Paul Waldman: “Should President Trump lose in November, the Joe Biden presidency will be the target of some kind of angry far-right movement consumed with conspiracy theories. We know this because it’s what always happens when a Democrat gets elected. But how widespread it becomes and how much it affects mainstream politics are uncertain; it could be as influential as the tea party during Barack Obama’s time in office, or as fringe as the militia movement was during Bill Clinton’s.”
“Think about what will happen in 2022 if Biden is elected this year. Just as the 2010 midterm elections were dominated by tea partiers who considered establishment Republicans weak and feckless — and won primaries because their supporters were the angriest and most motivated — one could easily imagine five or 10 or 20 QAnon Republicans winning races in the most conservative districts. There will be some kind of backlash to a Biden presidency; we can’t predict with certainty what form it will take. But the lure of conspiracy theories is that they help their adherents make sense of a confusing world, convincing them that they have access to truths hidden from others and making them feel special and powerful.”