Marjorie Taylor Greene, currently the leading candidate in the race for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District seat, has a campaign that marries two powerful political forces: conspiracy theories and racism. In addition, Greene was able to give new energy to Trumpism in the next Congress.
Like President Donald Trump, Greene has played on racist tropes, anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories to garner a reputation for repudiation of political correctness in favor of “telling the truth.” For example, she called Q, the appointed leader of the QAnon conspiracy theory – who claims that Trump will save the US from ‘deep state’ pedophiles and other malcontents – a patriot. She calls George Soros, a Jewish Democratic donor, a Nazi. And it has a long history of deciphering Islam, denying racial inequality, and defending Confederate memorabilia.
Now Greene looks set to win a seat in Congress. She is leading the Republican field in Tuesday’s election against John Cowan, a local neurosurgeon, for the seat of the U.S. House of Representatives representing the 14th District of Georgia. The 14th stretches from the suburbs of Atlanta to the northwest corner of the state. More than 85 percent of its parts are white. It is a conservative, deep-red district that is solidly Republican-rated by the Cook Political Report.
And nationally, the race has garnered attention as one of a number of leading QAnon candidates who together seem to point to the future of the Republican Party – and how much sway Trump’s controversial political style may hold in the direction of the party in the coming years.
Founding Republicans have trouble managing and conspiracy theories
In June, Politico published an exhibition featuring videos of Greene making antagonistic and xenophobic remarks. In one clip, taken from the candidate’s YouTube page, Greene says, ‘Let me explain something to you, Mohammed! Let me explain it. We already have equality and justice for all Americans. Muslims are in no way opposed … anything you people for is special treatment, you want to rise above us, and that is what we are against!
After the story, the mainstream Republicans brought back Greene’s campaign. Rep. Steve Scalise, the Republican whip of the House, called her remarks “disgusting” in the New York Times, and House Spokeswoman Rep. Liz Cheney called the remarks “insulting and big” in Politico.
While the House leadership dismissed their remarks, these kinds of statements were not without a president – especially at the top of the Republican ticket. President Trump has built his political career with similarly racist and xenophobic statements, such as insisting that Barack Obama was not a citizen, acknowledging that broad streaks of Mexicans were violent criminals, and telling female members of Congress of color to return to their homelands.
Besides racism, Greene supports, and has also promoted, QAnon. It is a conspiracy theory that believes that a pedophile “deep state” of federal officials is working against Trump – and that he has a secret strategy to defeat them. Greene has previously said on YouTube that she is “very excited that there is now a lifelong opportunity to take out this global cabal of satan-worshiping pedophiles, and I think we have the president to do it. “
This attachment is in part due to the fact that believers in conspiracy theories such as these have shown themselves to be misbehaving, if not violently, in recent years. For example, in 2016, a man fired gunshots at a pizza restaurant in Washington, DC, because a similar conspiracy theory suggested there was a secret pedophile ring associated with Hillary Clinton running out of the basement. Some experts, such as President Media Matters, Angelo Carusone, fear that this kind of fringe thinking would bring to Congress the number of conspiracy theorists, including those with a willingness to attempt dangerous attacks.
Greene’s racist remarks and her naked embrace of fringe conspiracy theories seem to be gaining support in her district, but threaten to undermine the more temperate political vision of some moderate Republicans trying to reunite the party for a potential Trump loss.
Rising Republican star Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan recently stated in an Atlantic interview about the party’s future that “successful politics is about addition and multiplication, not about subtraction and distribution,” and that it should be the goal of the GOP to “build a great tent. . ” Similarly, Oren Cass, a former aide to Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), last month criticized Trumpism and Republican Orthodoxy over the past 20 years, arguing that its limited scope will make it increasingly difficult for Republicans to holding force: “The kind of coalition for which these ideas were built does not seem to have any potential as a majority coalition,” said Cass Ezra Klein of Vox.
As potential end to Trump’s presidency falls, many in the GOP disagree on the direction for a post-Trump norm. Some, like Hogan, press for a moderate vision; others, such as sen. Ben Sasse, have taken over the cause of fiscal conservatism; and still others, such as rep. Doug Collins, pleads for a focus on “law and order.” Meanwhile, Republicans like Greene and fellow QAnon-voted candidate Lauren Boebert are pushing to take Trumpism to its logical end – with more racism and conspiracy theories.
Greene highlights the potential danger of a Congressional QAnon Caucus
Strong support for candidates like Greene underscores this pressure for a transition to a more accessible, pluralistic, economically populist Republican Party. This year, several Republican candidates have successfully campaigned for office by thinking of conspiracy. According to Media Matters’ QAnon tracker, “Nineteen candidates – 18 Republicans and one Independent – have already secured a place in the polls in November by competing in the primary election or by meeting other requirements necessary to to get in the mood. ”
If these candidates win in November, experts are worried that frank thinking will institutionalize. “There’s an enormous concern with having a potential for a popularly chosen cook that has virtually no basis, or as untethered by campaign on evidence,” said Graham Brookie, a specialist in disinformation and the director of ‘ the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, Vox said. “It would be dangerous to have a cadre of elected officials in the House of Representatives who feel that the federal government is desperately trying to repeat itself.
And it’s dangerous in part, although 18 members would be a small caucus, small but focal caucuses like the Tea Party have caused – and transformed – the GOP problems in the past.
QAnon candidates have been so successful, in part, due to institutional mistrust endemic in the GOP cow. Many “elements of the worldview that support QAnon do not look so different from what comes from the top of the ticket,” Vox’s Cameron Peters wrote in a statement explaining the election’s popularity. group. Peters notes that a May May Yahoo News / YouGov poll found “half of all Americans who cite Fox News as their primary TV news source believe the conspiracy theory (that Bill Gates wants to use mass vaccination to implant microchips) ), and 44 percent of voters who cast ballots for Trump in 2016 do so. “
This success, which includes Greene’s leadership in her conservative Georgia district, provides an insight into how party-goers can continue to elect elected officials with a strong affinity for Trump and his style in his absence. With Trump pursued in national polls, a second term in the White House is not a sure thing – but the presence of Greene and other QAnon supporters in Congress would at least ensure the continued projection of virulent racism and misinformation in the national chat.
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