Rep. Nancy Mace and Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene:

Greetings from the sports desk located somewhere below decks of the Good Pirate Ship RedState. Usually, I’d be writing about athletes and teams and such, leaving politics to the superb crew aboard our sporty vessel. However, something has come up requiring yours truly to address matters of the body politic.

Namely, you two.

The recent article in The Hill detailing a growing social media spat between you is profoundly concerning. We’re not Democrats here aboard the GPSRS. We expect there will be different opinions, and we respect each other even when there is a strong disagreement. If you want proof of that, check out the coverage here during the 2020 2021 Tokyo Olympics of Simone Biles. We expect the same of our political leaders. Robust debate and hard-earned consensus are vital to the public discourse. Iron sharpens iron.

Name-calling? Doesn’t cut it.

Representative Greene, we love your passion. You’re a firebrand with a seemingly inexhaustible fuel supply. We need that. We also need careful aim of the fire. Taking shots at moronic mask requirements and hypocrisy? Beautiful. Calling out the class clowns on the other side? Terrific. But don’t torch your own bridges. Save the ferocity for the other side. Got a beef with a fellow Republican? Use Alexander Graham Bell’s invention for its initial intention, which to the surprise of many wasn’t tweeting and making/watching TikTok videos. Pick up the phone. Give the other person a call. Set up an appointment. Talk it out in private.

Representative Mace, we love your tenacity. The first woman to graduate from The Citadel? Definitively worth taking off one’s hat to out of respect. You’ve earned your way up the ranks, first in the South Carolina state legislature and now in Congress. Your conservative credentials are unimpeachable. So why? Why are you publicly feuding with a colleague? This is not a good idea.

Please, Rep. Greene and Rep. Mace. Take Bob Newhart’s advice.

Turn off Twitter for a few hours. Maybe brew some sweet tea, or however you prepare the stuff. (I’m from the San Francisco Bay Area, so if it’s not unsweetened herbal tea, it’s out of my sphere of knowledge.) Sit down together. No staff, no press, no announcements. Just two adults doing the adult thing; doing the exact same thing each of you would expect your children to do if they became involved in a similar name-calling scenario with someone. Talk it out. Work it out. Agree to disagree if need be. But vow to keep the disagreement private. You have far more significant battles to fight against a senile President and his manipulators both in Congress and behind the scenes. Focus on that. Let the lapdog media starve. Please don’t throw them any bones. Privately work it out. Now. Thanks.