NICK O’MALLEY
Writes.
The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has been subjected to some unpleasant sniggering over recent days. The issue has been his apparent pandering to conspiracy theorists who’ve been struck by the notion that a military exercise to be held in Texas and neighbouring states later this year called Operation Jade Helm 15 is in fact cover for an Obama administration plot to take over the Lone Star State and subject it to martial law.
The sniggering is one thing. But the problem is bigger than that, and it concerns the broader Republican Party.
It is not quite clear when the online fever swamp decided that Jade Helm was part of a federal government plot, but as far back as April 27 the US Army dispatched a senior officer to a community meeting in one of the towns that will host part of the exercise.
‘‘Jade Helm is simply just a challenging eight-week training exercise for unconventional warfare,’’ LieutenantColonel Mark Lastoria tried to convince the residents.
‘‘When we have a federal government that cannot tell the truth, how do we know that what you’re saying is true?’’ one man responded to applause.
Rather than ignoring the internet theories, which had by now been woven into a tapestry that included the closing of local Wal-Mart outlets to house reeducation camps, or something, to be run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the very next day Abbott lent them credibility.
The day after poor old Colonel Lastoria got kicked about at the community meeting, Abbott ordered MajorGeneral Jake Betty, the Commander of the Texas State Guard, to mobilise his troops to ‘‘monitor’’ the 1200-odd US Army Special Forces soldiers deployed in Jade Helm.
‘‘During the training operation, it is important that Texans know that their safety, constitutional rights, private property and civil liberties will not be infringed,’’ the governor wrote to General Betty.
And it was not just Abbott who has been indulging in the paranoia.
Ted Cruz, a senator representing Texas, Tea Party favourite and presidential contender, said of the Jade Helm, ‘‘We are assured it is a military training exercise. I have no reason to doubt those assurances, but I understand the reason for concern and uncertainty, because when the federal government has not demonstrated itself to be trustworthy in this Administration, the natural consequence is that many citizens don’t trust what it is saying.’’
It is tempting to write this off as a Texas thing.
In her book As Texas Goes the New York Times columnist Gail Collins argues that it is in the very nature of the place to see itself more comfortably in opposition to that which is around it.
‘‘That’s the traditional Texas spirit,’’ she writes. ‘‘At its best when there’s an enemy to rise up against. Outsized and brave. And frequently somewhat lunatic.’’
But the libertarian contender Senator Rand Paul is from Kentucky, and he said in an interview that he would ‘‘look at’’ the situation.
The fact that prominent Republicans cannot dismiss such nonsense out of hand is becoming a serious problem for the party, particularly as it gears up to fight a presidential election campaign.
And it is not just Jade Helm. Pandering to conspiracy theorists fits a pattern going back to the beginning of the Obama presidency. While the speculation that Barack Obama is not a legitimate president no longer makes news it is still part of the Republican firmament.
A University of California poll from this year said that they believed that ‘‘deep down’’ Obama is a Muslim. Only 9 per cent Christian.
Other conspiracy theories are having a real impact on the party. The GOP party platform adopted in 2012 contains language rejecting ‘‘Agenda 21’’ a vague and unenforceable action plan advocating urban planning that takes the environment into consideration that has been transmogrified in conservative circles into a ‘‘an anti-human document, which takes aim at Western culture, and the Judaeo-Christian and Islamic religions,’’ designed to bring about a one world government.
In 2013 so many became convinced that the Obama Administration was engaged in a nefarious plan to starve the people of ammunition, by unfairly stockpiling it all for government agencies, that two prominent Republicans Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe and Congressman Frank Lucas introduced a bill that would curb the amount of ammunition the government was allowed to buy.
Legislation like that is normally ignored by Republican leadership and scoffed at by Democrats, but it also makes it harder for the Republican Party to convince centrist conservatives that the party is ready to control the White House, especially when potential presidential candidates are flirting with the conspiracy theorists.
It’s long been said of American presidential candidates that they have to run to the fringes to win their primary campaigns and race back to the centre to win the presidency. But if the fringes get too far away, the candidates risk getting exhausted on the way back. Or lost.
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