The GOP is rapidly becoming GQP. While most of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s colleagues, if pushed, will not defend her utterly looney claims, they all voted to keep her on various House committees. Since the Democrats have a majority, they won the vote anyway, so MTG has been expelled from the two committees.
Meanwhile House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, who refused to do what was right, but instead slithered off to pay homage to Trump, has vowed retribution whenever his party next controls the lower chamber of Congress.
The GOP is dead, it is no longer the GOP and is now the GQP.
Quick QAnon Primer
For those familiar with it all, just skip this bit.
Briefly, QAnon is basically a far-right conspiracy claim that there is a worldwide cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who rule. Trump is regarded as a messiah, God’s chosen man, to scupper their plans.
True believers have terms such as The Storm and The Great Awakening to describe things that they believe are just about to happen. “The Storm” is an anticipated event in which thousands of people, the supposed members of the cabal, will be arrested, possibly sent to Guantanamo Bay prison or face military tribunals, and the U.S. military will brutally take over the country. The result will be the supposed salvation of the Republic and a utopia on earth.
There are several very consistent attributes …
- The actual evidence for any of this is exactly zero
- Anything predicted never happens.
- If you ask a true believer for evidence, none will ever be presented. You will face deflection and will be told to “Do your research” (Tip: It’s their claim, so it is their responsibility to cite evidence. Burden of proof is with them)
For lots more details you will find that the Wikipedia page covers it all rather well.
Moving on, let’s see what is new in the Q-verse.
The GOP is dead, it is now the GQP
Let’s expand upon this a bit more. This is not simply my view, the Washington Post takes this view in an opinion piece…
The GOP isn’t doomed. It’s dead.
… The chaos now enveloping what’s left of the Grand Old Party after four years of catering to an unstable president is theirs to own. Where conservatism once served as a moderating force — gently braking liberalism’s boundless enthusiasm — the former home of ordered liberty has become a halfway house for ruffians, insurrectionists and renegadewarriors….
… the “good ones” are worried about their newest member, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a QAnon-promoting female version of Trump — only without the charm. You begin to see how this monster mutates like a certain virus into ever-more-dangerous versions of itself. Among other things, Greene embraces the conspiracy theory that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and the slaughter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., were staged. One struggles for words, but I’ll settle for “creep.”…
…Going forward, not only will House Republicans be associated with a colleague who “liked” a Twitter post calling for Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s murder. They’ll be attached to QAnon…
…To those Republicans who can read: You own all of this. The party isn’t doomed; it’s dead….
Related to this are reports that thousands are leaving the GOP, and that there are also moves to establish a new MAGA Patriot Party.
QAnon in the House – Marjorie Taylor Greene – Reactions
The BBC distills it all down with some reactions …
What did Democrats say?
Ahead of the vote, Mrs Pelosi said she was “profoundly concerned” by Republicans accepting “an extreme conspiracy theorist”.
Chuy Garcia, of Illinois, said Mrs Greene’s floor speech had come across as “premeditated”.
“I did not hear remorse and I didn’t hear an apology,” Mr Garcia said. “It’s all about spin and I think she’ll probably try to raise a lot of money from it. I think it’s disgraceful.”
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said before the vote: “I have never encountered a situation like the one before us now, where a member has made such vile and hurtful statements, engaged in the harassment of colleagues and expressed support for political violence.”
Jimmy Gomez, of California, vowed to press ahead with a resolution to expel Mrs Greene from Congress altogether.
How did Republicans react?
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy vowed retribution whenever his party next controls the lower chamber of Congress.
Accusing Democrats of a double standard, he referred to the 2019 anti-Semitism furore when Minnesota lawmaker Ilhan Omar implied US politicians only supported Israel because of lobby money, and Mrs Pelosi appeared with her that same month on a magazine cover.
On Wednesday Mr McCarthy condemned Mrs Greene’s past remarks, but refused to punish her.
Jim Jordan of Ohio told the floor: “So who’s next? Who will the cancel culture attack next?”
He assailed Democrats for stoking unsubstantiated claims that Mr Trump secretly plotted with Russia to win the 2016 election.
“I’ve heard several times today from the Democrats: conspiracy theory. The Democrats peddled the biggest conspiracy theory of all time – the Russia hoax!”
Fox Host Tucker Carlson Goes Full Q
A report from the Washington Post is really not a surprise. Tucker will jump on whatever bandwagon is rolling. The more vile it is, the more probable it is that he will be promoting it …
…he cast its adherents as victims of looming persecution, denied basic civil liberties. As with many things on his program, it boiled down to a familiar argument: The mainstream media and powerful forces are trying to silence people and control what you think — that, to use the modern parlance, they’re being “canceled.”…
…He began by arguing that such a rule would boomerang on Democrats, suggesting that their comments about the Russia investigation amounted to pushing just such a baseless anti-government conspiracy theory. This is a well-worn GOP argument these days, but it’s one that utterly ignores the very real substantiation of the Russia investigation: the extensive and often obscured ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, the central tie that even a report from the then-GOP-controlled Senate said remains obscured.…
…casting this as another example of cancel culture is a pretty neat political trick. There are few things more valuable in politics than a persecution complex, and Carlson is masterful at helping people justify such complexes. …
Leaving QAnon
PBS reports – “Checked by reality, some QAnon supporters seek a way out” …
…Former believers interviewed by The Associated Press liken the process of leaving QAnon to kicking a drug addiction. QAnon, they say, offers simple explanations for a complicated world and creates an online community that provides escape and even friendship….
…His advice to those fleeing QAnon? Get off social media, take deep breaths, and pour that energy and internet time into local volunteering…
…“I think after the inauguration a lot of them realized they’ve been taken for a ride,” …
…But a different tone is emerging in the spaces created for those who have heard enough.
“Hi my name is Joe,” one man wrote on a Q recovery channel in Telegram. “And I’m a recovering QAnoner.”
The NYT also has a similar story – ‘Trump Just Used Us and Our Fear’: One Woman’s Journey Out of QAnon…
...When she first left QAnon, she felt a lot of shame and guilt. It was also humbling: Ms. Perron, who has a master’s degree, had looked down on Scientologists as people who believed crazy things. But there she was….
…“Trump just used us and our fear,” she said. “When you are no longer living in fear, you are no longer prone to believe this stuff. I don’t think we are anywhere near that yet.”…
So what happens now?
We know from previous experience that what happens when prophesy fails is that believers move the goalposts, modify their beliefs, then double down on the promotion of crazy ideas.
Yes, some will leave, and that is good news (see above), but for others that is not what will happen. Some form of the QAnon conspiracy theory will remain deeply embedded in the nation’s culture by simply morphing to incorporate the new developments, as it has before.
QAnon lunacy in some form or another is here to stay.
Previous QAnon Postings
Here are a few links to some previous QAnon postings.
- QAnon Watch: No Day of Reckoning- Update Jan 22, 2020
- QAnon Watch – Update Jan 15, 2020 – Trump Impeachment
- QAnon Watch – Update Jan 8, 2020 – Capitol Riot
- QAnon Watch – Update Dec 30, 2020
- QAnon Watch – Updates Dec 18, 2020
- QAnon Watch – Nov 20, 2020 – #QAnon
- Nov 11 – #QAnon updates – What happens inside the cult now?
- QAnon Watch: 2 Oct Update – #QAnon
- Sep 25 – QAnon watch – a brief update
- Jul 23 – Fake News Update: Twitter Bans 7,000 QAnon accounts