You’d think the Democrats would have learned their lesson from the experience of the past half-decade. Remember the center-left pundits who were more concerned with the blandly conventional Marco Rubio in the 2016 GOP primaries than the cartoonish Trump? And the anonymous sources in Hillary Clinton’s campaign who were thrilled by the prospect of facing Trump in the general election?
There’s no reason to think the incessant focus on Greene will elevate her all the way to the White House. But lavishing attention on her definitely will vastly raise her profile and increase the size of her audience beyond her Georgia district. Ensuring that Greene becomes nationally known could definitely increase GOP woes in the suburbs. But it might also further whet Republican appetites for ever-more outlandish candidates. Given the vagaries of our country’s electoral system and Republican efforts to game it to their advantage, that could prove to be more than a little dangerous.
That’s why you might think the best course of action would be for party leaders to defy the demotic sentiments of grassroots Republicans and punish Greene for her antics, much as they did with Rep. Steve King, who was stripped of his committee assignments in January 2019 after a series of overtly racist comments. King then lost to a primary challenger in 2020.
It’s possible this could work again, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
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