- Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska warned in an opinion article in The Atlantic that the QAnon conspiracy theory movement is destroying the GOP.
- “We can dedicate ourselves to defending the Constitution and perpetuating our best American institutions and traditions, or we can be part of conspiracy theories, fantasies of cable news and the ruin that comes with them,” writes Sasse of the GOP.
- Fans of QAnon conspiracy theory believe, without foundation, that a cabal of Satan who adores child abusers controls the world.
- Followers of the movement were at the forefront of the Capitol riots, in which a policeman and a rowdy who had shared QAnon slogans on social media were killed.
- Parts of the Republican Party embraced the movement, and Republican MP Marjorie Taylor Greene openly supported the movement.
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Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska warned that the QAnon conspiracy theory movement is destroying the Republican Party in an exciting opinion piece for The Atlantic.
In the article, Sasse describes how the movement’s devotees played a prominent role in the Capitol riots on January 6.
“The violence that the Americans have witnessed – and which may occur in the coming days – is not a protest that went wrong or the work of” some bad apples “. It is the blossoming of a bad seed that took root in the Republican Party some time ago and was fueled by betrayal, poor political judgment and cowardice, “writes Sasse.
He commends Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman for drawing a crowd led by a man wearing a QAnon shirt away from a chamber where senators and Vice President Mike Pence were present during the riots.
“We can dedicate ourselves to defending the Constitution and perpetuating our best American institutions and traditions, or we can be part of conspiracy theories, the fantasies of cable news and the ruin that accompanies them,” he continues. “We can be Eisenhower’s party or conspirator Alex Jones’s party. We can applaud Officer Goodman or side with the crowd he has cheated on. We can’t do both.”
The QAnon conspiracy theory movement emerged on the 4Chan and 8Chan message boards in 2017 and came to be embraced by a Republican-based banner, praised by President Donald Trump and seen as an adept, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, elected to Congress .
The movement unreasonably believes that Democrats and Hollywood stars run child abuse networks, which Trump is working to dismantle. Supporters who invaded the Capitol believed they were causing the storm, an event in which they believe Trump will enact his political enemies en masse.
In the essay, Sasse describes Greene as a “cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.” He attributes the growing strength of movements based on conspiracy theories to factors that include the US junk food media diet, the collapse of faith in institutions and a widespread loss of meaning.
He writes about a growing crack in the Republican Party among Republicans who supported Trump’s impeachment for instigating the unrest and those who refused to do so.
Sasse is part of a small group of Republican senators who openly opposed Trump’s electoral fraud conspiracy theories that sparked the unrest and left open the possibility of condemning Trump in his second impeachment trial.
Sasse said many party colleagues said privately that they feared supporting Trump’s impeachment because “they believed that a vote to oust the president would put their lives, or the lives of their families, at risk” by Trump’s supporters.
Sasse calls on the party to show courage by emphatically rejecting conspiracy theories adopted by sectors of the US right and efforts to rebuild the party.
“Until last week, many party leaders and consultants thought they could preach the Constitution while winking at QAnon. They cannot. The GOP must reject conspiracy theories or be consumed by them. Now is the time to decide what what this party is about, “writes Sasse.