A certain combination of incompetence and indifference can cause almost as much suffering as the most acute malevolence.
There is a rowdy strain in American life living close to the surface but running very deep. Like an ape behind a mask, it can display itself suddenly and with terrifying effect.
--Bruce Catton, historian
Everyone knows why MGT quit.
I've heard Bill Clinton explain it. I've heard James Carville explain it. I've heard discussions from Brooks and Capehart-- from just about every pundit I tuned into and none of them has the faintest idea.
MGT herself has said she didn't want to be in the Congress which impeaches and removes Trump because that is what she says the 2026 election is all about: As soon as the Democrats seize control, they'll try to oust Trump through the impeachment and trial option and she doesn't want to be part of that.
That might make sense, if the Democrats had a snowball's chance in Hell of taking the Senate, even if they can retake the House.
Most pundits simply say what they want to say about the world: Bill Clinton says people are tired of the sniping and frustrated with the division and all they want is to make nice and build a country together, which is what he always says and has always said because he thinks it makes him look homespun, wise and someone we should all want to listen to.
James Carville is saying "I told you so." He is saying this is a signing of the impending doom of the MAGA party, because that's what he always says.
But Mad Dog thinks the answer is obvious: Ms. Greene has, after 4 years, discovered being one of 435 Representatives is just not much fun and does not make her a movie star, which is what she really wanted to be all along, not a Congresswoman.
She is leaving because she has discovered the job is no fun, not glamourous and is like real work.
She's not alone: plenty of people choose the wrong jobs and then bail when they find out what it's really like. Happens to graduates of medical school all the time: they think they are going to be heroes, or living the life they've seen on TV in "Scrubs" or "ER," and they find out it's not like that.
And as for prestige, or being esteemed because you are a U.S. Congresswoman: Forget it. When you look around at the mediocrities who are in your class, you know there's nothing special about being a Congresswoman.
Being a Congresswoman means dialing for dollars from the moment you arrive at your new office in Washington, D.C., calls to rich people begging for money for your next campaign. Being one face in a class of 435 is not much fun if you want attention. There's not even a cheerleading squad to try out for.
For people who came to Washington to change the world, or to stand up on a stage and preach to others about how we need to change the world, Congress is a disappointment.
For people like MTG who wanted nothing more than a fast and easy track to celebrity, Congress can work for a while, but keeping that spotlight focused on you is a non stop demand and not as much fun as it looked from the red dirt 14th district in Georgia, especially when there are other mean girls competing for the fickle eye of that FOXNEWS camera--like Lauren Boebert and Elsie Stephanek.
The pay is not all that great, and the travel back and forth from DC to Georgia gets old real fast. Congress people used to move to DC and move their families into apartments or houses and go back to their districts for holidays, and when Congress was not in session. Now they fly home every Thursday night and return Sunday nights. It's a commuter job.
And then there's the "constituent services" part of the job--all those members of the public who think you have the power to get them a job, or get the IRS off their backs or help their mothers in the nursing homes get a motorized wheelchair.
And you've got staffers who keep asking for favors, who want you to help them with their careers.
It can get to feel like a real job, but you don't really have any real power and the best you can hope for is screen time and photo ops.
When you're running, it can be a heady feeling, what with everyone listening to you and photographing you and even cheering sometimes.
We have a woman right here in Hampton running for Congress and every other day I get an email from her telling me about how important children are, or schools are, and how we ought to be building communities together, and more affordable housing. She thinks she has something important to say. She thinks becoming a Congresswoman will make her important.
But, truth be told, she will face the same disappointment MTG faced, if she ever does get elected.
Democrats tend to want to use government to change the world. Mad Dog's favorite is Elizabeth Warren, who has a plan for everything. Mad Dog loves Senator Warren, but she is really like a Sunday preacher, telling you what you know is right and true and how the world should be, but we are all sinners, forever disappointing her, and she doesn't have a chance of actually succeeding in changing anything.
Republicans tend to want to tear everything down, because they are basically unreconstructed preadolescents who are pumped full of hormones and really don't know what they want, but they are angry about it. And they know that whoever is in charge is screwing them.
Outside the Willard Hotel, set into the concrete of the sidewalk is a quote from the wonderful historian, Bruce Catton. Mad Dog has never been able to Google the exact quote but it is some like this: "People come to Washington, D.C. in search of something which will change their fate and launch them into history, but they do not understand what they are looking for is inside themselves."
Marjorie Taylor Greene took four years figuring that out.
