Marjorie Taylor Greene is in court.

The far right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene was cheered into court in Georgia on Friday, for a hearing in an attempt by a coalition of voters and liberal groups to bar her from Congress under the 14th amendment to the US constitution, for aiding the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

Some people in the courtroom cheered and applauded as Greene took her seat.

As the hearing began, Greene tweeted: “Only the People have the right to choose who they send to Congress.”

Well, no, it’s not that simple. Suppose a candidate is convicted of murder and sentenced to prison, and then elected to Congress – does the candidate get to leave prison and report for duty as a legislator? I don’t think so.

The 14th amendment, passed after the civil war, says: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

That’s one of the very unsettling things about this whole clusterfuck – we’ve been here before, the insurrection was very real, the violence was brutal, the death toll was huge. We think of ourselves as a nice stable democracy, an example to others, but the reality is rather different.

Organisers of events in Washington on January 6 have tied Greene to their efforts. Greene has denied such links and said she does not encourage violence.

In October, however, she told a radio show: “January 6 was just a riot at the Capitol and if you think about what our Declaration of Independence says, it says to overthrow tyrants.”

Who is the tyrant? Show us on the doll where the tyrant is.