Of Course The QAnon Shaman Is Running For Office. Why Wouldn't He Be?
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Of Course The QAnon Shaman Is Running For Office. Why Wouldn't He Be?
This is the world we live in now.
Jacob Angeli-Chansley, better known as the QAnon Shaman (though he prefers to be called America’s Shaman, thank you very much), filed paperwork with the Arizona Secretary of State's Office on Thursday announcing his intent to run as a Libertarian (natch) in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District.
Chansley was released into a halfway house this past March after serving 27 months of his 41-month sentence for his part in the January 6 insurrection, and has since been very vocal about the fact that all of his contrition over his actions that day were total bullshit, especially the part where his lawyer made him blame Trump for what he did.
He now claims that, actually, the January 6 insurrection he was literally filmed participating in, shirtless and wearing a large fur hat with horns, was a psyop by the FBI to make Trump and his supporters look bad. Don’t think about that one too hard, because it will get you nowhere.
Rep. Debbie Lesko, who currently represents reliably Republican district, has said she will not be seeking reelection, and Chansley is just one of a number of very exciting candidates vying for the seat — including haunted Victorian doll Blake Masters, Trent “The Female Body Has Ways To Shut That Whole Thing Down” Franks — who resigned in disgrace from that very seat in 2017 following a sexual harassment scandal involving his inability to stop talking about his and his wife’s surrogacy plans, Chansley’s fellow January 6 participant Sen. Anthony Kern of Glendale, along with Seth Coates, Isiah Gallegos, Jimmy Rodriguez, Rollie Stevens, and Brandon Urness.
Candidate Rollie Stevens, I very desperately need to point out, is a country and western singer who has promised to perform a full concert with every speech he gives. Rudely, dude does not have a single “music video” available for me to watch on YouTube, but he does have a few that are just his songs. Naturally, I have decided to share with you the one titled “Beer Drinking Women.”
He says he wants to “bulldoze bad government” and is also “building a tourism destination in Wickenburg AZ, Gold Mine Experience!” My heart. (You all should know by now that I love it when they sing)
But back to the Shaman.
What I find interesting about him these days is that, while at one point all of the QAnon people were very certain that he, himself, was a CIA or FBI plant on a mission to make them all look bad, the consensus now seems to be that he is “part of the plan,” or at least on the side of the “white hats.”
How the times have changed!
Look, Debbie Lesko won that seat with 96.5 percent of the vote. A Democrat is not winning that seat. Clearly, the best we can hope for is someone who is hilarious, ineffective and largely embarrassing for the GOP — and that someone seems like it’s gonna be Chansley. Or the singing guy. One of the two.
Of Course The QAnon Shaman Is Running For Office. Why Wouldn't He Be?
The next logical step is for them to elect an actual monkey to congress.
The important (isn’t it?) business of governing and legislating has startlingly few prerequisites to qualify. File the right forms, campaign however you want, get enough votes. But despite no specific degree or license or training, we generally elected mostly sane, educated and reasonably qualified people. Now the sensibilities about governance are changing. America sent Donald Trump to the White House and people like MTG, Lauren Boebert, George Santos and Tommy Tuberville to Congress. Now, the QAnon Shaman is the next step. My guess is it’s the result of total dissatisfaction and lack of trust in our government that is causing a large minority of America to go bugnuts. Because for decades politicians say different versions of the same speeches. “Better economy,” “lower taxes,” “fight crime,” “better jobs,” etc. etc. etc. But does any real change ever come? Do any candidates truly narrow the wealth gap? Does anything transformative ever happen? That’s why they reach for the left-field, off-the-wall, most outrageous option. Many identify with them, but others simply have no faith in the system anymore. Nothing will really change if we elect another politician. So let’s toss a bee hive into Congress and scatter the establishment. Shake things up. Try something else.
Except effective governing requires we send truly capable, competent and serious people to Congress and the White House. Congress is becoming hopelessly partisan, disorganized, inefficient and chaotic.