When embattled freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), took to the U.S. House floor Thursday morning in advance of a chamberwide vote to possibly strip her of all committee assignments, she spoke through a face mask embroidered with that most iconic of all American rallying cries: “FREE SPEECH.” Greene thus followed in the footsteps of many others on the Right who respond to a domineering and increasingly illiberal ruling class with rote proceduralist appeals to free speech and open discourse—whether in the context of media/academia-driven “cancel culture,” ideologically homogenizing Big Tech censorship or elsewhere.
On the merits, it is a mistake to strip Greene, who has previously flirted with the QAnon conspiracy theory and has voiced numerous other ludicrous beliefs, of all House committee assignments. While punishing duly elected congressmen and senators for post-election statements and actions is an issue of case-by-case prudence, punishing congressmen and senators for pre-election statements and conduct would set a chilling precedent and undermine rudimentary notions of republican self-governance. There are other remedies for Greene’s myriad foes to pursue, such as a 2022 primary challenge or, as The Washington Post’s Henry Olsen argues, congressional redistricting.
But the fact that Greene—an erstwhile QAnon adherent, 9/11 “Truther” and believer that the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting was a “false flag” operation—can so effortlessly retreat to the comparatively safe terrain of “free speech” ought to concern conservatives. It is a reminder of the inherent moral limitations of appeals to liberal procedure in lieu of underlying substance. Moreover, conservatives would be making a tactical error if they were to lionize Greene and like-minded fringe figures as valiant martyrs for “free speech” ideals.
By Josh Hammer, Newsweek Opinion Editor
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