The obsession with John Fetterman Clones shows a larger problem

Republicans can bash Guy Incognito all they want — they still have to beat him in 2028.

John Fetterman returned to Capitol Hill this month, along with the rest of Congress, and now finds himself at the centre of Washington’s weirdest new conversation: “Not Fetterman”.

For days right-wing communities on Twitter and other social media sites have been accusing the freshman Democrat from Pennsylvania of having been “replaced” by a secret cabal of shadowy elites, claiming that photos of the senator sporting a new mustache and possibly looking a bit thinner are proof that a body double has taken his place.

The senator responded in his typical cheeky fashion, telling a group of reporters this week: “It's all true. I'm Senator Guy Incognito.”

He then pulled up the corresponding image of Homer Simpson, whose alias he had stolen, on his phone.

The accusation is both bizarre and indicative of something more dangerous for the GOP, and perhaps the whole country. There’s a growing portion of the right of the US political spectrum which has lost faith in electoral politics, believing that every election outcome is predetermined and every politician is nothing more than a robot that can be discarded if they malfunction.

There’s an obvious threat posed by that belief. Beyond the alternatives to peaceful democratic norms that a movement like that could encourage, it also creates a self-fulfilling prophecy for the Republican Party. What kind of message do these conspiracies send to GOP primary voters as we head into a presidential election year?

For many voters it could be a simple one: stay home. Why bother standing in line to vote for an hour, two hours or more if the candidate you chose loses because of election fraud? Or what if they win, and are merely replaced by a clone less than a year into their term? These are not questions based in reality, but their implications and consequences very much are.

Many questioned in the months leading up to January 6 what effect Donald Trump’s persistent claims of a “stolen” election would have on the country. The answer was clear when thousands of his supporters stormed the US Capitol and hunted lawmakers in the seat of America’s democracy. But there was also another, quieter verdict delivered that same day across the country in Georgia, where two Democrats won US Senate seats after the last of the votes were counted in the early morning hours.

Did Donald Trump discourage Republican voters from turning out with his constant assertions that America’s elections were broken? Did the idea of a predetermined outcome cost the GOP a Senate majority?

As the GOP heads into an election year with another shot at taking the White House, Republicans are going to be confronted with these questions again. And perhaps unfortunately for them, the man with the final say in the matter may be the one who chose this road to begin with.