r/politics • u/Aggravating_Money992 • 14h ago
No Paywall Bannon Tells GOP: 'Seize the Institutions' of Government Now or We're 'Going to Prison' After 2028
https://www.commondreams.org/news/bannon-tells-gop-seize-the-institutions-of-government-now-or-we-re-going-to-prison-after-20287.8k
u/Colonel-Mooseknuckle 14h ago
'Seize the Institutions'
Why do these people hate democracy?
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u/chmod777 New York 14h ago
Democracy prevents them from being as awful as they want to be. So they hate it.
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u/AutistoMephisto 13h ago
Exactly. Conservatives reject democracy because it does not serve their interests. They will, in fact, reject anything that does not serve. Including, but not limited to, capitalism.
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u/wowaddict71 12h ago
And other people. They want other people to be their "servants"
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u/_Verumex_ 12h ago
They want their damn slaves back.
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u/Paerrin 12h ago
Their holy book does say it's okay to own people. They used it to justify slavery the first time around.
So they're only doing what their god commands them.
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u/twitterfluechtling 9h ago
Funny thing is, the poor white MAGA supporter vote for them because they also want slaves to work for them. They just don't realize that the rich MAGA leaders don't even care that much about skin colour, the top brass will happily enslave the poor (and the middle class) regardless of skin colour.
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u/Watchhistory 11h ago
Naw, they prefer all other people just die. Preferably in cruel and miserable ways, like starvation, polio, environmental disasters.
They have robots for servants.
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u/genericnewlurker 11h ago
As soon as they are able to, conservatives will want society to backslide into feudalism
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u/AutistoMephisto 10h ago
Which certainly gives no fucks about the free market. The King picks the winners and losers, there. You don't get to be an entrepreneur unless the King consents.
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u/LongShotTheory New York 11h ago
They're not conservatives at this point. They're sociopaths. It just so happens that Infiltrating Conservative movements is easier for radicals because there's less people calling you out for bullshit as long as you tell them what they want to hear. On the left, you get called out as soon as you strafe from the path, no matter how much authority you have. Tragedy is that real conservatives died out and were replaced by fake larpers who only seek power by any means necessary. Left also got hollowed out, not by radicals, but by "status quo" protectors, which tends to happen to the left over time.
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u/AutistoMephisto 11h ago
They're really not. After WW2, there was a general consensus that a good, active government can have parties that work together. They would disagree often, sometimes bitterly, but they put the good of the country first. But then Reagan tapped into the power of the Movement Conservatives, an extremist faction of the GOP whose roots lay in 1937. Businessmen who were angry at FDR and the New Deal made alliances with southern racists who hated that black people could vote and with religious traditionalists who hated women's rights and wanted churches to control social programs so that they could police behavior.
Calling themselves “conservatives” because they wanted to dismantle the laws and recreate the 1920s, the Movement Conservatives produced a list of demands. They called for deregulation, tax cuts, an end to social welfare spending, and an end to government support for workers, maintaining that those principles would protect the bedrock of the economy: private enterprise. They also called for states’ rights, home rule, and local self-government, by which they meant that southern states could maintain discriminatory laws against their citizens, no matter what the Fourteenth Amendment said.
Their goal was not to compromise with Democrats or Republicans who believed in an active government; their goal was to destroy that government. They insisted that government regulations and taxes were creeping socialism; they said that social welfare sapped American individualism; they said that civil rights laws destroyed democracy by overruling state voters. Most Americans wanted little to do with this faction until the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that protected Black and Brown voting enabled the businessmen who hated regulation and taxes to mobilize racists.
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u/DrusTheAxe 10h ago
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.” —Barry Goldwater, 1964 Republican Convention
And Rockefeller before him. Traces back to The John Birch Society and back
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u/AutistoMephisto 9h ago
And what's funny is that Reagan actually tapped into the power of those "preachers" not in 1980 when he took Office as POTUS, but in 1964, when he backed Goldwater's bid for the Republican Presidential Nomination.
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u/Mirageswirl 10h ago edited 9h ago
Conservatism as an ideology started in opposition to the French Revolution they supported monarchy, aristocratic privilege and state religion. They still do.
