13 Things Nancy Mace’s ‘Scarlet Letter’ Could Stand For
Mace said she wore the “A” because she's been “demonized for my vote" to oust speaker McCarthy. But there are so many other terrible things it could mean!
Photo:Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty (Getty Images)
On Wednesday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) wore a gigantic red “A” on a white shirt as she walked through a House office building. She stopped to speak to reporters after a closed-door meeting among the GOP to figure out who would be the next Speaker of the House. (Mace was one of just eight Republicans, and the only woman, who voted last week to oust former speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.)
For the uninitiated, Mace thinks very highly of herself and loves to appear on the Sunday shows to tout herself as a voice of reason in the Republican party—for example, she claims to be a “moderate” on abortion, despite supporting bans and voting for restrictions. Her actions often belie her self-mythology, and the latest example is her joining the block of far-right members of the Freedom Caucus to vote out McCarthy.
When reporters asked Mace what her shirt meant, she said it’s her “scarlet letter.” She continued, “I’m wearing the scarlet letter after the week that I just had, last week, being a woman up here and being demonized for my vote and for my voice.” And she kept going! “I’m here to let the rest of the world know and the country know: I’m on the side of the people. I’m not on the side of the establishment. And I’m going to do the right thing every single time, no matter the consequences, because I don’t answer to anybody in D.C.; I don’t answer to anyone in Washington. I only answer to the people.”
The concept of a scarlet letter, meant to refer to the stigma that happens after some sort of misdeed, comes from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel, The Scarlet Letter, in which the protagonist, Hester Prynne, believes her husband is dead and has a baby with another man. Her Puritan community thenforces her to face a public shaming and wear the letter A for “adultery” for the rest of her life.
Mace says she’s being “demonized” for “doing the right thing,” but I can think of a few other scenarios where that A is appropriate. Here are things for which Mace could and/or should be outcast:
