“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

There emerged out of the 2016 election a conspiracy theory that has been a catalyst for a growing and coalescing far right movement that is mainstreaming radical authoritarian nationalists, neo-Fascists, white supremacists, and anti-Semites in the United States. This conspiracy’s believers and advocates maintain that America is controlled by a secret cabal of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their allies in the US government, business and Hollywood, all of who worship Satan. This group of Satanists is alleged to engage in child sexual abuse and sex trafficking. Members of this conspiracy group self-identify as being “QAnon patriots”. “Q” is the name given an anonymous source within the government who has a direct line to President Trump. “Q” is releasing Trump-sanctioned leaks to the public in order to awaken and arouse them ahead of “The Storm.” That is the moment when the deep state’s leaders are arrested and sent to Guantanamo Bay. The storm takes its name from President Trump’s enigmatic comment from October 2018 about “the calm before the storm.”(1)

Central to this theory is that President Trump is engaged in a secret war to expose and destroy the cabal. QAnon patriots are among Trump’s most ardent supporters for he is their champion in a struggle seen as a stark war between Good and Evil. The QAnon slogan is “where we go one, we go all” (“WWG1WGA”). The conspiracy’s language of cabal reeks of the anti- Semitic trope of the Elders of Zion, but it dovetails superbly with 5 years of Trump’s continuous references to “the deep state” and “the swamp”.

During the campaign Trump referred to QAnon patriots on a number of occasions as “people that love our country”. On October 15 at a town hall, two weeks after the House of Representatives voted to condemn QAnon, he again refused to repudiate them, and observed they liked him, and that QAnon are “very much against pedophilia” and that he agreed with that sentiment.2 Importantly in terms of America’s political system, in his role as head of the Republican Party Trump endorsed multiple 2020 election candidates who publicly identified as QAnon enthusiasts.(2)

In very little time, the QAnon movement has gained phenomenal presence on the American political stage. The movement is elastic and draws the like- minded who are prone to the psychological and cognitive need to make sense of what they cannot cope with, no matter how outlandish the explanation. As M. Rosenberg has written, “Even people who explicitly dismissed QAnon as lunacy often volunteered similar conspiracy theories. There was talk of how the pandemic was an outright hoax or, at the very least, being wildly overblown. Many people [repeat] racist theories about former President Barack Obama or the anti-Semitic notion that the financier George Soros controls the political system.”(3)

The House of Representatives publicly warned of this swelling of the far right’s numbers and conspiracy sub-groups’ strengthening connections. A House Resolution passed on October 2 reads in part, “[QAnon] has expanded to embrace virtually every popular conspiracy theory of the last several decades, from questioning the truth about the September 11th terrorist attacks, to believing in alien landings, to denying the safety of vaccines . . . QAnon conspiracy theories are fanning the flames as anti-Semitism is on the rise in the United States and around the world . . .”(4)

There are no reliable estimates for the numbers of QAnon followers worldwide, but one metric is that after a record amount of QAnon-related growth on the site, Facebook announced it removed 790 QAnon groups and was restricting another 1,950 groups, 440 pages and more than 10,000 Instagram accounts. On October 6 the global social network banned all accounts across all its platforms (Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram), linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory. (5) Reddit had banned a popular QAnon subreddit in 2018. In July 2020, Twitter said it had removed more than 7,000 QAnon-associated accounts. (6) Two October 2020 surveys of 3,073 social media users found that 38% of Republicans who had heard of QAnon believe the conspiracy theory’s claims are somewhat accurate (13%) to very accurate (11%).(7) These statistical measures indicate that QAnon patriots are exerting a numerically significant political influence.

The influence of QAnon, a homegrown American collection of conspiracy theories, is being avidly followed internationally. There is an accelerating cross-fertilization among ultra right-wing supporters between the United States and Europe; it is clear their ranks are growing. A CNN investigation reviewed QAnon-related Facebook pages and groups based only outside the US and found a total of at least 12.8 million interactions.(8)

These expanded avenues of communication and opportunity for collaboration between USA-EU right-wing nationalists are being pursued in an organized institutional fashion. The driving figure behind these efforts is Steve Bannon, Trump’s former 2016 campaign manager and presidential advisor. In partnership with a right-wing Catholic think tank headquartered in London, he is seeking to establish in Europe a far-right nationalist training school for “political gladiators”.(9)

It should be emphasized, particularly for European readers, that QAnon is a marker for the ultra-right wing in the USA. As Travis View, a reporter who follows the group has written, “It’s not just a conspiracy theory, this is a domestic extremist movement”. (10) The Federal Bureau of Investigation agrees with this assessment. In a May 30, 2019 Intelligence Bulletin the FBI warned that QAnon conspiracy theory-driven extremists have become a domestic terrorism threat.

The FBI report identified QAnon, and its seminal source conspiracy Pizzagate, as two theories that underlie motivations for criminal and violent acts against American citizens. In a report appendix they classify Pizzagate and QAnon as “Fringe Political” conspiracies and define the latter as: “QAnon: An anonymous government official known as ‘Q’ posts classified information online to reveal a covert effort, led by President Trump, to dismantle a conspiracy involving ‘deep state’ actors and global elites allegedly engaged in an international sex trafficking ring.”

Other similar “cabal” conspiracies designated as inspiring domestic terrorism is the Zionist Occupied Government (claim Jewish agents secretly control the governments of Western states), and the New World Order (NWO, which claims a group of international elites, including the Jew George Soros, controls governments, industries, and media organizations to instigate major wars and manipulate economies). (11) Strip QAnon of its bizarre claims of Satanism, pedophilia, and cannibalism, and it is easy to see that the movement is a current iteration of the “secret malevolent cabal” conspiracy first given modern voice in 1903 with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion – the manifesto of modern anti-Semitism.(12)

What is significant for America is that QAnon cannot be dismissed as another largely irrelevant fringe group. The idiosyncratic QAnon group is now part of a numerically much larger political faction, within and without the Republican Party. As New York Times investigative reporter Matthew Rosenberg observes, “QAnon adherents are pushing such ideas into the conservative mainstream alongside more traditional issues like low taxes and limited government”.(13)

On October 30, 2020, a CNN Politics team of investigative reporters identified 23 congressional candidates who have publicly engaged in a supportive manner with the QAnon conspiracy and its followers. Well over a dozen had received official state Republican Party endorsement. The team’s identification of these 13 men and 10 women is the starting point for the analysis that follows.(14)

Eight candidates were fringe, receiving less than 25% of the 2020 vote, and as low as 1.4 and 2.2% in their districts. Thirteen QAnon friendly candidates lost in solidly Democratic districts, receiving 30-43% of the votes. However, two women who advocate for QAnon patriots and who embrace the conspiracy as being accurate, won election. They will enter the House of Representatives in January 2021.

Marjorie Taylor Greene ran explicitly as a QAnon Patriot Republican, and she will be representing Georgia’s 14th congressional district. She ousted an incumbent Republican representative in the party primary; and in the general election she received 74.8% of the vote. During the 2020 campaign she ran explicitly as a member of QAnon, and she posted photos with Chester Doles, the well-known former leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Doles hailed her as being “part of the Q movement”.(15) On October 15, appointed Republican incumbent Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, running for election in a January 2021 runoff, enthusiastically accepted the endorsement of Greene at a joint rally. Greene stated, “What impressed me with Kelly is I found out that she believes a lot of the same things that I believe”.(16) President Trump endorsed Greene on Twitter, calling her a “future Republican Star”, and “Marjorie is strong on everything and never gives up – a real WINNER!”(17)

Greene will be joined as a first-time congresswoman by Lauren Boebert of Colorado’s third district who also is replacing an incumbent Republican she defeated in the primary. During her general election campaign she appeared on a show hosted by QAnon supporter Ann Vandersteel where she stated she was “very familiar” with the Q movement, and that she hoped QAnon “is real because it only means America is getting stronger and better.” 18 Boebert won her district with 51.4% of the vote. What is of critical note to the rising right-wing movement in the USA is that Greene and Boebert will join what is already suggestive of a nascent far right sub-caucus within the Republican Party.

The telling alert is revealed in what occurred in the House of Representatives at end-September 2020. After a Democratic member received death threats from QAnon supporters, the House overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan resolution condemning the QAnon conspiracy theory.(18)  However 17 Republican members of the House voted against the resolution, declining to condemn QAnon. (19) Among the dissenters was Drew Ferguson of Georgia, who is the House Republican caucus chief deputy whip – one of the four most powerful positions within the House Republican caucus.

Sixteen incumbents plus Greene and Boebert – (listed below (20) – are the nucleus of House members to carefully watch over the next 4 years. Come January 2021, they will hold 4.4% of the seats in the House of Representatives – with all the privileges, political power, and public stage that position confers. The tip of the spear.

Visit TalkingGlobally.com website here.