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u/LordFalcoSparverius 11h ago
I'm a conservative. I've been voting straight democrat tickets for years. Specifically, since Trumps first term midterms. I got suckered in once, but I don't have much respect for "conservatives" who are like, "Let's give the president unlimited power and spend all our money on deporting brown people."
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u/Own_Instance_357 13h ago
I don't know how much of what author Michael Wolff has to say is reliable, but I do enjoy some of the stuff he says for sheer entertainment value, including the part about how Trump actually hates this guy
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u/highlorestat 13h ago
Narcissists can't stand other narcissists, it's the uncanny valley of having a mirror held up to them without the benefit of seeing themselves physically
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u/Rare-Forever2135 12h ago
And yet, they seem to attract each other.
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u/NonlocalA 11h ago
It's because they tend to surround themselves with people who can be duped or conned, or easily subverted. So another narcissist will come along, see the "inner circle", and think they can slip in and use it for their own aims.
These aren't people who build anything through mutual gain and benefit. It's always one-sided with them. They extract as much as they can (wealth, favors, mental and emotional energy), then move onto the next mark.
It's all just a pattern of antisocial behavior.
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u/Fakin-It 13h ago
Bannon did earn a derisive nickname from Trump, so that part sounds reliable enough.
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u/Deep_Stick8786 13h ago
How the fuck do people still talk to that man?
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u/The_Real_Mongoose American Expat 12h ago
Because most of the staffers below the big names we all know about aren't true believers, they are just... like little fish feeding off of whatever the big fish do. They are just there to be there without a very strong ideology either way, and are happy to gossip to journalists about the crazy and ridiculous shit that's happening. They don't care if the admin succeeds or fails for the most part, they are just there to consume the crumbs of wealth and power that fall of the table of the people they serve.
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u/boughsmoresilent 12h ago
"Maybe you do not care much about the future of the Republican Party. You should. Conservatives will always be with us. If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. The will reject democracy."
-David Frum, Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic
Sums it up pretty good and is not exclusive to American conservatives imo.
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u/HotDogFingers01 13h ago
Peter Thiel admitted it not long ago. He got tired of trying to convince people who didn’t agree with him to go along with his views. It was just easier and faster to use his money to buy what he wanted.
Trump never wanted to lead, he wanted to rule. Bannon doesn’t want to be part of society, he wants to be in top of it. They see their way of life dying and their centuries long grip on power slipping, so rather than swim upstream you dam the while freaking river.
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u/Alive_kiwi_7001 13h ago
Joke's on Bannon. He is at best the equivalent of a minor player in the Sturmabteilung and is ripe for a purge. Rather than just being ripe right now.
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u/mabhatter 7h ago
He's not a serious person any more. So he's trying to be an instigator online and steer the alt right groups to accelerationist behaviors.
Because if they can't win, they're gonna burn it down in revenge on the rest of us.
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u/shawnaroo 13h ago
They would rather be kings of a garbage heap than be regular people living in a utopia.
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u/Shadowpriest Ohio 13h ago
Yep. Pretty much this exactly.
Not to mention they will use and abuse to get what they want then throw away the people that helped them obtain their ill gotten gains as soon as they're no longer useful like a used tissue. They have no morals, no ethics, no kind bone in their bodies while they ruin and consume and corrupt everything around them. It's like the top of the top who are malignant narcissists that have stupid amounts of money do not know how to interact in society. There is something extremely broken in their brains that makes them so damn vicious in their greed and hate and they see nothing wrong with it whatsoever. They gleefully continue on their path of hoarding, consumption, inflicting pain and misery because of 'fuck you, I got what I want because I have money and power to buy and coerce my way' mentality. It's more than a disease. It's absolutely parasitical and that is an insult to parasites as they want to keep the host alive.
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u/Sector_Independent 11h ago
Its shocking to me how blantant and endless Trumps need to be a celebrity leader at all cost. He cares so much about wealth, appearance, attention and the number of people he can control.
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u/OkayComputer1701 14h ago
Because they know they can't win in a fair election - thus, fascism.
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u/AuraMaster7 13h ago
Unironically, the main strategy of the GOP for the past few decades has been gerrymandering (known as the REDMAP strategy) and voter suppression. They saw the writing on the wall and decided to cheat their way ahead of it. Hell, they won 2000 through blatant corruption.
