Self-Destruction on the Right?

A couple of days ago I assumed the newsmakers wouldn’t do anything alarming before today. Well, I was mistaken. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had busloads of migrants dumped in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’s house on Christmas Eve, in below freezing weather. A group called the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network swooped in and got the migrants food and shelter. They say they’re used to it, no big deal.

The nonprofits that have organized to take care of the humanity Abbott has been dumping on them say it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, if only Texas (and Florida) would be willing to coordinate what it’s doing with federal and local authorities instead of just randomly dumping busloads of people in northern cities with no advance notice. But of course this is all about Abbott showing off what an asshole he is to amuse the home folks and “own the Libs,” who are not in fact “owned.” So that’s not going to happen.

Speaking of assholes, a number of Republican office holders show are at least going through the preliminary steps of challenging Trump for the GOP nomination in 2024. Trump’s early declaration is not going to clear the field.

Even better, some circular firing squads are forming. Pillow Guy Mike Lindell is floating the theory that Ron DeSantis is guilty of election fraud. “On his show Tuesday, Lindell indicated that he’s going to turn his crack team of voter-fraud investigators on DeSantis’s win in the 2022 midterms,” it says here. Lindell is suspicious because DeSantis’s margin of victory looked too big, and because DeSantis is now considered the real front runner for the 2024 GOP nomination.

And then a few days ago a cat fight broke out between Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. They are no longer allies. I take it the basis of the rift has to do with Greene’s continued unwavering support for Donald Trump and for Kevin McCarthy to be Speaker of the House. Boebert refuses to commit to Trump in 2024 and to McCarthy ever.

And the Daily Beast reports that the Far Right has turned on MTG as a “faker.”

As for why fellow extremists are upset? That’s three-fold—and it involves Greene’s vocal support for Rep. Kevin McCarthy to be the next Speaker of the House, her public spat with onetime friend Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and the finalization of her divorce.

“MTG wants to protect McCarthy from being removed if he is elected Speaker,” Jan 6th organizer Ali Alexander wrote on Telegram, seething over Greene. “There is something so odd about what is going on between McCarthy and MTG. I’ve only ever once before seen anything like it. It may be time for me to intervene.”

The “Stop the Steal” leader—once an ally of Greene’s—subsequently returned to Telegram to tear into the Georgia Republican, who he referred to as a “trailer park hoodrat,” for “attacking” Boebert earlier this week after the Colorado congresswoman ignited a public feud with Greene. …

… Likewise, former Right Side Broadcasting Network host-turned-failed Republican congressional candidate Mike Crispi suggested that Greene was being “blackmailed” by McCarthy, which he called the “only logical explanation” for her fervent support.

“All she does is bully and try to discredit,” he continued of the Georgia Republican.

White nationalist leader-turned-Kanye West informal campaign associate Nicholas Fuentes additionally turned on Greene earlier this month after she denounced him in late November, despite speaking at Fuentes’s annual AFPAC conference months earlier in March.

Fuentes—who now refers to Greene as “Large Marge”—has since encouraged his white nationalist “groyper” followers to heckle Greene at her campaign events.

Next year may not be that awful.