Arch-conservative Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was as soon as one among President Donald Trump’s largest allies. Now she is the topic of Trump’s scorn and ire, as he activates her for breaking with Republican management and pursuing the discharge of the Jeffrey Epstein information.
Every day Kos’ Alex Samuels has already dug into the Georgia Congress member’s about-face, concluding, “Whether Greene is actually breaking from MAGA or simply navigating a particularly messy public rupture remains an open question. What’s clearer is that the man who once empowered her is now targeting her—and Greene is discovering that stepping away from Trumpism can be far more dangerous than embracing it.”
That query does stay open, however let’s have a look at Greene’s transformation from a distinct angle. And to take action, let’s return to her Sunday interview on CNN.
“The most hurtful thing [Trump] said, which is absolutely untrue, is he called me a traitor, and that is so extremely wrong,” Greene instructed Dana Bash. “Those are the types of words used that can radicalize people against me and put my life in danger.”
Bash countered by asking: Wasn’t that language that Greene herself had used for years towards her political enemies?
“I would like to say, humbly, I’m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics; it’s very bad for our country,” Greene answered considerably surprisingly. “It’s been something I’ve thought about a lot, especially since Charlie Kirk was assassinated.”
Nice, she realized! We are going to settle for steps towards civility wherever we are able to. However let’s word for a second that Greene didn’t worry for her life when it was the left that hated her. It was solely when Trump went after her that she was abruptly scared about her security. Perhaps we are able to dispense with the “left is violent” nonsense the suitable has been attempting to promote.
Extra importantly, we’re as soon as once more watching a conservative uncover an ethical precept solely after it landed straight on her personal head. That is the defining sample of recent conservatism: Empathy arrives solely when the ache turns into private.
Conservatives aren’t precisely quiet about their disdain for empathy. World’s richest man Elon Musk has stated, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.” Conservative podcaster Josh McPherson declared, “Empathy is dangerous. Empathy is toxic. Empathy will align you with hell.” Earlier than he turned a right-wing political martyr, Charlie Kirk stated, “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that—it does a lot of damage.”
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There may be even science behind this. One Finnish research that scanned contributors’ brains whereas they performed an empathy analysis concluded that “this neural empathy response was significantly stronger in the leftist than in the rightist group.”
Conservatism has at all times reserved its compassion for the in-group and weaponized worry towards everybody else. Outsiders have to be othered, vilified, dehumanized—immigrants are forged as invaders, trans individuals as threats, and anybody unfamiliar as an existential hazard. It’s the identical playbook each time.
These ways had been devastatingly efficient towards homosexual individuals for many years, till the wedding equality motion’s breakthrough: popping out. All of a sudden conservatives found their kids, siblings, and coworkers had been the very individuals they’d been taught to despise. And as soon as it touched them personally—as soon as the “outsiders” turned insiders—public opinion shifted. Not as a result of the suitable discovered empathy, however as a result of their self-interest lastly collided with actuality.
Liberals, for all of the caricatures about “coastal elites,” by no means balked at their tax {dollars} flowing to rural communities or to catastrophe aid in purple states battered by hurricanes, floods, or tornadoes. Blue states have backed purple states for generations with out resentment, as a result of the intuition is straightforward: They’re our fellow Individuals, and we don’t abandon individuals in want. That’s what empathy seems like—giving assist even when the individuals you’re serving to may by no means vote such as you, assume such as you, or thanks. It displays a worldview grounded within the concept of a shared nationwide group, not a transactional one.
Rural America, frankly, solely exists on the scale it does due to that empathy. Decade after decade, Democratic-led states and concrete taxpayers have propped up rural hospitals, rural faculties, rural infrastructure, rural broadband, and the postal routes no personal firm would ever hassle to serve.
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And in return, rural voters handed energy to Trump—the person who’s gutting the Reasonably priced Care Act subsidies preserving medical clinics open, threatening the Postal Service their communities depend on, dismantling the Division of Training that funds their faculties, and killing the broadband investments that maintain their cities related to the trendy economic system.
In a placing twist, Greene lately signaled a break along with her personal social gathering’s anti-ACA agenda as a result of “when the tax credits expire this year my own adult children’s insurance premiums for 2026 are going to DOUBLE,” she wrote. Her concern wasn’t about precept—it was about her children’ pocketbooks.
Empathy is what stored these rural communities afloat. By embracing Trumpism, they’ve endangered the very lifelines they rely on. Solely now, when the cuts land on their very own doorsteps, do they abruptly rediscover concern.
They are saying, “This isn’t what I voted for,” they usually’re proper—they voted for different individuals to get harm, not them. Now everybody else is meant to care.
And that brings us again to Marjorie Taylor Greene. As a result of what we’re watching along with her isn’t only a political rupture or a messy MAGA divorce: It’s the identical dynamic enjoying out but once more. She didn’t care when Trump’s assaults had been aimed outward at immigrants, Democrats, journalists, LGBTQ+ individuals, or anybody else in his lengthy parade of supposed enemies. She didn’t care when the threats, the dehumanization, and the violence had been directed at another person’s household, another person’s group, another person’s life. She was an enthusiastic participant.
However now that Trump has turned the machine on her, abruptly the stakes are completely different. All of a sudden the rhetoric is “dangerous.” All of a sudden she fears for her security. All of a sudden she needs civility and accountability. As a result of it impacts her.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia speaks at a rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on June 9, 2024, in Las Vegas.
That is the core distinction between our politics and theirs. Empathy doesn’t require experiencing private hurt as a way to kick in. Empathy doesn’t wait till the wound is in your physique. Empathy doesn’t want the fireplace to succeed in your own home earlier than you seize a hose. They solely care when it impacts them; we care as a result of it impacts anybody.
And so Greene has stumbled into the reality the onerous method: The cruelty she as soon as championed was by no means a software she managed—it was a pressure she fed. And when you unleash a motion constructed on vengeance and grievance, you don’t get to decide on its targets. Not even when you had been as soon as favored by it.
What she’s experiencing now isn’t an aberration. It’s the logical finish of a political philosophy that believes empathy is weak point, cruelty is power, and group is one thing that solely applies to the individuals in your personal nook. That is what occurs when a motion defines “us” so narrowly that finally everybody turns into “them.”
Ultimately, Greene lastly discovered the suitable reply: dial down the hate, tone down the threats, cease treating politics like a blood sport. However she arrived there because of the solely purpose her social gathering’s motion ever adjustments—as a result of it lastly harm her. Empathy wasn’t the revelation. Self-preservation was.