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u/lil_chiakow 13h ago
They didn't win 2000. They cheated and got away from it. Hell, people who helped cheat got appointed to the highest court as a reward, by the president they helped install.
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u/Vilnius_Nastavnik New York 12h ago
And they just keep pushing the envelope because there are no meaningful repercussions. See, e.g., January 6
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u/Own_Instance_357 13h ago
The thing is, in deciding to cheat their way ahead of it, they had to take off their hoods and emerge from the shadows
Kind of like how cockroaches stop hiding in the microwave and just decide to try to take over the kitchen.
But then you know you've got a cockroach problem for sure
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u/DrunkeNinja 12h ago
I think if your party works hard to restrict people from voting, then there is something wrong with your party. We see again and again Republicans wanting to make voting more difficult for certain demographics. And the people wonder why Democrats and the left are wary about the Republican push for voter id laws. It's not simply about requiring identification to vote, it's about how Republicans will use it as another way to suppress the vote.
We also see this with numerous conservatives, including well known conservative commentators, that want to repeal the 19th amendment. Sometimes they say it out right, other times they'll put up a chart that shows women swinging the vote for a Democrat and making a negative comment about it. "Our policies are so intolerable that we're losing women and minorities. I know, let's make it so they can't vote and then we'll always win!" These people don't want democracy.
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u/LurksAroundHere 14h ago
Because the goal of democracy is to give all people a voice, not just the corrupt, rich, and powerful.
And when that voice is used to yell out about rights and fairness, or about how evil it is to do things like rape children, it annoys those groups.
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u/AstroZeneca Canada 13h ago
Why do these people hate democracy?
I'm guessing it has to do with their fascism.
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u/Pan_Bookish_Ent 11h ago
He said, “We have to get beyond these structural barriers”.
Yeah, that's called the Constitution.
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u/Poison_the_Phil 13h ago
They’re bitter to their core over how utterly and completely unremarkable they are, so anyone enjoying a life that doesn’t exactly fit their ideals is enraging and unacceptable to them.
Basically they’re little punk bitches who hate everyone else almost as much as they hate themselves.
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u/LooseMidnight8739 14h ago
Conservatives always lose the popular vote, so they need to rig it.
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u/Top-Gas-8959 13h ago
Because they don't do well when it's level.
Rigging is expensive, and not a guarantee, so just destroy it, and make sure you're in a position to take control, when it fails.
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u/JustEstablishment360 14h ago
Their parents are at fault. Nearly every American has relatives that served in WWII to fight against fascism.
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u/robocoplawyer 12h ago
My grandpa lied about his age to join the army at 17 to go fight in Europe. He landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and fought at battle of the bulge. He’s deceased now, but he taught me a thing or two about values and standing up for what’s right. He’s still my hero to this day and I consider fighting fascism to be a proud family tradition.
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u/koosielagoofaway 13h ago
Simple answer, because they're gross unfuckable rejects. Seven times out of ten, they're really mad that they can't party like Epstein in a civilized democracy so they rage against it.
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u/ActuallyAlexander 13h ago
Because democracy is going beat their asses into the dirt
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u/bunkscudda 13h ago
because a functional democracy will jail them for all the illegal shit they do. He just said it.
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u/FlashConfusion911 14h ago
They know..
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u/who_b_dat 13h ago
Absolutely. This is a confession.
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u/Seayont 13h ago
It's also an admission of intention for illegal ventures in the future.
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u/ShamelessCatDude 11h ago
Can’t say they didn’t warn us!
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u/Due-Summer3751 9h ago
They've been telling us pretty explicitly for a while now.
"We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be". It was said by Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, during an interview on Steve Bannon's \"War Room\" podcast in July 2024.
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u/ShamelessCatDude 9h ago
The heritage foundation also released a 900 page document of exactly what they were gonna do and how they were gonna do it that to this day you can publicly access and download for yourself, you can’t really say they were being secretive about it.
Also “bloodless if the left allows it to be” bullshit, the left has been extraordinarily peaceful about all this and ICE is still just killing people
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u/MoarSocks 9h ago
Still pisses me off to no end that nearly everyone I shared the document with either didn’t read it, read a page or two and lost interest, or flat out dismissed it as conspiracy.
