EDITORIAL: Madison Cawthorn’s petard

At 26 years of age, Rep. Madison Cawthorn is the youngest member of Congress in US history. This is the nicest thing we can say about him.

Cawthorn is a white supremacist who, while still a candidate, called his visit to the vacation home of Adolph Hitler a “bucket list” event. He’s a serial liar who made fabrications about his acceptance into the US Naval Academy (he wasn’t) and training as a Special Olympian (nope). He’s a criminal who has this year brought a loaded gun to the airport and been charged with driving without a license. He spilled the tea about coke orgies in Congress. He dick-slapped his cousin.

And he’s in lockstep with Trump, going so far as to help him whip up the crowd before the Jan. 6 Insurrection.

Cawthorn is so loathsome that the rest of the North Carolina GOP hate him, too — on the establishment side, anyway. Sen. Thom Tillis has endorsed one of his primary challengers, Chuck Edwards. And scuttlebutt says that the oppo research against Cawthorn is coming from inside the house, so to speak — that is, from sources within the NC GOP.

But what’s a progressive to do about Cawthorn?

Yes, the reasoning goes, he’s despicable and immature, lacks the proper respect and qualifications for his office, abetted an actual insurrection and, on top of that, he’s completely full of shit.

But! If the local Republicans hate him… he can’t be all that bad, right? (Spoiler alert: He is that bad.)

In the Triad, we can say that Cawthorn is not our problem because he’s not in our district — he represents Asheville, of all places, in the 11^th District seat once held by Mark Meadows, who is also, possibly, a traitor to our country.

But Cawthorn, who like his mentor Trump has weaponized the trappings of fame, is everybody’s problem because he’s a sitting member of Congress and his ideas are gaining traction nationally. So the only thing to do is move to the 11^th District and vote against him, and bring a bunch of friends.

Or the concerned progressive can just sit back and watch as the conservatives, again, eat one of their own.