QAnon sits on the lunatic fringe of the far right of the political spectrum. Middle of the road, they ain’t. Hardly a day goes by that they don’t make you scratch your head and wonder, “What the hell?
If you haven’t caught up with them yet, you haven’t paid attention. Q is an unknown person who pronounces weird political theories on weirder YouTube and other internet sites. The basis of his popularity is the large number of Americans who believe his spews that Democrats and other coastal elites are pedophiles who govern a dark state that is trying to put an end to the country and turn it over to even more sinister rulers on the far left. The number of followers is not insignificant. We saw their flags carried into the Capitol on Insurrection Day, January sixth.
Q basically preyed on disaffected people during the 2020 election, convinced that the other end of the spectrum had made their lives miserable, made them feel left out of the conversation, stuck with the “woke” of cancelling culture. He/they was/were very good at it. They rallied thousands upon thousands of people to believe that Biden stole the election and that patriotic Americans should end the counting of the certificates of elections from the States and Territories. That was shameful enough, but Q’s followers were also convinced that Trump would suddenly take back the presidency on a day-certain, or on another day-certain if the first one didn’t work out.
And then there was Dallas!
Q’s tour de force was this week, and it was scary. After listening to a not-so-bright-whoever discuss the genealogy of the Trump family, of General George Patton, of Benito Mussolini, and the Kennedy clan, and how they are all related to each other in some roundabout way, he proclaimed that JFK Jr. would appear in Dallas to serve as Trump’s Vice President. The two would then reclaim Trump’s rightful place as the head of the government. To make sure it happened, JFK himself would appear to help his son claim his place on the ticket. People believed this stuff, they really did!
Here is how The Atlanta Journal Constitution[i] described the event: “Micki Larson-Olson, who wore a QAnon-themed Captain America costume Tuesday, said she not only believes JFK Jr. is alive – she also believes that his father was never assassinated and that the 104-year-old former president will appear to help usher in a Trump-JFK Jr. Administration. How will she react when the former president and his dead son do not show up? ‘We’ll figure that something happened in the plan that made it not safe to do it,” she said. “If it doesn’t go down how I believe it will, that’s OK. We’ll figure it just wasn’t the right time’” Hundreds, if not thousands, lined the streets, carrying Trump-JFK Jr. flags and placards in anticipation of the reincarnation.
Politics is a grownup’s sport. It pits people with differing points of view about real issues and philosophies of government into debates, with the hope that the endgame will result in something better than what they have. Politics isn’t supposed to be a place for crazies, a lot of evidence to the contrary.
People lined the street where a president was shot and denied that he had been assassinated, and then they said that his son, who died in a plane crash, really had been in hiding for 22 years and would return to don the mantle of leadership. This should give us pause as we contemplate the future of the homeland. If you extrapolate the number of fringe believers assembled in Dallas to the rest of the country, one wonders if democracy can survive. Like most people in their condition, they think they are normal and we are a bit off.
The people who showed up in Dallas to witness the resurrection of JFK Jr. look like regular folks, like those who live in the neighborhood, shop at the local grocery store, go to the local movies, and may even attend a local church on weekends. But they aren’t just regular folks; nerve endings zigged when they should have zagged, crossed over, and never connected.
But, here is the rub. They vote!