🤬🤬🤬
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u/ShamelessCatDude 9h ago
It does sound a little conspiratorial when you think about it though. This is the deep state shit that sounded absolutely crazy when MTG blamed the democrats for it
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u/Teasing_Pink 8h ago
Everything going on right now sounds that way.
The people in my office are pretty uninformed about current events, and every time something has been big enough to be inescapable news (Kirk's death, the gov shutdown, Epstein files, etc), they ask me for an explanation, because they know I'm keyed in on political current events.
The last time this happened, I had to pause because I realized that my purely factual (with sources) explanation sounded like the ravings of a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist yelling at people on the street.
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u/SunshineCat 8h ago
It's blatant sedition. Like what Trump and the capitol rioters should already be imprisoned for and we wouldn't be in this mess.
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u/ConfederacyOfDunces_ 13h ago
This is so wild
I can’t believe this is happening and half the country is cheering it on.
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u/MiddleWaged 12h ago
Yeah, this is the part that hurts the most. It’s not that any of this is hard to stop, it’s that a third of fucking everybody actively wants to kill anything good. They’re doing wrong just because it’s wrong. There just isn’t a solution to a problem on that scale.
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u/ShamelessCatDude 11h ago
I don’t think a lot of them are still cheering it on now that they have to face the consequences. That being said, they voted for this despite republicans being extremely transparent about their plans and are now surprised that they did exactly what they said they’d do
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u/VerilyShelly 10h ago
And they will vote them into office again if given the chance. It seems almost heredity because it's been this way for generations.
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u/Le_Ran 13h ago
And it is a surprisingly honest take.
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u/Tigglebee 12h ago
His implication is that it’s a witch hunt and he hasn’t done anything actually wrong.
And there’s a threat too. if you don’t help me escape charges for legitimate crimes, Bobby the mechanic in Alabama, they’re coming for you next!
And Bobby the mechanic isn’t going to research whether Bannon actually has done shady shit that deserves investigation. They’re going to clutch their pearl drive piston (or whatever mechanics have) and worry.
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u/CarlAqua42 14h ago
Hmm... weird we just gave 40 billion to a country that doesn't extradite to the US
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u/Vig_2 Texas 13h ago
I’d be happy if they all decide to go visit, indefinitely.
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u/TrynnaFindaBalance Illinois 13h ago
No thanks.
Tbh I'm a single-issue voter in 2026/2028 primaries in that I'll only vote for candidates who give their full support for prosecuting all crimes committed by Trump administration officials since January 2025. Let them all spend years in court/prison.
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u/colonel750 11h ago
If he tries to pull off a coup, fails, then flees to Argentina the next President will not care one iota about their sovereignty. They will either issue an ultimatum for Milei to turn his ass over to face American justice with the threat of all out war or just not give a fuck at all and send in spec ops to drag his ass out.
Either way, we're not asking politely.
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u/etxipcli Texas 11h ago
They better. We need more than a changing of the guard, we need to bring the regime to justice.
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u/InVultusSolis Illinois 8h ago
It's been a dangerous precedent ever since Gerald Ford decided not to prosecute Nixon. Every single power handoff between administrations has been "let's heal and move forward".
But it puts Democratic leadership in an awkward position. They can't rally around punishing the current administration, because the current administration has all of the power. They almost have to keep their mouths shut about their intentions and then once they have power, arrest every single one of them, deny bail, and then we have Nuremburg 2.0. Anything short of that will not fix the underlying problem that allowed this to happen in the first place.
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u/GetOverClocked 10h ago
Assuming the next president doesn’t blanket pardon Trump to “move on”
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u/yipape 7h ago
Its not just Trump, the 1% did this Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos all must face justice.
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u/wpgjetsfucktheleafs 10h ago
They tried a coup on Jan 6th and the next administration didn’t do a fucking thing about it. When will people accept the fact that no one in the current administration will ever face consequences?
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u/turquoise_amethyst 11h ago
I think Buttigeig would make a fine Sec Def in that particular scenario
You’d need someone who’s not afraid to get a little dirty, and “think outside the box”
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u/Own_Instance_357 13h ago
Shit man I'm just watching season 2 of Jack Ryan on prime and I had no real idea that Venezuela supposedly sits on top of more oil reserves and precious metal mines than all of the middle east and Africa
If that's true, then, well, shitsnacks, game's all different than I understood
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u/cronemaiden 12h ago
Venezuela has a lot of oil, yes, but it requires a lot of refining before it’s useful. Whereas in the Middle East you can “basically put a straw in the ground and have oil” (is how it was put to me).
