Should members of Congress be expelled for ties to QAnon?
The group QAnon, a network of far-right conspiracy theorists, formed in internet chat groups, really took off at the beginning of the pandemic. The followers of this group believe that President Trump was sent as a savior who would protect the people from the high ranking government officials who plotted against him. QAnon supporters claim these high ranking officials close to President Trump are also Satan-worshiping pedophiles, according to the BBC. This group believes in a vast array of conspiracies, including the idea that mass shootings and other devastating U.S. events have been staged. According to QAnon Anonymous, a podcast reporting on QAnon since the beginning, they are waiting for a ‘storm’ to come in which the members of the cabal against Trump will be arrested. Moreover, they hold the belief that there will be a great awakening in which everyone will realize that QAnon was right all along. According to PBS, at least 20 candidates with varying levels of beliefs in QAnon made it to the general election.
The beliefs of this group have been slowly making their way into congress, most prominently with the installation of new congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Past social media posts started to get her in trouble and prompted some GOP leaders to distance themselves from her. Greene has posted many islamophobic and anti-semetic things on social media and has targeted other racial or ethnic groups as seen in this video. She has also supported the QAnon notion that mass shootings were staged in order to gain support for anti-gun laws and has harassed survivors of these shootings as seen here. This type of behavior is dangerous for anyone to exhibit, especially a member of the United States Congress. According to CNN, she has since retracted some of the statements and conspiracies tied to QAnon.
Many Democrats in congress want Greene out of congress and view her as a threat. They feel that the republicans have been too forgiving of her behavior. Her past statements and opinions illustrate that she has a strong bias towards certain ethnicities and religions. This suggests that she should not be voting on decisions that those groups or the whole of America.
These biases should be taken into account when electing members of congress and other officials because their decisions will affect how they will vote on issues that would affect these groups.