OPINION

If Congresswoman Mary Miller (R-Oakland) wanted to be taken seriously, her first six months in office have shown she’s largely unwilling to do the things it takes for someone to be an effective member of Congress and has tied her political fortunes to the proverbial looney bin.

On her third day in office, Miller said “Hitler was right” in a public speech, voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, attacked Liz Cheney for telling the truth, staged a silly anti-mask protest on the House floor, and, most recently, voted against awarding medals to Capitol Police Officers who responded to the Capitol insurrection on January 6.

(Disclosure: I worked against Miller in a 2020 GOP primary and made numerous strong comments regarding her fitness for the job.)

Now she’s bringing the Queen of Congressional QAnon, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, to central Illinois to help her raise money.

This is the same Marjorie Taylor Greene who compared mask mandates to the Holocaust. This is the same Marjorie Taylor Greene who wanted to create a House caucus aimed at protecting “Anglo-Saxon political traditions.” This is the same Marjorie Taylor Greene who was bounced from her committee assignments in her first month on the job for her extremist comments.

Then there’s this stuff:

• She is closely tied to the QAnon conspiracy theory, which believes Donald Trump is secretly fighting a worldwide child-sex-slavery ring that was supposed to culminate in the mass arrest of his political opposition, is “worth listening to.”

• Muslims don’t belong in government.

• 9/11 was an inside job.

• Shootings at Parkland, Sandy Hook, and Las Vegas were staged.

• “Zionist supremacists” are secretly masterminding Muslim immigration to Europe in a scheme to outbreed white people.

• Leading Democratic officials should be executed.

Oh yeah, and the Jewish Space Lasers.

If Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the heart and soul of the Democratic party today, Marjorie Taylor Greene is the heart and soul of the conspiracy wing of the GOP.

If Illinois Republicans feel irrelevant around the state today, imagine how left in the dust they will feel if voters to buy in to the brain rot currently impacting the national Republican Party. And the scary part is Republican voters, especially downstate, are already lockstep with the crazy being spewed by people like Greene, Miller, Matt Gaetz, and anyone in the Trump inner circle.

Republican officeholders, candidates, political leaders, pundits, and regular Joe GOP voters need to start telling the truth. Trump lost the election. If the media was “against” him, it was his own doing. You don’t call a group the “enemy of the people” and get them to slap you on the back and report on you cheerily. He never had COVID under control (COVID was real and masks worked, by the way).

If you’re a Republican and you like Trump, that’s fine. You can like his style, his willingness to say things most politicians wouldn’t say, and the fact that he cut taxes and oversaw a generally positive economy in his term (minus the whole COVID thing.) But if you continue to allow people like Mary Miller, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and the other Kook Klux Klan in Washington continue to drag your party into the abyss, there’s no coming back. Never.

If Illinois Republicans want to be successful, it’s time to move past the era of Donald Trump. He’s not the party anymore and he was never the conservative alternative to Democrats. He supported banning “assault” weapons before running for President. He was adamantly anti-free trade and blew up the federal deficit (and would have done more if he ever got an infrastructure plan passed). Talking tough on immigration and on China did little to advance conservative causes. It’s like calling myself skinny because I ate a salad.

Yes, Illinois Republicans need more women in positions of power. But, Mary Miller isn’t it. Party leaders and voters should focus on elevating smart, thoughtful, accomplished women to positions of influence and higher office. People like Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris), who was defeated in a primary for Congress last year or Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst), a bright, accomplished attorney who acts as a prosecutor cross-examining Democrats on their controversial bills (much to their chagrin), or Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Morrisonville), who is young, smart, and relates to people more than another old white dude in the GOP. Mary Miller doesn’t hold a candle to these accomplished women.

Republicans, now is the time to act. Step up and tell Mary Miller to cancel her fundraiser with an anti-sematic conspiracy theorist. Don’t contribute to people that continue to push an agenda of misinformation, culture wars, and backward thinking that will bury your party for the long term.

My Grandpa always told me on the farm the best way to kill a snake was to cut it off at the head.

Cut this nonsense off at the head, Republicans. It has gone on too long.