So, to be clear upfront, she's still an awful person, I'm not defending any of the immensely shitty things she's done, and I'm maybe using deprogram a bit generously, but follow me here for a sec.
(Also I'm not a political science major or anything I'm just someone who has been politically active for over half my life who is wrong as often as I'm right when it comes to speculation. Take all of this with a grain of salt, it's literally just my opinion.)
Something I've seen people talk about and I myself have pointed out is that the politicians who make up the majority of the GOP do not actually represent their voters best interests nor do they even represent them at all, really. We're seeing that a lot right now with Trump claiming he's making things better for his loyal voters when he's clearly just doing whatever will make him richer and more powerful at the expense of the people who got him into office, need help, and desperately believe he will bring it. Republicans are being grifted by the people they vote in, because the GOP constantly acts against their interests and needs and then get away with it by exploiting their voter's general Christianity and bigotry to get away with fucking them over by blaming their actions on immigrants and trans people. Pick an enemy to blame and they fall in line and never really seem to notice that their party isn't doing what it said it would do. Exploit hate to gain power and wealth. That's the GOP gambit.
And one of the reasons I think this never really gets noticed by Republicans most of them don't become politicians nor are they given the education and resources they need to realize what they're being used in service of, because it's fucking hard to run for office especially in states with poor education and healthcare and where the only college options put you in debt forever. It self-selects people who can afford to run in those areas, most of which are rich Republicans who also do not talk the same way they're walking and know when they get to D.C. they need to fall in line, amass riches, and then do anything you can to stay in power as long as possible. Don't have real beliefs and convictions, you pretend to and then make out like a bandit on oil lobbying money.
MTG is interesting because she kinda proves what we all already knew, the GOP is a massive grift that has very little actual convictions behind it aside from make money and stay in power, because she's at odds with her party for having beliefs and convictions she isn't willing to be bought out of. We know for a fact that Trump and the GOP have been putting huge pressure on their congressmen to vote specific ways. I can't even count how many times a GOP politican had been openly ready to break the party line only for them to have a mysterious conversation with the president and suddenly change their mind on their vote. The reason so many GOP congressmen refuse to touch the Epstein thing isn't because they don't think there's anything incriminating in there, it's because Trump is their precious money god and he's got them on a tight leash.
So we can then assume that MTG is getting insane pressure for not only refusing to back down on the Epstein Files, but for pushing forward and openly saying there is absolutely nothing that would ever get her to change her mind, and that she would use her power as a congressman to not be legally persecuted for anything said on the House floor to read the entire list of the perpetrators either the one from the victims or the one from the DOJ, and that's that.
I dont want to give her too much credit but it's ballsy as fuck to be someone who is a very, very new politican who's only served four years and isn't a Senator to break with their party leaders like that. She's not as rich as a lot of them are, and even if she was almost no one has the means to run a campaign off their own money, so the GOP almost certainly started trying to offer her money and bribes and when that didn't work then switched to threatening to withhold campaign funds, to primary her, to never endorse her, to slander her in the press so she never works again, and she has not cracked.
In contrast to the rest of her party and how politics just works for both parties(watch the Last Week Tonight segment on political fundraising it's eye opening) what she's doing is insane. Like even DEMOCRATS will withhold funding and try to destroy anyone who stands even the smallest chance of upsurping any old guard Dem. There's a reason they treat AOC they way they do, there's a reason no one who primaries old Dems ever gets any endorsement or money, and it's why no major Democrat will even consider endorsing Mandami even though he played by the rules and won the primary fair and square. It's a fucking hierarchy designed to keep specific people in power by maintaining a bullshit structure that fights change.
So the reason I use "deprogramming" is because to me it seems clear that what's going on with her, with her being willing to call out other GOP politicians for being racist (even if that seems silly since she's clearly racist as hell), how she will not back down on the Epstein thing, how she's now opening being mocked by others for saying the very normal and correct sentence of "solitary confinement is akin to torture and no one should be subjected to it", makes me think that she really bought in to the conspiracy and just really, really believed them...and then she met her heroes and was forced to realize they are not the men they claimed they were, and actually all they care about is money and staying in power by any means necessary.
Like, there's no way the people in congress don't know Trump is in there. We know he's calling all of the representatives and senators to force them to not let anything through and it does not take a smart person to figure out the only reason Trump is doing this is because there is something in there that will ruin him. (And I think he knows that given how one of his latest truth social posts kinda read like he was getting scared of being arrested.)
So MTG believed Trump. She was QAnon first which is what radicalized her and pushed her to get into politics, it was all so she could help drain the swamp. And then she started working and had to contend with the reality that everyone she looked up to as beacons of morality and justice and idk christianness weren't what they claimed to be at all. They don't care about kids. They don't care about victims, they don't care about draining the swamp, they care about money and staying in power. Which is, to her credit, not what she seems to care about.
Now, do I think that means we need to be nice to her? No, absolutely not. But I also don't think we should be mean to her either rn. She still holds a lot of awful believes and has done horrible things that I do believe should disqualify someone from office, but at the same time I've seen cracks form in right leaning and hard right people, and I think she's reaching a point where if the right people reach out and try to get through to her it might work. I know we all want to knee jerk and go "why do you only care about people suffering in jail when it's someone you know and care about??" Sure we can have that convo, if/when the deprogramming works, but as anyone who has had a bigoted friend or parent or sibling who changed their mind and became allies when they came out, sometimes you do need just one person you care about to be on the chopping block for the whole cult-y ass ideology you've fallen into to crack. And I see the cracks.
I won't hold my breath ofc this is just speculation and she's still surrounded by people who surely will only reenforce her belief in the cult, but...there have just been too many "MTG figured it out!? Oh this hurts" moments so deep down I do think she's in a place where the right people could snap her out of this and turn her if not into a Dem, then at least a centrist or a more moderate republican and I do think from a harm reduction standpoint that would be a win. Every single time we lose a republican or a bigot to realizing they were wrong it's a win. Even if they were influential and did harm. Everyone deserves a shot at changing for the better. I really believe that, and holding true to your convictions is important even when it sucks.
So idk maybe she isn't changing and I'm insane, but I think when it comes to anyone on the right showing cracks if you can't be nice or like them or want to offer them a hand, but at least don't make it harder for everyone else by making fun of them so hard they just fall right back into the grip of the cult.
And regardless of all of that, if nothing else, I do still think the situation is fascinating.
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