The QAnon albatross
Donald Trump seemed to believe that he was very popular with the American people and governed that way. He knowingly discounted the influence of the “liberal” media, the “liberal” states, and took action on this bias. Donald Trump believed he would be re-elected in a landslide.
The MAGA mob believed they were acting on behalf of all MAGA-inclined Americans. This is why they believed the election was “stolen from them”. They believed they were in the majority and so more voters would have voted for Trump. They disregarded the down-ballot choices as irrelevant in their bias. The MAGA rioters did not expect to be held accountable for their actions.
In fact, polling shows that less than 10% of Americans like Q Anon. The size of Q Anon voters are probably smaller than the 10% that are in this survey because they may not tend to vote in election or may have criminal histories. The Q Anon movement has high negative perceptions from the American public.
The MAGA congresspeople fear the next campaign cycle. They believe that there is a possibility of not being re-elected to their position, so they do not want to hold Marjorie Taylor Greene nor Lauren Boebert accountable for their grievous actions. They are afraid that if they vote to censure or do any other action that they will lose the next election. Indeed, fueling this idea is the local Republican leadership censuring those who voted for impeachment of Donald Trump. But a majority of Americans believe that Trump should be convicted and barred from holding public office again.
Republicans should be nervous about the next election. The Q Anon movement, the MAGA influence will fade over time because their driving force was chaos and the former presidential officeholder.
