This publication has warned against the cult conspiracy group QAnon for months. And yes, sadly, there is an extreme minority in the Republican Party who sign on to their views. But they are nowhere near a majority or even a significant minority. QAnon adherents are so crazy they make good copy, hence their high profile as of late. However, to deem them a threat to the Party or the Republic is far off the mark. Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, disagrees. But he may be just setting up a convenient straw man to score points.

FNC: “Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said the QAnon conspiracy theory is “destroying the GOP from within” and called out House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and newly elected Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in an op-ed Saturday. QAnon is a conspiracy theory centered on the baseless belief that President Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the ‘deep state’ and a child sex-trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals.”

“Until last week, many party leaders and consultants thought they could preach the Constitution while winking at QAnon,” Sasse wrote in The Atlantic. “They can’t. The GOP must reject conspiracy theories or be consumed by them.”

 

Many? No. Certain, would be the better word. The president tried it, as he did with the Proud Boys. But Trump was smart enough to tap dance around the issues, knowing both those groups were pro-Trump. Some in QAnon even believe Trump is the mysterious Q. That is very unlikely.

Sasse had words for new Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and for the House Republican Leader. “She once ranted that ‘there’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out, and I think we have the president to do it,’ ” Sasse wrote. “McCarthy failed the leadership test and sat on the sidelines.” Sasse goes too far with McCarthy. He had bigger fish to fry.

Greene responded to Georgia media, “Your viewers are people in Georgia. They don’t care what Sen. Ben Sasse has to say. What they care about is their election integrity. They care about their votes not being stolen, and nobody gives a flip about Ben Sasse and what he has to say. He’s a never Trumper, he’s a turncoat Republican and our voters could care less about what he has to say about me or anyone else.” Well, if Georgia voters don’t care about someone alleging that a “global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles” is running the nation, someone should have a talk with them.

Sasse had the last word, for now. “The Republican Party faces a separate reckoning. … We can dedicate ourselves to defending the Constitution and perpetuating our best American institutions and traditions, or we can be a party of conspiracy theories, cable-news fantasies, and the ruin that comes with them.”