The New York Times features a long and insightful profile of the firebrand MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene today. It it a piece giving her grudging respect for holding President Trump to what she sees as his campaign promises, and to other MAGA values. Although I suspect what most impresses the New York Times is MTG’s turn against Israel.

She is now operating as a powerful free agent with considerable self-regard and a big chip on her shoulder. She appears to feel no obligation to anyone in Washington — certainly not to Speaker Mike Johnson, whom she tried to oust last year for allowing a vote on continued U.S. aid to Ukraine, and increasingly not even to Mr. Trump.

On a variety of topics including the release of documents related to the case against the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the war in Gaza, artificial intelligence and America’s involvement in Iran and Ukraine, Ms. Greene has broken sharply with the man she still calls “my favorite president.”

The fact is that our system was built for elected officials who have something of MTG’s attitude. Although MTG looks like a an attention-seeker among her colleagues today, that is actually her ambition, which is something the Founders accounted for (and counted on) in their design of our system.  The dysfunction of Congress is down to the iron grip that “leadership” has, and can only have because most people in Congress are willing to just be party-men and drones at the lowest possible level.