Remember when the Tea (Taxed Enough Already) Party was the darling of conservatives. They elevated the profiles of people like Michele Bachmann, Sharron Angle, and Scott Brown. The group of so-called grassroots activists was in reality bankrolled by a group called FreedomWorks and given free media access by Fox News. Freedom Works was headed up by former congressmen Dick Armey and gave Sarah Palin a soft spot to land. The group reached such a point of absurdity that one of their candidates [Delaware's Christine O'Donnell, a conservative] ran a political ad having to deny she was a witch. Wearing their three-cornered hats and selecting the unfortunate original name of tea-baggers they eventually co-opted the Republican party and bullied House Speaker John Boehner into shutting down the federal government October 1st, 2013.
Why the ancient history…
The relevance of that bit of history is to serve as a warning to Democrats. In 2009, at the beginning of the Tea Party, Democrats laughed loudly. This group of misfits, religious zealots, bigots, and malcontents were going nowhere they thought. Eventually, they buckled the knees of the GOP and the remnants remain in the form of Republicans like Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. Yesterday, the evolution continued. One of the 14 members, of a group called QAnon, up for election, may have potentially gotten their first member into Congress. Wednesday, Marjorie Taylor Greene became the first supporter of QAnon to win a primary, and because Georgia's 14th district is heavily conservative, Ms. Greene is predicted to win.
For the unwashed, QAnon is a group that believes there is a deep state of governmental conspirators and pedophiles who kidnap and sell children as sex slaves and in some cases eat them, yes, eat them. The theory is that Donald Trump is the rescuer of the children and his ultimate plan is the children’s salvation. Okay, now that you have excused yourself and cleaned the face of your spouse after a spit-take, stop laughing and listen to a few facts. Twenty-six-year-old Buckey Wolfe, (seriously) a self-professed follower of QAnon and a member of the right-wing extremist group the Proud Boys, is accused of killing his brother with a 4-foot sword. Wolfe’s alleged motive is that his brother was a lizard, (you know the crawly kind). Sure, his mental illness, as his defense is asserting, is the cause and it stands to reason that being a member of the Proud Boys or a QAnon member may be unrelated.
Prosecutors disagree, they draw a direct correlation with QAnon. According to a Daily Beast article, “In court papers, prosecutors cited one of Wolfe’s social media posts, about “the cabal,” as proof that he’s mentally ill and represents an “extreme danger.” Wolfe frequently posted QAnon-related content on Facebook, including references to QAnon believers’ motto, “Where We Go One, We Go All.” Coincidentally, Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, of Salisbury, North Carolina, was arrested, charged, and convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon after opening fire at the Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria. The impetus for Mr. Welch’s trip from Salisbury, N.C. to Washington, D.C. was an online conspiracy theory that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was conspiring with the shop owner as a part of a child sex ring.
Donald John Trump endorsed Marjorie Taylor Greene yesterday, and QAnon's followers are prominently placed at his rallies. Agreed, Donald Trump may not know QAnon from a moron but who does that speak less of; if he is embracing these people how dangerous is the President of the United States?
Vote in 2020 for Change.