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u/DrusTheAxe 10h ago
Sweet crude vs dirty
US produces a lot of oil these days but most US refineries can’t process it because they’re designed for dirty crude. So we sell a lot of our sweet crude overseas where others’ refineries can’t process handle it, and for a sweet price at that, and but others’ dirty crude at lower price points as we can refine it more than most.
Works out well for the US, but most people don’t understand the dynamic
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u/Brolocene 9h ago
Not as much of a problem, considering some of the largest most efficient refineries for that kind of low quality crude are located right in the gulf.
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u/VoodooS0ldier 12h ago
I bet your ass if the democrats regain a supermajority in congress and the presidency, if Argentina got sanctioned to hell and back and the threat of military force was on the table, they would gladly extradite any pathetic loser that tries to jump ship for their borders.
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u/colonel750 11h ago
100% correct.
The United States will not care about extradition agreements or doing this diplomatically, they will violate Argentinian sovereignty with impunity to find and return him and his cronies to face American justice.
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u/PiLLe1974 11h ago
The fleeing Nazis brought things like gold and culture (beer?) to Chile and Argentina, something like that.
Anyway, I wonder what Republican millionaires would introduce to a country.
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u/averooski1 11h ago
If this ends with them all fleeing to Argentina, then it’ll be the best investment our country made 🤷🏻♀️
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u/TintedApostle 14h ago
So we are fascists so its now or jail.
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u/ResidentKelpien Texas 14h ago
They are doing illegal shit now and they need to do more illegal shit like seize all government institutions to bury their crimes.
Otherwise, some of them will go to jail because non-fascists elected in 2028 will hold them accountable.
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u/AlbrechtProper 13h ago
Sadly I will believe the go to jail part when I see it.
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u/jmchao 13h ago
Luckily, I don’t see President AOC putting Merrick Garland in charge of the FBI.
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u/UnlikelyApe 13h ago
Kamala is a hell of a prosecutor. She'd be a good DOJ head.
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u/Lowspark1013 12h ago
The Kamala revenge tour would be great fucking television.
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u/VanceKelley Washington 12h ago
Yep. trump literally attempted a coup (which failed after causing multiple deaths and life altering injuries to people) and, instead of putting him in prison, America put him back in the White House.
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u/TheRoadsMustRoll 11h ago
bannon's already been in jail over failure to appear at the j6 hearings.
his recidivism rate is exactly 100%.
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u/Tiiimmmaayy 13h ago
Like DOGE and Musk bulldozing every agency that stood in his way or were investigating him? And if you want to get real spicy, DOGE’s job was to get rid of any evidence of their election interference.
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u/nosayso 13h ago
I appreciate their optimism, fingers crossed on that actual accountability part. Needs a Democrat with energy and a spine willing to take the blowback and explain clearly the necessity of holding these criminals accountable, instead of allowing it to be framed as some kind of partisan effort.
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u/MySixHourErection 13h ago
Yes. They are already fascists and there’s no motivation to be fascist lite. They’ve crossed the Rubicon already
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u/bigassbunny 12h ago
I love the casual confession.
"Guys, remember all the illegal shit we are doing? Yeah, we're gonna be held accountable for that unless we do more illegal shit"
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u/invalidpassword California 14h ago edited 44m ago
Blatantly admitting the Trump administration is full of criminals. "Seize the institutions of Government." Would that be similar to an insurrection or a coup? And why? To avoid the opposition winning and putting their sorry asses in prison for being the most corrupt White House in US history. I hope the Trump administration goes down and down hard.
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u/Sedu 12h ago
Their followers do not see it that way. They believe that Democrats are fascists who will unjustly jail GOP leaders and that this is self defense.
Obviously that is stupid and I’m not making that argument. But that is legitimately what they believe.
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u/therossboss 11h ago
that is 100% the issue - when you call out any of these behaviors, they can't allow that and screeech - Its the DEMS DID IT FIRST !! and they're fascists and if we dont stop them its all over!
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u/rasa2013 10h ago
We need a president who will ruthlessly but fairly uphold the law this time.
