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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has made quite a ruckus since joining Congress on Jan. 3. Greene, a congresswoman from Georgia’s 14th district, has made so many provably false assertions —  including that the wildfires in California were set by a Jewish space laser, that the Clintons are murderers, even that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was staged —  that there simply isn’t enough space to list them all.

Many on the left and even the center of the political spectrum have been correct to call attention to these comments as dangerous for someone in Congress to hold. But it will eventually be up to the GOP, Greene’s own party, to determine whether these statements from the Georgia congresswoman put the party in danger. 

Perhaps the most important figure in these considerations for the GOP is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California. In early February, as Greene’s conspiratorial comments began to gain more publicity, McCarthy was essentially forced to make a statement condemning her past remarks.

“Past comments from and endorsed by Marjorie Taylor Greene on school shootings, political violence, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference,” McCarthy said.

But this isn’t enough from McCarthy. And I don’t mean that his actions and statements are not enough in the sense of what those on the left may think is enough, but rather for McCarthy and the GOP themselves. The California congressman has clearly made the calculation that what’s best for himself and the party is to condemn Greene’s language but go no further.

This is a miscalculation.

For Margaret Susan Thompson, an associate professor in Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Greene raises an important question for the GOP and its leaders, like McCarthy, to consider. 

“How extreme do they (Greene and others on the more extreme side of the GOP) have to be before whatever the mainstream of the Republican party might be right now is going to say ‘No, these people are just beyond what we can accept?’” 

Is what Greene said about the wildfires, or the Clintons, or the Sandy Hook shooting not far enough for McCarthy? Just about anyone, regardless of where they stand on the political spectrum, must find this question troubling. If Greene hasn’t said or done enough for the party to distance itself from her, what is that level? Is there one?

I can’t imagine that these are questions that McCarthy necessarily wants to answer. The situation that has presented itself to McCarthy is surely not an easy one to handle. He must balance reason while also holding on to a more radical side of the GOP that is “an unquestionably important constituency in the Republican party,” Thompson said. 

But the cost is simply too high for the future of the Republican party to keep these extreme, right-leaning GOP voters. Allowing someone like Greene to remain a voice for the GOP keeps those further-right voters interested, but how many centrists are lost in the process? Perhaps a great deal of them have already been lost at the hands of former President Donald Trump. But still, centrists remain.   

Politics is, however, fast-moving, and people oftentimes are quick to forget what may have happened four years prior. Should the Democrats nominate a candidate that isn’t particularly strong in 2024, and the GOP does nominate a strong candidate, there may be a great deal of potential GOP voters lost due to decisions against right extremists such as the one McCarthy has just recently made. 

The congressman from California and the rest of the Republican party must go further if they want to have a chance in the next election cycle.

Jack Schlafly is a senior broadcast and digital journalism major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at jcschlaf@syr.edu.  

Published on February 16, 2021 at 8:38 pm