Watch out.
Stealth QAnon candidates may be running for your local school board and other local government offices in the immediate future.
“[M]any people who spout QAnon’s false claims have hatched a new plan: run for school board or local office, spread the gospel of Q, but don’t call it QAnon,” NBC News reported on Wednesday, July 7, 2021.
In many cases, attacking “critical race theory” is woven into their activism, which can make it hard to distinguish between the two movements. Read story here.
It’s already happening in some places.
For example, that explains the recent raucous school board meeting in Loudon County, Virginia, that erupted into a near-riot, which clearly was a planned and organized “protest” by Tea Party types.
Meanwhile, NBC News says, “In California and Pennsylvania, people who previously espoused QAnon have run for school board positions,” NBC News said.
Last month, the National Education Association warned that “conspiracy theorists and proponents of fake news are winning local elections.” And doing so pouts them in a position to shape policies “in everything from local law enforcement to libraries, trash pickup to textbook purchases.”
Even as they try to shed the QAnon label, websites that push QAnon’s false conspiracy theories are urging followers to, “Run for local, state and/or federal office,” NBC News reported.
Turnouts tend to be low in off-year local elections, and many of those who do vote know little about the candidates. That opens a door for extremists to take over school boards (as happened in Colorado) and municipal governments.
That makes it important to not only vote in these elections, but to know who the candidates are, what their motivations are, and what will happen if they get elected.
Public schools should prepare students for college, and give those who don’t go on to further education a basic grounding in essential subjects like math, science, and social studies (including history). Young people should leave high school with a working understanding of how our government works and their role in society as citizens of our country and their communities.
Local governments should be run to efficiently and effectively provide the services they’re set up to provide — police, fire, water and sewer, trash collection, animal control, etc.
Turning our schools and municipal functions over to ideologues with political axes to grind, especially people who subscribe to false and wild conspiracy theories like those promoted by QAnon, just isn’t a good idea. It’s a very bad idea, and voters need to be vigilant to make sure that doesn’t happen.