From July 15 to September 15, the U.S. Military will be conducting a series of routine military exercises throughout the Southwest, primarily in Texas. This is because the deserts of the Southwest are similar to the conditions that American soldiers would be likely to face while fighting overseas.
There is nothing out of the ordinary with these exercises. However, a group of tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theorists on the Internet recently became convinced that these military exercises are a cover operation for Obama to invade Texas, impose martial law, and take away freedom-loving Americans’ guns.
According to this theory, abandoned Wal-Mart stores would be used as guerrilla warfare bases, prisons for Tea Party supporters, and exits for an extensive pre-existing tunnel system that would allow Obama to move troops easily throughout the state. I cannot fully convey the ridiculousness of this theory in this article.
The existence of this sort of conspiracy is nothing out of the ordinary—after all, crazy people think crazy things and publish them on the Internet. However, what is unusual is that Greg Abbott, the Republican Governor of Texas, believes this theory and has ordered the Texas State Guard to monitor the exercises in case there is an invasion attempt.
As ridiculous as this conspiracy theory and the Governor’s response are, the invasion of Texas is just another addition to a growing list of the Tea Party’s ridiculous beliefs such as opposing a mosque at Ground Zero, claiming that Obama was born in Kenya, denying climate change, and shutting down the United States Government in an attempt to defund Obamacare. These events are evidence that a wing of the Republican Party has become increasingly detached from reality in its opposition to the Obama administration.