It’s tempting to view QAnon’s rise as a threat to democracy – especially with a believer poised to win a seat in the House of Representatives.

But history suggests that conspiracy-based movements have been a part of America since its founding https://trib.al/jv8J56V 

Long before the modern Republican and Democratic parties held sway, fringe movements surged, often embracing some pretty bizarre conspiracies.

Eventually, the QAnons of the past were absorbed – or alternatively, excommunicated – by mainstream parties http://trib.al/jv8J56V 

In the 1790s, the New Englander Federalists became convinced that Illuminati members headquartered in Europe were plotting to destroy the new nation.

A strange coalition of politicians and Congregational preachers joined together to sound the alarm http://trib.al/jv8J56V 

Some Federalist true believers argued that Thomas Jefferson was the leader of the American Illuminati and the embodiment of the Antichrist.

After Jefferson’s victory in 1800, this early movement quickly faded out – as did the Federalist Party http://trib.al/jv8J56V 

In the 1820s, the U.S. was left with only a single major political party, the Democratic Republicans.

In this fresh wave of paranoia, a new political party was born in 1828: the Anti-Masonic Party http://trib.al/jv8J56V 

Back then, many political elites belonged to the Freemasons.

Members pledged secrecy, and high-ranking Masons earned titles like “master” and “high priest.” This was the “Deep State” circa 1826, complete with a star defector like Q: William Morgan http://trib.al/jv8J56V 

William Morgan, critic of the Masonic Order, was arrested and promptly disappeared. A body was never found.

As one historian wrote, “Masonic secrecy became synonymous with darkness, sin, immorality, intemperance, treason, and the work of Satan” http://trib.al/jv8J56V 

And yet, this didn't lead to the end of the republic. Instead, the Anti-Masonic Party became politically institutionalized.

In total, 40 anti-Masons went to Congress, and many more to state legislatures. It was then largely absorbed by the Whig Party http://trib.al/jv8J56V 

After this, an even more elaborate set of conspiracists would soon coalesce:

–– The “Order of the Star-Spangled Banner”
–– The “Know Nothings”
–– The John Birch Society http://trib.al/jv8J56V 

In 1958, a candy magnate named Robert Welch founded the John Birch Society, a group that anticipated much of the QAnon worldview.

In his writings, Welch traced the roots of a collectivist conspiracy back to – you guessed it – the Illuminati http://trib.al/jv8J56V 

According to Welch, Communism was but a “tool of the total conspiracy.”

Welch held that politicians were either unwitting dupes of a master plan or ruthless agents. He considered Dwight Eisenhower “a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy” http://trib.al/jv8J56V 

Rank-and-file Republicans flocked to Welch’s organization. At its peak, it had:

At least 100,000 members
400 bookstores that sold Welch’s manifesto, The Blue Book, as well as the society’s other publications http://trib.al/jv8J56V 

Republicans had an uneasy relationship to the John Birch Society.

Eventually it fell in the early 1960s, giving way to a larger rebranding of the party, which would ultimately propel Richard Nixon, and later, Ronald Regan, to the White House http://trib.al/jv8J56V 

Forty years later, we are watching the demise of that incarnation of the Republican Party.

As the two major political parties buckle under the strain of the latest realignment, conspiratorial thinking has re-emerged with the rise of QAnon http://trib.al/jv8J56V 

All the familiar ingredients are there:

Nativism
Anti-Semitism
A world controlled by secretive groups who are agents of secularism and Satan himself

Can our political system tame this madness? If history is any guide, there’s reason for optimism http://trib.al/jv8J56V