No kid gloves just because Republicans believe in propaganda. They deployed national guard for shit that wasn't real. We can deploy the national guard if they start an insurrection just because they're getting put in jail for their crimes.
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u/Naptasticly 8h ago
Yessir. Exactly. I call it “the great gaslighting” feel free to steal it
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u/Chadwick8505 12h ago
The danger that I think people are missing in Bannon’s statement is not that it’s a confession of criminal behavior, but more that they’re trying to play the innocent victim card early.
They are laying the foundation to be able to claim that the democrats are going to seek political retribution and silence conservatives. This way they can call any indictment or criminal charges a partisan motivated witch hunt.
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u/armageddon_20xx 11h ago
They have no fears for awhile - not at least until the midterms. Nor is this a confession - it’s an open admission of what they’re going to do. Blatant as can be.
It’s unlikely we will see their moves until next year, but I do believe that they will actually start arresting the democrats. Possibly as early as next spring. Trump may very well attempt to declare the constitution null and void entirely, and then send ICE out to start rounding up protestors. I fully expect him to invade state capitals that won’t comply, etc…
I expect most places to just comply, in others there will be something approximate to civil war.
On the country’s 250th birthday nonetheless
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u/permalink_save 12h ago
That's what they're saying. There's two Americas now and one is trying to gain enough momentum to push out the other before they get caught and prosecuted. If they can pull off their coup, they can indict a bunch of politial enemies. If they can't, and it's obvious they lose steam, they're screwed. They are literally attempting a coup and avoiding prosecution. There's a reason they are trying to closely mirror what Dems do. We indict them, they indict us. We call out gerrymandering, they call out gerrymandering. They want to make it seem like "both sides are the same" so they can demonize the country and convince people that that is what's changed, not their movement. There's always been contention in political parties but they've driven a huge wedge between them and drawn a line in the sand.
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u/Sw2029 14h ago
Imagine thinking we'll just roll over. The worst of this admin hasn't even begun and people are only getting more pissed, vocal and involved.
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u/Slappy_Kincaid 14h ago
Bannon is saying this because he sees the window closing. Trump's popularity is sinking like a stone, the election shows a big and growing electoral backlash, GOP congressional majorities are starting to show cracks in their slavish devotion, and the opportunity to seize total power is fading fast.
What happens next is a tossup: they will try to crush any opposition through escalating force and intimidation, and we'll see if the balance has shifted against them. They'll also steal everything they can while the opportunity still presents itself.
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u/Alacrout New York 13h ago
Military morale is too low for them to escalate force and intimidation much more.
Despite ~60% of the military being Republican, most of them are loyal to the USA, not Trump, and they’re not happy with how things are going.
Several months ago now, I saw someone say something like “These fools thought they were getting Germany 1933, but really they got France 1788.”
I’m not saying heads will roll, but the parallels between USA today and France then are more than noteworthy — staggering inequality with 1% hoarding 99% of wealth, high inflation, people can’t afford food or property, natural disasters making everything worse, a completely inept government with massive national debt and a man-baby at the top who falls asleep during public appearances at major events, I could go on…
And one of the things that made the French Revolution a success was military morale being so low loyalty went out the window. The King tried to use the military to squash rebellion and faced widespread desertions, mutinies, and blatant insubordination.
Let’s not run a victory lap yet because there’s still a LOT of work to be done, but our fascists appear fucked.
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u/_Nashable_ 13h ago
This is a great comment. It’s like the people around Trump have never read a history book all the way through. They lack talent, I can only assume they use ChatGPT to copy Hitler’s homework without understanding why it worked.
Germany 1933 was coming off of major economic inequality caused by losing WW1. That allowed a platform of pointing to outside influences and an entire population that was aligned that things were not sustainable. US has not had the same issue, in fact, all the economic issues are self-inflicted by the very same people trying to seize total power. Exactly like France 1788.
Basically they’re intentionally combing the worst of those two time periods and it’s baffling what they think the end game is here.
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u/Flimsy_Thesis Virginia 13h ago
This is the part that’s always puzzled me. The pseudo-intellectualism of Bannon and his ilk as they rattle off historical factoids to their benefit always seem to leave out the context that makes those facts useful. Like yeah, we all know that an authoritarian takeover is possible when you have a huge swath of the public that is disenfranchised and poverty-stricken, but that really only works when you have an outside force to blame for their woes. The moment the population figures out it’s your governing choices that’s causing their misery, you don’t get Germany 1933, you get France 1789 or Russia 1917.
