Texas State GOP Formally Adopts QAnon Slogan

Raw Story reports:

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.

The New York Times reports:

The new catchphrase, “We Are the Storm,” is an unsubtle cue to a group that the F.B.I. has labeled a potential domestic terrorist threat. It is instantly recognizable among QAnon adherents, signaling what they claim is a coming conflagration between President Trump and what they allege, falsely, is a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophile Democrats who seek to dominate America and the world.

The slogan can be found all over social media posts by QAnon followers, and now, too, in emails from the Texas Republican Party and on the T-shirts, hats and sweatshirts that it sells. It has even worked its way into the party’s text message system — a recent email from the party urged readers to “Text STORM2020” for updates. The Texas Republicans are an unusually visible example of the Republican Party’s dalliance with QAnon, but they are hardly unique.