The GOP has fallen into the QAnon trap

Editor’s note: Thomas O. Falk is a London-based political analyst and commentator. He holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Birmingham and specializes in U.S. affairs. The article reflects the author’s opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Repulsive conspiracy theories have been the calling card of QAnon since it first emerged on a message board in 2017. Its premise in a nutshell: Donald Trump is fighting against a global elite who kidnaps and tortures children. As preposterous as this may sound, QAnon has made it from the fringes of the world wide web into the political mainstream and a violent movement on the street – for the world to witness on January 6, when many QAnon followers were instrumental in storming the U.S. Capitol.

But QAnon has also become a part of the Republican Party, thanks to open doors for individuals who are publicly engaging in QAnon conspiracies. Since November, the party of Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan now counts two members of Congress who are guilty of the latter.

What sounds appalling and rather implausible is the result of more than a dozen Republican congressional candidates on the ballot papers who fraternized in one way or the other with QAnon.

Lauren Boebert is one of them. During an interview in 2020, she defended the movement, stating, “everything that I’ve heard of Q, I hope that this is real because it only means that America is getting stronger and better, and people are returning to conservative values.”

But QAnon’s poster child is Marjorie Taylor Greene. Her ascent is emblematic of the transformation the GOP is currently undertaking. The Georgia businesswoman entered Congress out of nowhere during the November elections. Statements such as QAnon is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out,” appear to have been only beneficial.

Two months after her election victory, she was an active campaigner for the Georgia runoff election. She even shared a stage with Donald Trump, emphasizing how the presidential election was allegedly stolen—supported by tweets such as “#GreatAwakening”—one of QAnon’s key messages.

Greene’s prominence was only made possible by a president who did not seem to condemn the extremist views. Instead, he legitimized the movement by stating while he did not know anything about QAnon. What he knew was its supporters were “fighting against pedophilia,” a fight conducted by people “who love our country.”

With the increased public notoriety, the party as a whole has now begun to capitalize on potential votes QAnon will have to offer in the future, even on the state level. The Republican Party of Hawaii published a series of tweets the previous Saturday, defending and praising QAnon supporters while criticizing GOP members who attempted to eradicate the movement. 

The Texas GOP recently tweeted the slogan “We are the Storm,” which in QAnon terminology refers to the instant when Donald Trump arrests and executes high profile satanic pedophiles and those who work for the “deep state” – the conspiracy’s magnum opus.

But perhaps most telling of how open the GOP has become susceptible to extremism were the events that transpired after the horrific scenes on Capitol Hill occurred on January 6. An attempted coup notwithstanding, a large majority of House Republicans still voted in favor of overthrowing the election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania.

The Republican Party is at a precipice. Does it want to become a party that accepts extremism within its ranks? The answer must be no. Instead, a red line has to be drawn and quickly. In particular, the minority leaders Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy possess options (e.g., expulsion or censure) which they must utilize in the party’s interest. 

If they do not and instead seek to tolerate these forces in favor of temporary election success in 2022 and beyond, the GOP runs the risk of having centrist and reasonable voices marginalizing by an extremist wing. It would not only make the Republican Party unrecognizable but carry severe implications for the political climate and the ability to govern in general.

The GOP hence faces the option of two distinctly different directions, as Republican Senator Ben Sasse recently wrote: “We can be the party of Eisenhower or the party of the conspiracist Alex Jones.”

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