It turns out that
by branding themselves as members of a party that has returned to its
mainstream, center-right roots after successfully stamping out a Tea
Party rebellion, even “establishment” Republican candidates are able to
hold all sorts of extreme views without any consequences.
Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that a party that regularly endorses
candidates who deny climate science and denounce evolution has moved the
political center so far to the right that even candidates with radical
views can still be treated as moderates. These days, Republicans win
kudos simply for stating that they don’t want to ban birth control or
destroy the economy by refusing to raise the debt ceiling.
This dynamic has allowed any number of conspiracy theories to
flourish in the GOP. Here are five conspiracy theories that newly
elected members of the United States Congress will be bringing with them
to Washington next year:
1) Agenda 21 is Coming!
Agenda 21, a two-decade-old non-binding treaty on sustainable development methods, recently emerged as
the latest source of right-wing anxiety.
Ted Cruz predicted that Agenda 21
will bring an end to paved roads and golf courses and Glenn Beck
wrote a dystopian thriller about its dire consequences.
Senator-elect Joni Ernst, a Republican of Iowa, shares their fears. Last year, Ernst
predicted
that Agenda 21 agents may start “moving people off of their
agricultural land and consolidating them into city centers and then
telling them that you don’t have property rights anymore. These are all
things that the UN is behind and it’s bad for the United States, bad for
families here in the state of Iowa.”
She later
warned that Agenda 21 will compel people to move into designated
“urban centers
” and
“take away our individual liberties, our freedoms as United States citizens.
”
2) Just Making Stuff Up About ISIS
Never mind the fact that there have been exactly
zero official reports
of ISIS members coming to the U.S. via the southern border, “closing
the border” has emerged as a leading Republican talking point when
describing how they plan to fight the terrorist group.
Tom Cotton, the Arkansas congressman who won his race for U.S. Senate
yesterday, said during his campaign that his opponent and President
Obama are “refusing to secure our border” and as a result,
ISIS is now at the gates:
“Groups like the Islamic State collaborate with drug cartels in Mexico
who have clearly shown they’re willing to expand outside the drug trade
into human trafficking and potentially even terrorism. They could
infiltrate our defenseless border and attack us right here in places
like Arkansas.”
The conspiracy theory about ISIS infiltrating the U.S. through the border with Mexico
first emerged on the conspiracy theory outlet WorldNetDaily and, as these things typically go, was then
picked up by pundits on Fox News. Eventually, the fallacious claim became a great way for Republican candidates like
David Perdue and
Thom Tillis to attack their opponents on both foreign policy and immigration reform in one talking point.
3) Beware Blood Moons
While conservative politicians have denounced the science behind
climate change as a big lie, some are very interested in the “science”
behind “blood moons,” with more
Religious Right activists
arguing that lunar eclipses are actually signs of God’s impending
judgment against America for policies such as abortion rights and LGBT
equality.
Jody Hice, a Georgia Republican who just won a seat in the U.S.
House, for example, told listeners on his talk radio show that the
appearance of blood moons “
have preceded world-changing, shaking-type events.”
“I certainly am aware of the fact that every time there have been
blood moons like this, there have been major events that have followed,”
he said.
Perhaps Congress should move to study blood moons rather than climate change!
4) Gay Recruitment in the Classroom
Are sex-ed classes just a secret plot to turn kids gay? Yes,
according to Wisconsin state senator and soon-to-be U.S. Rep. Glenn
Grothman, who once
warned
that some school classes are the result of an “agenda which is left
unsaid is that some of those who throw it out as an option would like it
if more kids became homosexuals.”
Grothman instead proposed that schools enact their own “Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell” policies, lest growing support for gay rights in the U.S.
lead to divine punishment.
Hice, as it happens, shares Grothman concerns about gay recruitment, once
citing a satirical 1987 essay to claim that gay people want to “sodomize your sons” and “seduce them in your schools.”
5) Identity of the Antichrist Revealed!
At least one Republican candidate knows the true identity of the Antichrist, and it’s Hillary Clinton.
Ryan Zinke, the successful Montana GOP U.S. House candidate who helped launch the Super PAC
Special Operations for America, told a Republican group that Clinton is Satan’s bride, and he knows this to be so because he speaks the truth:
“It’s time to stop the lies. Let’s talk about the truth,” Zinke said.
“Who trusts the U.S. government?” he asked rhetorically. “No one in this
room. I’ve served in 25 nations. I’ve seen where people don’t trust
their government. We’re there. In the military, the last option is to
send in the SEALs.”
...
Zinke said he wants to restore truth, grace, honor and decency,
which he called “our moral compass. It’s always been Judeo-Christian,”
he said. With the present administration, “It’s whatever you can get
away with. I will never bow to pressure. I will do what’s right,” he
said.
...
“We need to focus on the real enemy,” he said, referring to former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whom he called the “anti-Christ.”
After getting called out for the remark, Zinke later said that the “anti-Christ” comment
was a joke.
So there you have it, in an election where pundits raved about
establishment Republicans “crushing” Tea Party insurgents, it seems that
the GOP establishment has simply appropriated the Tea Party’s tarnished
brand of paranoid politics and unmistakable extremism.
