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The Texas GOP's new slogan echoes a conspiracy group. Its chair says there's no connection
Shortly after Allen West took over as the Texas GOP chair last month, he gave the party a new slogan — "We are the storm" — and plastered it everywhere: fundraising emails, social media accounts, even on T-shirts and hats for sale.
West, a former Florida congressman, indicated he drew inspiration for the slogan from an unattributed quote that he likes: "The devil whispers to the warrior slyly can it withstand the coming storm. The warrior responds, 'I am the storm.'" Others, however, saw something more nefarious: a dog whistle to the QAnon conspiracy movement — the one that President Donald Trump notably declined to denounce Wednesday, saying he did not know much about it while also speaking favorably of its followers.
So what's going on at the state party?
On Thursday, The New York Times published a story that prominently featured the Texas GOP slogan, calling it an "unusually visible example of the Republican Party’s dalliance with QAnon." The party pushed back on the story — pointing to the anonymous quote as the "provenance" of the slogan — and said it was never contacted for comment. Democrats, meanwhile, called on state GOP leaders to disavow the slogan, which West indicated he would not do.
The QAnon movement adheres to an unfounded theory that a mysterious government official named "Q" is exposing a plot against Trump by "deep-state" actors involving satanism and child sex trafficking. Some believers have been accused of plotting or carrying out violent crimes, including killing a New York mob boss. In April, an Illinois woman was arrested after she traveled to New York with illegal knives and wrote on Facebook that Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden need to be "taken out."
Last year, the FBI identified the movement as a domestic terrorism threat. It is getting more attention than ever after Marjorie Taylor Greene, a GOP congressional candidate who openly supports the movement, won her primary runoff last week in Georgia — and after Trump's comments Wednesday.
The concept of "the storm" is a significant part of QAnon vernacular, said Mark Fenster, a law professor at the University of Florida who studies conspiracy theories.
“The storm has been one of the metaphors that Q and his followers have used to describe the coming upheaval in which Donald Trump reveals himself to have been working heroically behind the scenes to expose and punish those who have been engaged in this horrible satanic child sex cult," Fenster said. "Storms are longstanding metaphors going back to biblical [times] of how it is you cleanse what has otherwise been a sinful humanity."
... Whatever the state party's explanation, the slogan has created unease among some Texas Republicans. Among them is Chris Ford, former chair of the Dallas Young Republicans.
"I truly believe it’s not the intention of Chairman West to spread this QAnon message, but if someone like me, after a little research, can find there’s a bunch of QAnon accounts on Twitter saying, 'We are the storm,' and a T-shirt you can buy with 'We are the storm' and the letter Q, I think the Texas GOP should’ve done the research and said, 'Do we even want to even appear that we’re pandering to this conspiracy theory part of the GOP?'" Ford said.
Ford added that he would like to see a "firm denouncement" from the state party, but he acknowledged it is "hard when you have President Trump not denouncing the movement."
West has been Texas GOP chairman for about a month, after a resounding defeat of incumbent James Dickey at the party's convention in mid-July. West has so far made good on his campaign promises to orient the party to more aggressively confront Democrats, challenging his Democratic counterpart to a debate shortly after taking over and holding a rally Thursday with the McCloskeys, the St. Louis couple who brandished guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their home in June.
Disclosure: Facebook and The New York Times have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism.
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/21/texas-gop-slogan-storm/