Gathering in Atlanta for Thanksgiving, no one ventured anything along political lines until our son’s 86-year-old mother-in-law asked everyone what they thought of Majorie Taylor Green (MTG), the controversial Georgia Republican representative. Everyone chimed in. She is everyone’s hero for standing up to President Trump, including the family Democrats. She’s even on the left-wing “The Week” magazine, contesting Trump:

This reaction shows far-out positions race across media at the speed of light, while we shun actual policy discussions. Name the first twenty politicians you think of. Sure, you’ll include Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Clintons and Obamas.

Still, beyond them, you’re likely to name the likes of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, A.O.C., Zohran Mamdani, Jasmine Crockett, Pete Hegseth, Sean Duffy, and J.D. Vance. What do they all have in common? They’re all media savvy. It may not be too strong to say that the media brought them to their present prominence.

While we are well aware of these people, none of us associates them with any deep, well-reasoned policy positions. To be sure, they have policies, free buses, little or no immigration, high tariffs, and price controls, but none of them provides a well-reasoned defense of their positions, leaving the tasks to others. Think tanks and media outlets are left to make their positions seem coherent.

Contrast that with Reagan’s radio talks, spelling out and selling his policies. Clinton and Carter were policy wonks.

Can you imagine any of these current media politicians gaining prominence at the founding of our nation? No TV, Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram, only the written word published in newspapers, pamphlets, and honed in lengthy correspondence with other knowledgeable people.

Instead of snippets, the founding fathers had to flesh out and defend their ideas while pursuing well-thought-out counterarguments. To be sure, Colonists such as Ben Franklin could wow audiences in person, but the means to consistently reach the masses beyond the written word didn’t exist. Due to the colonies’ high literacy rate, reaching them was very doable.

Just imagine our current media political darlings spelling out their ideas and programs on paper and defending them in writing. Can President Trump make a coherent defense of his tariffs without stumbling over all the contradictions? Some think tank types, such as Oren Cass, try to defend the tariffs, but Trump’s statements don’t align with them. Are they to protect certain U.S. businesses or to raise revenue? Cass talks up protecting home products, while Trump touts huge revenue.

Apparently, those who make up the resistance to President Trump and the Republicans are willing to overlook MTG’s multitude of conspiracy theories and isolationism if she breaks with the President. Now she’s a women’s rights advocate, willing to sacrifice her political career by resigning on principle. Even those with advanced “Trump derangement syndrome”could rally to MTG.

While acknowledging that was one scenario, I offered another. By waiting to be crushed by a Trump-backed challenger in a primary and joining a whole list of retiring Republicans in fading into the sunset, MTG is clever enough to drop out now and challenge Trump directly. She now gets press coverage from media outlets that distained her in the past, while seeing her as standing up for the MAGA base. , the conspiracy theorists and isolationists.

This stance puts her in a position to put Trump’s likely successors, such as J.D. Vance, in an uncomfortable position of being attacked from the right by someone getting media time from left-wing outlets. She is unlikely to win the Republican nomination, but she can be a force the party can’t ignore. She could demand a price. Her actions make perfect sense for a media-savvy politician. She’s no policy genius, but you have to give points for being clever.

There were murmurs of, I never thought of it that way. A different point of view may have prompted some perceptual modification. The MTG discussion was lively and free of rancor. It took an 86-year-old to start it. We need more discourse, not less, to understand today’s political world. Discussing how modern social media affects our politics was a healthy start. By the way, the turkey dinner was exceptional.