAGA has become.

My advice to them as well as to the everyday average joe MAGA folks is simple: leave now. All of the cheering for ICE and ignoring of Crypto corruption won’t matter. The awful nasty classlessness that was once beneath our government that you cheer on should be left in the dustbin where it belongs. In the end it won’t matter how many MAGA hats you have or how many times you hashtagged America First, the apparatus you have been siding with will eventually come for you. Don’t be the next MTG and be shocked when the leopards you’ve been feeding eat your face too.

Justin Hubbard is a Jamestown resident.