The Republican Party is concerned about conspiracy theories
The biggest question is what will happen to Mr. Trump’s foundation, and to Republicans. These groups are hard to engage with QAnon and Stop the Steal because of the rigor with which Mr. Trump and key party members have embraced their platforms.
“Venn’s diagram of these three circles shows that the overlap is growing,” said Doug Heye, former communications director of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and a longtime party employee. He recalls how conspiracy theories about Barack Obama ‘s birth certificate began to spread through the party’ s voters in 2009 and 2010, after which he was the starting point for Mr Trump ‘s political career.
Liam Donovan describes the President as a man who was “marching in, getting involved in the Republican” swamp fever “- a president who was” really betrayed ”these hidden currents until it was impossible. His award was a strong, energetic and volatile support center, comprising first-time voters and former Democrats, whom many Republicans are afraid to cross.
Even after the Capitol, 140 Republicans voted in the House of Representatives not to confirm Mr. Biden’s influence, while 197 opposed Mr. Trump’s impeachment. The Republican leader of the House has rejected his claim that Mr Trump was to blame for the violence following pressure from colleagues. RNC loyal chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was re-elected unchallenged. Two newly elected House members have expressed support for QAnon.
“Elected officials will move alongside their constituents,” Mr. Donovan said. “[The House votes] serve as your best barometer of the political market for Trumpism among Republican Party voters. That could change … but for now those are the reasonable actors following the main incentives. “Mr Heye says many lawmakers” want to be seen as fighters “even though they privately admit there is no evidence of an important electoral mass.
‘Fight or flight’ for a Republican
There are indications that an alternative route is possible. A study by the Pew Research Center found that Mr. Trump’s approval fell sharply among Republicans who backed him in August. Of all Republicans, 52 percent say he was somewhat responsible for the Capitol riots, and 40 percent are calling for him to drop politics.
However, the same poll found that 75 percent of Trump voters believe he “definitely” or “probably” won the 2020 election, and 70 percent believe Mr. Biden’s influence to “Widespread illegal and fraudulent voting”. For Mr Heye, this wider sense of deception and illegality could be a bigger problem in the long run, given how deeply he has stifled the party.
Mr Donovan similarly argues that while the specific views of QAnon and Stop the Steal may not last, they have revealed a deeper feeling that future politicians will try to make use of. “The energy within the party in recent years, and the impulse that Trump himself has instigated, is against the elite, against the establishment, against the populist and against protest. it will become more powerful. “
Much is dependent on Mr. Trump himself, and his social media posts have brought consistent scenes of adrenaline to finishers. Without that, critics say the temperature in the party has already gone down, picking up tensions that have been on them since 2015. But the President is still ordering a major impact, and if can find a new megaphone – or launch a party for himself – A Republican may have to dance to his tune again.
For now, Mr Heye says Mr Trump’s enforcement silence has already caused the party’s temperature to drop, raising tensions that have put pressure on politicos since 2015. ” you check your phone every minute, you know? “Boris Johnson now knows that no matter what happens, he is not going to wake up to tell him that the President of the United States was tweeting that he is a loser.
“That’s not to say we’re out of the woods, with no stretch … but we’ve gone three days without talking about it. That hasn’t happened since mid-2015.”
Similarly, Mr. Goldstein feels that Mr. Trump dismantled a party atmosphere that was virtually nothing in which all spheres of life were strongly pollinated from all sides. “It was just too much; there was no oxygen, there was no air to breathe,” he says. “I was talking to my dad, he’s 92, and he told his son, you can’t get away from him.”
With Mr. Biden in power, Mr. Goldstein hopes he can regain some sense of common ground, giving way back to the center for his party.
Perhaps one less obvious bell ringer for the far right after Capitol Alex Jones, the radical shock jock conspiracist whose news site, Infowars, has often promoted QAnon theories. Immediately after the November election, he stopped the Stop Steal rally in Arizona by urging them to prepare for “war.”
Now he has told his audience to avoid violence, shun consecration protests. As for QAnon, it was denied that it was “a Chinese Global Communist Big Tech AI system for your handling”.