By Alexander Lomax
The U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to hear Arizona QOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward’s quixotic failed attempt to overturn the results of the Arizona election. One would assume that this would be the end of this madness, right? After all, it is a majority conservative court, certainly, this is proof to the doubters that our election was legitimate, right?
Ohhh, what a charming, quaint thought.
Instead, there is a madness that has gripped a significant portion of the Republican voter base. That madness is the QAnon movement, a movement with tens of millions of followers, with our former President pouring fuel on the fire, and with what seems to be about half of the AZ GOP legislative caucus more than willing to ride the wave.
For those who are unaware, QAnon’s fundamental thesis is that the highest echelons of the Democratic Party in Washington are running a pedophilic sex ring and that Trump was destined to break up this ring after his re-election and execute many of the main players. There are numerous tentacles of “thought” in this fetid pond of conspiracy, with some sects of believers honestly believing that John F. Kennedy Jr. never really died, and instead that he would reappear and be Trump’s Vice President.
I wish I was making this up. In a time in our world’s history when a million libraries reside in the smartphones in our pockets, somehow we have this virulent strain of anti-learning.
During John McCain’s run for President in 2008, a woman made a statement in a forum about how President Obama was a Muslim Arab. McCain could have tried to ride that vein of anti-intellectualism in a last-ditch effort to become President. Instead, he set the record straight to his own short-term detriment. This is one reason why John McCain will be a legend for as long as Arizona exists.
Unfortunately, there is clearly a deficit of ethics and decency in our state capitol. Instead, there are a whole lot of ravenous hacks who are very willing to go along with such an obvious lie, and plenty more who are simply staying quiet for the sake of self-preservation. We have Profiles in Quackery and Profiles in Self-Preservation, but Profiles in Courage seem to be the hardest to come by.
I sure wish that McCain was able to stick around for a few more years to give these folks hell. Then again, it’s not like the people who needed to hear it would have listened. They never did.