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References

(1) CBS News. “What is the QAnon conspiracy theory? www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-the- qanon-conspiracy-theory. August 2, 2018.
(2) M. Vazquez. “Trump again refuses to denounce QAnon”. CNN Politics. www.cnn.com/2020/10/15/politics/donald-trump-qanon-town-hall/index.html. October 15, 2020.
(3) M. Rosenberg. “Republican Voters Take a Radical Conspiracy Theory Mainstream.” The
New York Times,
www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/us/politics/qanon-trump-republicans.html. October 19,
2020.
(4) United States House of Representatives. House Resolution 1154. www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/1154/text
(5) A. Ohlheiser. “Facebook says it will extend its QAnon ban.” MIT Technology Review.
www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/06/1009561/facebook-qanon-ban. October 6, 2020.
(6) B. Lord & R. Naik. “He went down the AQnon rabbit hole for two years. Here’s how he got out.” CNN Business,www.cnn.com/2020/10/16/tech/qanon-believer-how-he-got-out/index.html. October 16,
2020.
(7) S. Sabin. “1 in 4 Social Media Users Who Have Heard of QAnon Say Its Conspiracy Theories Are at Least Somewhat Accurate.” Morning Consult, https://morningconsult.com/2020/10/14/social-media-qanon-poll. October 14, 2020.
(8) G. Mezzofiore, et.al. “’It’s like a parasite.’ How a dangerous virtual cult is going global.” CNN Business, www.cnn.com/2020/10/07/tech/qanon-europe-cult-intl/index.html. October 7, 2020.
(9) G. Resto-Montero. “Italy revokes Steve Bannon’s right to use a monastery for his political ‘gladiator’ school.” Vox,
www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/1/18648732/steve-bannons-italian-monastery- political-gladiator-school-revoke. June 1, 2019.
(10) K. Rogers & K. Roose. The New York Times. August 19, 2020.
(11) FBI Phoenix Field Office, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Intelligence Bulletin. “Anti- Government, Identity Based, and Fringe Political Conspiracy Theories Very Likely Motivate Some Domestic Extremists to Commit Criminal, Sometimes Violent Activity.” www.justsecurity.org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/08/420379775-fbi-conspiracy-theories- domestic-extremism.pdf. May 30, 2019.
(12) The Protocols were fabricated by the Imperial Russian secret police in 1903 as part of their campaign to justify the Tsar’s anti-Jewish pogroms. They were translated into English in 1919, and in the 1920’s Henry Ford funded the printing of 500,000 copies distributed throughout the USA. Today neo-fascist, fundamentalist, and anti-Semitic groups present it as a genuine document. Political scientist S. Bronner described it as “probably the most influential work of anti-Semitism ever written . . . what the Communist Manifesto is for Marxism is for Marxism, the fictitious Protocols is for anti-Semitism.” [S. Bronner (2003).
“A Rumor About Jews: Reflections on Antisemitism and the Protocols of the Learned Elders
of Zion.” New York: Oxford University Press.
(13) M. Rosenberg. “Republican Voters Take a Radical Conspiracy Theory Mainstream.” The
New York Times,
www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/us/politics/qanon-trump-republicans.html. October 19,
2020.
(14) E. Steck, N. McDermott, C. Hickey. “The congressional candidates who have engaged with the QAnon conspiracy theory.” CNN Politics, www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/10/politics/qanon-cong-candidates. October 30, 2020.
(15) J. Sachs. “QAnon Supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene Wins Congressional Primary in Georgia.” Grit Daily, gritdaily.com/marjorie-taylor-greene. August 12, 2020. E. Relman. Business Insider. 06/10/2020.
(16) B. Nadler. “Candidate who embraces QAnon endorses Loeffler for Senate.” Associated
Press,
apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-conspiracy-theories-senate-elections- georgia-6110d626cee11b289c9c6755973fc930. October 15, 2020.
(17) C. Domonoske. “QAnon Supporter Who Made Bigoted Videos Wins Ga. Primary, Likely
Heading to Congress.” National Public Radio, www.npr.org/2020/08/12/901628541/qanon-supporter-who-made-bigoted-videos-wins-ga- primary-likely-heading-to-congre. August 12, 2020.
(18) A. Kaplan. “Here are the QAnon supporters running for Congress in 2020.” MediaMatters for America, www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/here-are-qanon-supporters- running-congress-2020. January 7, 2020; updated November 9, 2020.
(19) C. Edmondson. “17 Republicans decline to condemn QAnon as the House votes to reject its conspiracy theories. The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2020/10/02/us/elections/17-republicans-decline-to-condemn-qanon-as- the-house-votes-to-reject-its-conspiracy-theories.html. October 2, 2020.
(20) Texas: J. Arrington, B. Babin, M. Burgess, B. Flores. Georgia: E. Carter, D. Ferguson, M. Greene. South Carolina: J. Duncan, R. Norman. Alabama: M. Brooks. Florida: D. Webster. Pennsylvania: M. Kelly, S. Perry. Ohio: W. Davidson. Wisconsin: T. Tiffany. Arizona: P. Gosar. Colorado: L. Boebert. Utah: R. Bishop.