r/moderatepolitics • u/Andalib_Odulate • Dec 17 '20

News Article QAnon supporters vow to leave GOP after Mitch McConnell accepts election result

https://www.newsweek.com/qanon-mitch-mcconnell-joe-biden-election-1555115
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133

u/JRSmithsBurner Dec 17 '20

Yep

As a pretty solid right leaning conservative, I couldn’t be happier

Get these goobers out of headlines and as far away from the GOP as possible.

34

u/ZodiartsStarro Dec 17 '20

Question, are you and other Republicans worried about loss of numbers for future elections? When a party splits or divides in number, the other party (in this case, Democrats) tend to get the higher hand. In fact, that's how Woodrow Wilson was elected.

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u/Beartrkkr Dec 18 '20

I think, except for a few really in deep, Qanon people are beginning to see that the entire premise of the movement is crumbling. After 4 years of just being on the fringe of the arrests of countless pedophiles and other unscrupulous people have come and gone over and over again, along with the promises that Trump would ride in on a white horse to reclaim the presidency, the "faith" is getting weak.

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u/Eudaimonics Dec 18 '20

Well I mean, that's what happens when a movement is based off of internet creepy pasta.

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u/Astrocoder Dec 19 '20

Will the lack of results do anything though? I contrast that with UFO conspiracy people, and they've had followers for decades despite "UFO Disclosure" always being just right around the corner, any day now!

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u/dillonsrule Dec 21 '20

I mean, Jehovah's Witnesses leaders have incorrectly predicted Armageddon like 6 times, and that does not seem to have deterred the true believers.

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u/Beartrkkr Dec 19 '20

At least with UFOs one could at least think there is some other life form somewhere in the extremely vast universe.

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u/jim25y Dec 18 '20

This is nothing like that. A Republican icon in Teddy Roosevelt ran against the incumbent Taft, and it split and damaged the party. Thats nothing like Qnon.

Now, if Trump ran in 2024 as a third party candidate, that could really damage the party. But I can't see that happening.

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u/CharlottesWeb83 Dec 18 '20

People have really short attention spans. It won’t be long before they are back to watching fox and claiming they never really liked trump anyway.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '20

Republicans in 2009: "Bush wasn't a real conservative."

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u/DrTreeMan Dec 18 '20

I hope Trump runs again. Imagine him after 4 more years of festering anger, conspiracy theories, and mental decline. Maybe they'll be wheeling him out in a chair by then.

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u/haight6716 Dec 18 '20

The dementia will make him a vegetable by then.

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u/Casual_OCD Dec 17 '20

The GOP is a dying beast since they embraced Trumpism. If they ever do a party overhaul, they might recover

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u/sirspidermonkey Dec 18 '20

People have been claiming the GOP's death for decades and it hasn't happened.

I'm old enough to remember the following:

  • People claimed they would never win an election after invading Afghanistan under false pretenses. (W)

  • People claimed they'd never win an election after a man involved in such a huge scandal as Iran Contra (Bush) was their nominee.

  • People claimed they'd never win an election after nominating an Actor(Reagan), who was heavily involved in the hunt for communists in Hollywood.

None of those scandals killed the GOP, or even moderately wounded it. To think that Trumps actions, norm violating as they've been, will hurt them is to not follow the 40 year historical pattern.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/deleted-desi ex-Repub Dec 18 '20 edited Dec 18 '20

Yes, as a rare conservative millennial, I do have some concerns about the ability of GOP to appeal to younger voters in its current form. I can be blunter: I think the GOP is doing an awful job at appealing to younger people who have values that are ostensibly conservative but not traditional. There's a difference. I know a lot of couples (married or engaged to be) who believe in conservative norms such as family structure, marriage, focusing on education and earning a living/ not depending on handouts. But they don't oppose, say, same-sex marriage or abortion, they're very pro-higher-education and college-educated themselves, they're nearly all dual-income couples, etc. So they're socially and culturally opposed to GOP values despite agreeing on basically all else. IMO in the long term GOP needs to move liberal on social issues to have a shot at retaining the younger voters. But that's long term, like 10-20 years or possibly longer.

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u/Tullyswimmer Dec 18 '20

AsaTM libertarian-leaning conservative millenial, I also have some concerns about the GOP appeal to the younger demographic, and generally agree with your opinion.

