For the GOP, Conspiracy is Key
If Republicans want to win elections, spewing conspiracies can be a surefire, if unethical, tactic.
In what might be the biggest betrayal since Brutus joined the Roman senate in stabbing his own uncle to death, the word is out that George Soros, the Jewish billionaire and Democratic megadonor who survived the Holocaust, was actually in cahoots with the Nazis during his teenage years, selling out the identities of fellow Jews for profit. At least that is what U.S. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia would have you believe. Greene has made a name for herself as one of the congressional Republicans’ most ardent supporters of former president Donald Trump. Rep. Greene, however, is far from the only GOP lawmaker making baseless claims about the evil ways of Democrats and the “Deep State.” Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert fed into a core tenet of the QAnon conspiracy, that the Democratic Party is rife with influential pedophiles, when a tweet of hers suggested that Joe Biden showed up to the Congressional Baseball Game primarily because of the Boys and Girls Club’s role in the event. Meanwhile, the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol insurrection saw such claims as Antifa orchestrating the riot and that Capitol police were waiting to execute rioter Ashli Babbitt coming from GOP lawmakers. With 2022 approaching, Republicans may want to turn up the craziness of their statements to eleven, unethical as it is, if they want to win their race.
Some commentators believe that the GOP having a strong conspiratorial disposition is bad for them. The Wall Street Journal editorial board recommends the GOP stop “peering down a rabbit hole of 2020 conspiracy theories” if it wants to win. Eugene Robinson suggests in The Washington Post that the embrace of conspiracies may kill the party. Jazmine Ulloa at The Boston Globe asks, “Can the Republican Party rein in the conspiracies?” A better question might be, “Should they rein in the conspiracies?”
Perhaps the most popular conspiracy that has taken hold of the GOP is “The Big Lie.” Since the start of 2021, Republicans, particularly in the House, have overwhelmingly perpetuated the lie that the results of the 2020 election were illegitimate thanks to a combination of rigged voting machines and Deep State actors. Looking at the 2021 FEC fundraising data for individual campaign accounts between January 1 and June 30, Republican lawmakers who most vocally challenged the election results raised considerable amounts of money. In the House, Greene, who has cheered on state election audit efforts, has outraised her party’s less conspiratorial leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, $4.53 million to $3.99 million. In the Senate, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley raised $7.68 million and $5.14 million, respectively. Compare that to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has raised just over $3 million after opposing their effort to overturn the election results.
Not only is this a financially lucrative position to take, speaking the truth is an electoral death wish. According to FiveThirtyEight, of the ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump after the January 6 insurrection, nine have been rebuked by either their state or local GOP committee. The highest profile of these rebukes has been that of Rep. Liz Cheney, who was censured by the Wyoming Republican Party and subsequently voted out of her leadership position by her colleagues. That vote, however, was a voice vote. When Cheney’s fate was on the line months earlier, she survived a secret ballot vote 145–61. Clearly, a lack of anonymity in the voice vote eliminated any shield from political exile.
Has the GOP been completely brainwashed into believing these conspiracies? For those in government at least, most evidence suggests that they do not buy what they’re selling. For example, a recently released internal memo from the Trump campaign revealed that it knew the claims about rigged voting machines were bogus from the start. On the pandemic, several GOP lawmakers have reversed their anti-vaccine stances as data shows the Delta variant is particularly deadly in red states. Whether it’s better or worse that those in government don’t believe what they say is a discussion for another time.
On the other hand, GOP voters appear to have accepted several tenets of the various conspiracies being espoused. A Civiqs poll found last year that the majority of Republicans (56%) believe at least some parts of the QAnon conspiracy theory are true (only 13% believe it is not true at all, compared to 72% of Democrats). This could explain why, according to an Axios poll, the majority of Republicans view Greene more favorably than Mitch McConnell and Liz Cheney. It is no wonder why Republicans in government promote baseless, absurd claims. The beliefs among the contemporary Republican electorate are something candidates would be foolish not to take advantage of.
Americans now live in a world where half the government is encouraged to promote dangerous falsehoods. When Republicans are rewarded financially for challenging democracy, avoid political repercussions for embracing lies, and have a base that is susceptible to conspiracies, it is no wonder that truth is out of vogue in the party of Lincoln.
