Origin
Joan the silencer has become a meme based on a picture from the 2012 Republican National Convention, in which a delegate, known as Joan, holds a piece of paper in front of a delegate from Texas while he was announcing the vote count. It was largely expected to be very pro Ron Paul, as he is a congressman from Texas. The RNC establishment, who must be sadists, did not allow Ron Paul to speak or be nominated at the convention because he would have beaten Mitt Romney, and likely subsequently Obama.
Spread
The meme is subjective to show that free speech or outside ideas will be silenced by the “old guard”. It has blown up on Facebook and Twitter in response to the outcome of the 2012 election in which Mitt Romney lost by slightly more than the following Ron Paul had, causing many old school republicans to blame the Paulites, and to a lesser extent Gary Johnson.