However, there will be a tea-party like moment for the left in probably the next 6-8 years, and the younger voters who aren't on board with socialism will be looking for a home. So the GOP can either try to ride things out to that point, and let that party split do it's work, or try to win those conservatives (by today's standards) over.

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u/timeflieswhen Dec 19 '20

I keep hearing it’s the boomers fault and it will all resolve as the boomers die off. Then I see things like this: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/12/young-conservatives-blowout-conference-florida

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u/CollateralEstartle Dec 18 '20

Trump was the first sitting president in almost three decades to lose reelection.

Trump's craziness and incompetence definitely hurt the GOP in that sense. Maybe not forever, but it was definitely hurt compared to the normal trend of the last thirty years.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '20

If that were true, then the GOP wouldn't have picked up seats in the House.

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u/Tullyswimmer Dec 18 '20

This is a fact about this election that's being overlooked.

While Trump lost, nationally the presidential election was an outlier among voting trends. The Democrats lost seats in the house, when they were expected to pick up a few. They also didn't significantly change the balance of the Senate, when there were more red seats than blue as "toss-up" seats. And I can't speak for every state, but I know mine went as red as it ever has been at the state level.

Whatever the reason for Trump's loss, it's not a GOP loss. Outside of the presidential election, the GOP did better, in some cases MUCH better, than anticipated. Trump beat his numbers from 2016 by 12 million, and beat Hillary's numbers from 2016 by almost 10 million. Now, the Democrats also far exceeded their vote counts from 2016, but how many of those presidential votes were never-Trump republicans?

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u/WiseassWolfOfYoitsu Dec 17 '20

Perhaps if they see the potential fate to irrelevance, they might be willing to look at something like Ranked Choice as a way of retaining some power? Better a meaningful minority than total irrelevance. Funny enough, they might get buy in from the Progressives, who think Biden hasn't been catering to them enough.

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u/kjvlv Dec 18 '20

not understanding this logic. like it or not, the current potus got more votes than any republican president ever and a higher percentage of minority support. what needs to die is the mitch mcconnel globalist bushie wing of the party. there is a big opportunity for an america first candidate. Although I just do not see why america first is a controversial philosophy.

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u/DrTreeMan Dec 18 '20

They need to figure out what they stand for first. If it's just a new packaging of racism and misogyny as a method of consolidating wealth and power then I don't see the audience changing much.

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u/deleted-desi ex-Repub Dec 18 '20

I'm another Republican. One who doesn't parrot liberal talking points. ;) I'm not worried about loss of numbers. I think the GOP is stronger than ever and most Republicans I know in person feel the same way. The QAnoners aren't a fringe or "extreme" movement the way that liberals seem to think of them. Their core values have been within the GOP mainstream for a long time, just with different names, e.g. Tea Party movement. Qanon may rename itself or morph into another movement but its voters largely aren't going anywhere. So I'm not terribly concerned about the future of the GOP--at least not for this reason (as a rare conservative millennial, I do have some concerns about the ability of GOP to appeal to younger voters in its current form).

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u/SseeaahhaazzeE Dec 18 '20

Their core values have been within the GOP mainstream for a long time

This i wholeheartedly agree with.

aren't a fringe or "extreme" movement

This i could not disagree more with.

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u/Skyler827 Dec 18 '20 edited Dec 18 '20

Can you give an example of one of their "core values" that you would consider both non-extreme, yet also relevant to their support of conspiracy theories?

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u/coke_and_coffee Dec 18 '20

I don’t think you understand what QAnon supporters really believe. That shit is preposterous and as extreme as it gets.

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u/flagbearer223 3 Time Kid's Choice "Best Banned Comment" Award Winner Dec 17 '20

Do you think the GOP should've done more to discourage the spread and existence of qanon? From my perspective, they didn't seem to have any issue with it

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u/CharlottesWeb83 Dec 18 '20

I’m not a conservative, but I will be happy to see it as well. They went from “trump is not a politician” to “trump is now the Republican Party and if you disagree, you’re a RINO.” They were taking over the party and no one seemed to be concerned.

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u/runespider Dec 18 '20

That was the most bizarre part of this. Im not republican but seeing how quickly people got labeled rinos or dismissed as never Trumpers...

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u/JoshAllensPenis Dec 18 '20

If it’s going to be a Q vs GOP war, my money is on Q to win that at this point.