Progressive Squad remains intact, but racist wins in Georgia

Michael F. Brown Power Suits 12 August 2020

Woman speaks at podium with women and banners behind her

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar handily defeated Antone Melton-Meaux, a favorite of the Israel lobby, in a Minnesota primary matchup on Tuesday.

Sue Dorfman ZUMA Press

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon conspiracy theorist, gun fanatic, racist, Islamophobe and anti-Semite who loves Israel, has won her runoff against John Cowan for Georgia’s conservative 14th congressional district.

President Donald Trump promptly called her a “future Republican Star” and “a real WINNER.”

In the midst of a pandemic to which the US response has been abysmal, Republican northwest Georgia voters sent a clear signal that they support white supremacy, guns and off-the-wall QAnon tales of Satanic pedophiles in the Democratic Party. Unsurprisingly, Trump is standing with the conspiracy theorists.

The outcome was expected. Yet it speaks volumes about the disregard for science and a fact-based approach to addressing an enormous public health crisis in the US.

That this view of the world was advanced by a pro-Israel and pro-Trump fanatic is indicative of the direction of the Republican Party as it continues to drive the country into a national health crisis most have not seen in their lifetimes.

Greene pursued her bigoted positions right through the final days of her campaign, even pushing to take away the American citizenship of George Soros.

The Georgia Republican is likely to replace the recently defeated Congressman Steve King as the leading racist in the Republican ranks. The Republican Party, as reported by Politico, did little to block her rise.

Greene is expected to win easily against her Democratic opponent in November in the strongly conservative district.

Unbroken Squad

More than 1,000 miles to the northwest, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar fended off Democratic primary challenger Antone Melton-Meaux.

This was no mean feat against a well-funded candidate who nearly matched the incumbent Omar in funding. The New York Times reported his campaign had raised more than $4 million.

The Times noted, “Ms. Omar supports an effort to divest from Israel over its treatment of Palestinians, while Mr. Melton-Meaux has the backing of several pro-Israel groups.”

Details were not provided.

But Tom Perkins at Mondoweiss asserts that the Israel lobby spent some $2 million to defeat Omar.

CNN cited “several hundred thousand dollars” that had been “bundled by a pair of pro-Israel political action committees.”

Politico noted, vaguely, that “A top spending super PAC, with ties to a pro-Israel group, kicked in $1.5 million on TV ads to boost Omar.”

Nonetheless, the funders’ rage at Omar and her support for Palestinian freedom went down in defeat Tuesday evening. Omar appears to have won by a convincing margin of nearly 20 percentage points.

It’s quite a victory against her opponents in an Israel lobby that continues to reject freedom and human rights for Palestinians.

The progressive Squad of Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley is now well on its way to returning in full to Washington.

Progressives Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman are expected to be among those joining them in January.

As ugly as the turn of events in northwest Georgia is, these progressives provide reason to hope that politicians holding more sensible positions on everything from Medicare for All to freedom for Palestinians will be bringing much needed change to Washington.

Their new ideas are essential in providing a corrective to the obscene policies of Trump and Mike Pence.

They also provide a counterpoint to the ossified views of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party platform when it comes to Palestinian rights.

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Frank Dallas replied on

Not a rational word issues from the woman's mouth. Those who vote for her would be sorry if they got what she stands for. Conspiracy theories have one thing in common: no evidence. Where there is no evidence for your argument, it's the argument that has to change.

Michael F. Brown

Michael F. Brown is an independent journalist. His work and views have appeared in The International Herald Tribune, TheNation.com, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The News & Observer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Post and elsewhere.