0615blog

Spot Changing, I Think Not

Are we just an insignificant speck in the infinite, historical bowels of the universe or are we all equally vital parts of the ongoing miracle of existence.

In thinking of Marjorie Taylor Greene I lean toward the bowels. Greene is someone who becomes uglier and uglier the more I see her sanctimonious, grinning, smug mug. Earlier in the month Greene, the Republican wingnut, white supremacist member of Congress from Georgia, compared face-masking policies aimed at curbing COVID-19 to the holocaust and the Nazi practice of labeling Jews with yellow Star of David badges while she also compared the Democrats to the Nazi Party.

But undoubtedly after an extensive, gut wrenching period of deep and painful introspection, Greene found the mettle and recanted her comments on June 14 and apologized in her most virtuous and utterly principled manner for having previously compared the face-masking to the holocaust but stood firm on her comparison of Democrats and Nazis and anyone who thinks Greene’s admissions were anything but sincere and were based on sticking her finger up to test the political winds is just wrong and might as well believe in QAnon and actually Greene is a follower of the crazy QAnon conspiracy theories. She also is the same woman who inferred that an international Jewish banking conspiracy had caused lasers to trigger the 2018 California wildfires, just south of Texas Republican Rep. Louie “Goofball” Gohmert’s bizarre suggestions that changing the orbits of the earth and moon could solve the climate crisis or Rep. Andrew Clyde, coincidentally also a Republican from Georgia, who said the capitol insurrection never happened and that the whole thing was just a normal tourist visit. Nuts, all.

Some of the QAnon theories also have been tied to anti-Semitic tropes, like the false claims that Jewish rituals involve the murder of Christian children, the so-called blood libel; and the unending animus toward the Jewish billionaire and philanthropist George Soros and the alleged “global elite of bankers,” translated into Jews.

So, no, I don’t believe Greene found God and I don’t buy Greene’s apology any more than I believed the Nazis, who when they were on trial as war criminals and facing hanging, claimed they didn’t know the Jews were being massacred at the concentration camps. I don’t believe that anti-Semites change any more than I believe that the members of the Ku Klux Klan will trade in their robes for cassocks or that trump will take a vow of silence and live a monastic life. Anti-Semitism does not come about a person suddenly, the anger and hatred builds over years and it will not disappear in a matter of weeks, despite what Greene would have you believe.

Either the lady from Georgia is a total moron or is altogether bereft of any conscience and is a inveterate liar, or, more likely, all three. But the worst is that she was elected and that she wore her bigotry on her sleeve like a badge of honor and that so many people from the Peach State thought she was a peach of a candidate.

Greene’s recantation rings as hollow as those of Hans Frank who served as the Nazi governor of Poland from 1939 to the end of the war and under whose reign, around 2.5 million Jews were exploited in slave labor. During his time as the Nazi leader in Poland, the extermination camps in eastern Poland were constructed. At first Frank denied knowing anything about Auschwitz, even though Auschwitz was only 30 miles from Krakow, the seat of his administrative offices. Frank later changed his tune but still denied responsibility for the camp and the deaths and later condemned Hitler as he plead for mercy. Frank was sentenced to death by hanging.

Or Alfred Jodl, the Chief of the Operations Section of the Wehrmacht who was involved in the destruction of Czechoslovakia and during his trial claimed the Czechs initiated the invasion by massing troops on the German border, even though Jodl knew that plans for the invasion of Czechoslovakia were in place at least six months before the invasion. He said the invasion of the Soviet Union was a defensive gesture and also denied responsibility for promoting forced labor, saying essentially that he was only following orders while he claimed that “It is not the task of a soldier to be the judge of his Commander in Chief. May history or the Almighty do that.” Jodl was sentenced to death by hanging.

Or Baldur von Schirach, head of the Hitler Youth movement, who claimed he supported the deportation of Reich Jews following the Kristallnacht attacks because he thought it was in the best interest of Jews. Von Schirach was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.

To be fair, something that Greene doesn’t deserve, there are many others like her in government, many who lie and deny the most obvious, like the attack on the capitol or the subversion of democracy by trump and his many, many followers. I wonder how they sleep at night.