In these safe Republican seats, they’ll support the party no matter what. No matter whom it nominates. No matter what they say or do.

Today, however, these individuals can’t just toe the traditional GOP line. They have to grapple not with Bernie Sanders or AOC but with QAnon and its influence on their own party. Sure, they’d love to fall back into their traditional roles, bashing Democrats’ big tax-and-spend plans, but that ignores the hydroxychroloquine-snorting, Q-friendly elephant in the room.

It’s no coincidence that as the Q movement gains influence, our nation is suffering through a terrible convergence of medical and political disinformation. Conspiracies have consequences. More than 165,000 Americans have died because our leaders thought coronavirus concerns were a “hoax” and a plot designed to hurt the president.

It’s painful to admit, but the most radical elements of online politics have gained a firm foothold in the GOP. President Trump explicitly fused his paranoid political philosophy with Q on Wednesday with his tweet.