Perspective On The Notorious MTG
The consternation and hand-wringing over the views of the Notorious MTG, aka Marjorie Taylor Greene, the GOP nominee to Georgia’s 14th Congressional district, needs a bit of perspective. It’s not that Ms. Greene’s apparent belief in the QAnon conspiracy theory puts her far out of the mainstream. It’s that her belief isn’t far enough out of the mainstream to make her unacceptable to a lot of voters -and not just the primary runoff voters in GA-14.
-In Oregon, after winning the Republican nomination to the US Senate, Jo Rae Perkins posted a video (now deleted) on social media, pledging the QAnon slogan: “Where we go one, we go all.”
-Lauren Boebert, who defeated a five-term Republican incumbent in the primary for Colorado’s third Congressional district, “hopes that Q is real…” because “…it only means America is getting stronger and better, and people are returning to conservative values, and that’s what I am for.”
-Republican Mike Cargile, running for California’s 35th Congressional district just east of Los Angeles, includes the hashtag #WWG1WGA on his Twitter profile because he “…think[s] it is the perfect sentiment for all Americans to have toward one another.”
-K.W. Miller, an allegedly “conservative” commentator, is an independent seeking Florida’s 18th Congressional seat who claimed in July that “Beyoncé is not even African American. She is faking this for exposure. Her real name is Ann Marie Lastrassi. She is Italian. This is all part of the Soros Deep State agenda for the Black Lives Matter movement…” (And as odd as that may sound, it’s not even a very unusual statement from Mr. Miller, whose Twitter feed provides a real-time horror show of militant mental illness.)
At this count, there are at least 15 identified candidates seeking office who feel comfortable enough with the QAnon conspiracy to either explicitly campaign on it or accept Q’s so-called “principles.” Of those, 14 are Republicans, at least in the technical sense, but keep in mind that these candidates are appealing to voters who do not think that wearing the Q-shaped tin-foil hat disqualifies them from holding public office. Ms. Greene may not be in good company, but she has plenty of it.
The QAnon paranoia can’t be explained by psychotropic chemicals in the water or moldy wheat in just a few scattered areas -it’s nationwide. A June, 2020 poll conducted by Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist at the University of Miami and an expert on conspiracy theories, found that 45 percent of Americans believe “There is a “deep state” embedded in the government that operates in secret and without oversight.” It also found that 47 percent of Americans believe “Official government accounts of events cannot be trusted;” and 51 percent agree with the statement “Much of the mainstream news is deliberately slanted to mislead us.” In a political environment such as that, candidates would have to be crazy if they didn’t have at least one conspiratorial plank in their platforms.
Now it’s not like America hasn’t ever elected kooks to Congress before. Cynthia McKinney was a Democrat representing Georgia’s 4th District -and a 9/11 Truther who supplemented her anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial with conspiracies about Hurricane Katrina. Democrat Hank Johnson, her successor, is most famous for worrying that Guam might “tip over.” Georgia Congressman Paul Broun described evolution, embryology and the Big Bang Theory as “…lies straight from the pit of hell.” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA43) led an actual congressional inquiry to determine if the CIA was selling crack cocaine in Los Angeles. (Spoiler: It was not.) Now a US Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz first campaigned for office by opposing Agenda 21 as a plot to “…subvert liberty, our property rights, and our sovereignty…” -funded by George Soros, because of course.
None of this should be read as an attempt to excuse or justify the contumacious tone of Ms. Greene’s rhetoric, nor her low-class ejection of the AJC’s Greg Bluestein from her campaign victory party -tossing reporters out of campaign events is the behavior of brown-shirted bullies, not American patriots. But it should be noted that while she may be a whack-job, she is far from being a lone whack-job, and that the once-fringe QAnon conspiracy is becoming less fringe and more widespread every day.
Congress was designed to represent the people of America in large part by electing people to who mostly closely reflect the views and ideas of those people. Sometimes, sadly, it does that far too well.
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Mike Hassinger
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Thanks, Mike, for outlining the gop response to efforts by dems in Ga to tie other candidates to the 14th whackadoo–hey, everyone’s doing it.
Also tying in the comment from the Benton article/thread, about the line that “Congress was designed to represent the people of America in large part by electing people to who mostly closely reflect the views and ideas of those people.”
So, I get the implication that the tone is bit like an apologist for disturbing trends in the Republican party. I didn’t myself read it as a forgiving apology, but more as a passive-aggressive attempt to understand, and in a way, chastise the voters. One of the things I take away, though, is that the problem goes beyond the party, and is embedded in people. I can not claim to know how the party can deal with it, but I have always been a believer in education. Don’t just let the voters make un- or under-informed decisions. Actively educate about beliefs and effectiveness. As for other measures, I believe it’s an unsettled constitutional question whether parties can outright exclude candidates based on specific grounds. While those grounds can’t be about race or other protected status, can they be about beliefs or affirmation of the platform? Perhaps it’s time to test those waters. Take the reins of the party, and develop the community in a positive vision.
My conspiracy theory is that Q-anon was seeded by either the Russians, Chinese, or Iranians.
I imagine the originator was delighted when it took hold and started growing on its own. They just add a cryptic message now and then to help the momentum.
The goal is have a part of the electorate become so fearful and distrusting that the US government is impaired.
I mean you have cannibalism, pedophilia, Satan worship, the CIA, the international Jewish cabal, the Federal Reserve, and Bill Gates all rolled up into one conspiracy. It’s like the Super Walmart of conspiracy theories.
https://whatisqanon.wordpress.com/2020/04/15/q-anon-the-great-awakening/ (Read at your own risk of losing your sanity).
I would not be surprised if QAnon was a Trump-sponsored effort. Superhero delusions? Extreme branding of Democrats? Social media manipulation? Straw men to bolster sales? Checks the boxes.
But I also believe part of the appeal of Greene and others is really two-fold. One is good old-fashioned distrust of government, as the polls cited indicate. That’s an American tradition. Would it be nice to have faith in government? Yes, but being a watchdog isn’t bad either. But the next factor, which goes above and beyond general distrust, is a passion which is best described as hatred. It’s so tribal, so war-like, and it is simply appealing to many who think that such passion is the answer. They may not see the underlying hatred, or they may forgive it, and they certainly don’t attend to the fact that such belligerence will lead to more problems not resolutions. It’s an experimental push of the pendulum, which will inevitably ricochet back when the ineffectiveness of extremism becomes clear.