Another Virus Is Spreading

By John McCormack

Sunday, August 23, 2020

 

Laura Loomer, a conspiracy theorist who has promoted religious bigotry, won a House primary election in Florida on Tuesday with 42.5 percent of the vote. Loomer has “zero chance” of winning in November in an overwhelmingly Democratic district that includes West Palm Beach, but her primary victory is still a troubling sign that the virus of conspiracism is spreading in the body politic, and few Republicans in positions of power show signs that they’re interested in doing much to stop it.

 

Earlier this August, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has promoted a variety of conspiracy theories, won a House primary runoff in Georgia, and Greene’s victory in the overwhelmingly Republican district in northwest Georgia is pretty much guaranteed in November.

 

Greene has promoted the elaborate and deranged QAnon conspiracy theories, a 9/11 conspiracy theory, and even suggested that the Obama administration got MS-13 gang members to assassinate a low-level Democratic National Committee staffer named Seth Rich.

 

False conspiracy theories such as these cause harm by calumniating real people and creating scapegoats. They create a break with reality that makes it difficult for a self-governing people to begin to address the actual problems they face. They can even inspire people who are unwell to commit acts of violence: The FBI has identified QAnon as a domestic terror threat.

 

Greene and Loomer have also been proponents of anti-Muslim bigotry. Greene called the 2018 election of two Muslims to Congress “an Islamic invasion of our government.” In 2017, Loomer celebrated the deaths of 2,000 migrants who crossed the Mediterranean and wished for 2,000 more.

 

When Greene’s comments were uncovered by Politico after she advanced to the runoff in June, House GOP leaders condemned them. “The comments made by Ms. Greene are disgusting and don’t reflect the values of equality and decency that make our country great,” House minority whip Steve Scalise said in a statement in which he endorsed Greene’s GOP opponent. A spokesman for House minority leader Kevin McCarthy said: “These comments are appalling, and Leader McCarthy has no tolerance for them.”

 

But after Greene defeated Republican neurosurgeon John Cowan 57 percent to 43 percent in last week’s runoff election, Republican leaders welcomed the conspiracist with open arms. House Republicans “look forward” to Greene “winning in November,” a McCarthy spokesman said. Georgia GOP senator Kelly Loeffler also congratulated Greene and wrote: “It’s clear that we need more political outsiders with business sense in Washington who will stand with @realDonaldTrump to Keep America Great.”

 

President Trump hailed Greene in a tweet as a “future Republican Star.” And after Loomer’s victory, Trump tweeted: “Great going Laura. You have a great chance against a Pelosi puppet!”

 

Trump’s praising Greene and Loomer is not the behavior of a president whose chief concern is winning reelection in November: He needs every vote he can get in both Florida and Georgia, and Greene and Loomer are sure to turn off some swing voters. But it’s not surprising that Trump, who has himself promoted wild conspiracy theories about Ted Cruz’s father, Barack Obama, and Joe Scarborough, would celebrate the victory of two Trumpist candidates.

 

There’s been a lot of talk about Trumpism over the past five years: Has it taken over the Republican Party? If so, will it continue to dominate the party for years to come?

 

That depends a lot on how you define Trumpism. If it simply means personal loyalty to Trump, obviously very few elected Republicans are willing to publicly criticize the president. If Trumpism is a policy agenda — more populist on economics, Jacksonian on foreign policy, strongly against illegal immigration — the GOP has undeniably moved in that ideological direction.

 

But what you might call the “temperamental Trumpism” embodied by Greene and Loomer —promoting conspiracy theories, bigotry, or both — has actually suffered many electoral defeats over the past five years.

 

In October 2017, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon went on Fox News to call for every GOP senator except Ted Cruz to be primaried. The Bannon-backed Roy Moore, campaigning as the true Trumpist in Alabama, had just defeated the Trump-endorsed Luther Strange in the primary. Bannon, who was arrested on fraud charges Thursday, seemed like a powerful force in politics at the time.

 

But Moore went on to throw away a GOP Senate seat in one of the most Republican states in the country, and his 2017 primary victory was the high-water mark for the temperamental Trumpists in statewide elections during Trump’s first term.

 

In 2018, Don Blankenship lost in West Virginia, Chris McDaniel was defeated in Mississippi, Kelli Ward and Sheriff Joe Arpaio lost in Arizona to Martha McSally. That same year, Corey Stewart, a fan of the bigot Paul Nehlen, narrowly won the Virginia GOP Senate primary but was blown out in the general election. (Nehlen lost by nearly 70 points in his 2016 primary campaign against Paul Ryan.) Kris Kobach won the Kansas GOP gubernatorial primary but lost the general election to Democrat Laura Kelly.

 

In 2020, Iowa Republicans sent Steve King packing. Kobach lost the Kansas GOP Senate primary earlier this month. Roy Moore came in fourth in the Alabama primary with 7 percent of the vote. Ben Sasse’s GOP primary challenger, who was more of a Trump loyalist than a temperamental Trumpist, lost in May by 50 points.

 

So, those candidates who embrace the worst excesses of the president have generally not fared too well in elections in recent years. And it’s true the Democratic Party has its own creeps and kooks: Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitism is well-known; the party had no problem handing 9/11 Truther Cynthia McKinney her committee assignments back in 2006; a Democratic candidate who won his party’s nomination for a seat in the Kansas House of Representatives this month admitted to publishing “revenge porn” as a 13-year-old (he’s currently 19).

 

Still, that’s no reason to rest easy about the victories of Greene and Loomer. Illinois Republican Adam Kinzinger has been a lonely voice over the past week calmly and carefully explaining why the conspiracy theories promoted by Greene are not true. President Trump gave QAnon a boost on Wednesday when he refused to say a single critical word about it.

 

“At the crux of the theory is this belief that you are secretly saving the world from this satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals,” a reporter said at the White House press briefing. “Does that sound like something you are behind?”

 

“Well I haven’t heard that, but is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing? You know, if I can help save the world from some problems, I’m willing to do it; I’m willing to put myself out there,” Trump replied. “And we are actually, we’re saving the world from a radical Left philosophy that will destroy this country, and when this country is gone the rest of the world would follow.”

 

Trump’s comments prompted a couple more congressional Republicans to speak out against the conspiracy theory. “QAnon is dangerous lunacy that should have no place in American politics,” House GOP conference chair Liz Cheney said. “QAnon is nuts — and real leaders call conspiracy theories conspiracy theories,” Senator Sasse of Nebraska said. “If Democrats take the Senate, blow up the filibuster, and pack the Supreme Court — garbage like this will be a big part of why they won.”

 

It’s important to keep in mind this is how the president is handling conspiracy theories even as he faces reelection. Win or lose in November, he’ll have no such constraints and a very big platform. And if Republicans lose the Senate in November, that will probably be good news for the conspiracy theorists. A party that’s completely out of power is even more likely to wander around the fever swamps. Keeping QAnon candidates from winning more elections is going to take a considerably greater effort than Republican leaders have shown in recent weeks.