Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has called for Kamala Harris to be banned after the Vice President suggested an assault weapons ban.
Harris was speaking in her capacity as the first-ever leader of the newly formed Office of Gun Violence Prevention, calling for a ban on assault weapons.
“Weapons of war have no place on the streets of a civil society,” Harris posted on X, formerly Twitter. “We need an assault weapons ban. Congress, send it to @JoeBiden’s desk.”
Greene, not known for her sophisticated thought process, responded with vitriol and hyperbole.
“America needs a ban on communist politicians like you,” Greene posted to X. “Shame on you for trying to destroy Americans’ right to defend ourselves while our polices have caused skyrocketing crime and our country to be invaded by criminals, gangs, and terrorists.”
Let’s unpack Greene’s post.
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Response
Greene starts by calling Kamala Harris a communist. Calling someone a communist has become the Right-wing stock rebuttal for anyone unwilling to promote draconian fiscal policies, or anyone who is vaguely associated with the Left.
At this point, the term has become so engrained within the right-wing lexicon and has come to be used so casually and inaccurately, that I’m no longer positive your baseline right-winger even knows what a communist is. The use of the term suggests that the baseline Right-winger does not know what a communist is.
Kamala Harris, for what it’s worth, is not a communist.
Not even close.
Harris is very much a capitalist, who has taken heat for allowing the unchecked expansion of big tech, and for being cozy with credit card companies. That being said, Greene isn’t going for accuracy, she’s going for a diss – and she accomplishes that much.
Greene then claims Harris is attempting to destroy Americans’ right to defend themselves. Two falsehoods here. First, Greene implies that an American’s right to defend oneself relies upon owning assault rifles. If you need an assault rifle to defend yourself you’re probably doing something wrong. Second, Greene implies that Americans have a constitutional right to own assault rifles. The Second Amendment grants the right to bear arms, but that does not explicitly include assault rifles – which had not yet been invented at the time the Second Amendment was penned.
Greene then blames Harris and her policies for having caused skyrocketing crime and an invasion of criminals, gangs, and terrorists. The first insinuation here is that Democrats have been soft on crime, that Democrats cowed to the Defund the Police movement, allowing for a spike in crime.
You won’t catch me defending the Defund the Police movement, but the ebb and flow of national crime rates are a poorly understood phenomenon that seems synchronized despite geographic isolation.
Harris cut her teeth as a prosecutor, putting people in jail to the extent that the Defund the Police movement criticized. The second insinuation is that Harris has botched her oversight of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Harris, in her role as Biden administration lead on immigration, certainly hasn’t solved the migration crisis – although, the migration crisis is a multi-faceted conundrum that has persisted through multiple administrations; the migration crisis is not Kamala Harris’s fault.
I probably shouldn’t have justified Greene’s commentary with a response, or an analysis. But she’s just so obnoxiously annoying, and so flippant with the facts, that I felt some pushback was necessary.
About the Author
Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor and opinion writer at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
