These Qanon loons are even further gone than we thought
Majorie Taylor Greene’s antics are disturbing and sadistic. But it is even worse than that. As Daily Beast reporter Will Sommer writes in his new book “Trust the Plan,” what’s happening with the current Republican party is largely because of QAnon.
QAnon is a rightwing cult of millions who believe the world is run by a Deep State group of Democrats who drink the blood of “mole children,” and that Trump is a messianic figure who will bring world peace, absolve debt, and cure disease, or something. Yet, mainstream media remains mostly silent about how much control QAnon has over the Republican party. Greene is an important fundraiser for the Republican Party. Wife of a Supreme Court Justice, Ginni Thomas is a QAnon believer.
Now, with the impugned take-over of SCOTUS by rightwing extremists complete, and QAnon believers like Greene and Boebert elected to Congress, Republicans have gone local. A terrifying number of QAnon are scattered throughout local government, creating a devasting force. Sommers contends that QAnon is behind the wave of anti-trans, anti-abortion, pro-child labor, anti-education, and anti-voter laws on the local level. Republican state legislators are brazenly defying the will of the voters in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Montana. They may even be behind the fake democrats being elected only to switch parties giving Republicans supermajorities to North Carolina and Louisiana.
QAnon also embraces violence. Sommers provides many examples of QAnon incitement to violence, including January 6th. In 2019, the FBI considered QAnon a potential source of domestic terrorism. Unlike “Antifa” which really doesn’t exist in any organized form, QAnon has well-coordinated communications networks, like 4chan.
After years of avoiding public acknowledgment of his QAnon supporters, Trump finally gave his blessing. In August 2020, during a White House press conference, Trump publicly accepted his role as QAnon messiah. Before he was banned in January 2021, Trump was Twitter’s biggest promoter of QAnon accounts.
For months after the 2020 election, a friend of mine kept receiving text messages from an angry Republican friend who had worked at the DIA under Michael Flynn, saying they were “releasing the Kraken” and Trump would be reinstated. At the time, my friend was shocked such a highly intelligent person could succumb to such cult behavior. As we now know, it is no longer just a cult. The Republican Party is QAnon.
Chicago native Lorraine Evanoff earned her degree in French from DePaul University then became a Certified Financial Manager. She worked as a finance exec in film production for seven years in Paris, then in Silicon Valley during the dot-com era, and later for various Hollywood production companies, notably as CFO of National Lampoon. She is currently living in Los Angeles with her husband.