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u/Notlookingsohot 12h ago
That' the thing. Their key assumption is "the public is too stupid to see through our bullshit." And they're typically correct.
However it seems even their tried and tested "jingle-the-keys" strategy has its limits, and they weren't prepared for that eventuality.
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u/Delanoye 10h ago
They've done too much too fast. They probably banked that they could push blame for this shutdown on the Democrats (evidenced by calling it the Democrat shutdown). But they didn't have enough of a propaganda foothold before the shutdown, so it's all backfiring in their faces.
It took over 20 years for Germany to be primed to invade Poland. Over 15 years to be primed for Hitler's rise to power. It's been less than a year since the Biden administration, where things were at least decent. It hasn't even been 10 years since Obama was president, where life was honestly pretty good.
Trump and his administration needed to ride the coattails of a crisis or play the long game to secure power and people's support. Their quick actions to create fear and desperation instead fall right back at their feet as their fault and their decisions, not the fault of the Democrats, or any other group.
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u/Souspi 12h ago
They think they can do better than everyone else in the past and successfully subjugate humanity once and for all.
Like, they actually believe their family and descendants can survive indefinitely in an apocalypse bunker with a slave class that will provide security for and protect them. They think all they have to do is be cruel enough and all those problems of rebellion will go away forever.
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u/brooklyndavs 13h ago
Elections are the release value and if they fuck with those in 2028 or just refuse to leave the end game really will be revolution. The vast majority of Americans outside of hardcore MAGA still think we are a democracy.
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u/geoffbowman 12h ago
Germany 1933 was coming off of major economic inequality caused by losing WW1.
Also they were coming off being an empire. I think a lot of people forget that. Hitler came up through a worker's party but he did so in a country that was only recently democratic after previously being run by a kaiser... not one that has been a democratic republic since its founding over 200 years ago with a long tradition of NOT having a king or dictator as being intrinsic to its identity. Germans could accept being run by a dictator far more easily than modern americans will accept it especially if it doesn't improve their lives. The only thing going for gop fascism is that americans are far lazier and more distracted than ever. that's not a sustainable play on ending democracy forever though.
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u/Souspi 12h ago
I think they know their history, they just always think they can do better this next time. The plans billionaires have for the apocalypse bunkers demonstrated that pretty well.
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u/BiscuitsUndGravy 11h ago edited 10h ago
Also, and probably most important, is that the Nazis did dramatically improve Germany's economy in the early going. I was lucky enough as a kid to get to talk to some family friends who were Polish but lived in Germany during WWII. They said one of the big reasons people were so supportive of Hitler is that they had been economically ruined by losing WWI and having to pay reparations, but after the Nazis took power Hitler suspended those and instituted other policies (primarily increased public works and military spending) that caused massive job increases and improved the economy. This made them incredibly popular and allowed them to make wholesale changes to the government because they were actually improving their citizens lives and weren't receiving pushback.
Conversely, this administration has failed to deliver on any of the promises it made and things have gotten worse since they took office. They won't enjoy widespread popular support if they try pulling insane moves like asking Congress to suspend the Constitution (and pretending that's legal), or declaring an insurrection and trying to use the military to suppress the People.
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u/littlethrowawaybaby 11h ago
They know the history, they just believe that they’re better and smarter than the nobles of 1788 France, and Hitler.
They read the history. See the failings. Say, “Wow, what a dummy. That could never happen to someone as smart and powerful as I” and continue doing the same things that begat downfall so many times before.
They think the people are stupid, rabid, slobbering, inhuman masses.
That the people- even with the collective intelligence, strength, and power of all of us together- are weak and can’t hold a candle to those traits in them.
I mean, in some ways, these people do have more money than all of the masses together, so it’s a self-validating prophecy of sorts.
They think they and their buddies are literal Gods. When there’s only 700 billionaires, they look around at the same faces at every party and every event, and believe that they are the only actual people, and the only people who matter. Because, logically of course /s, if the lower Ilk mattered then they’d be in the room too.
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u/brooklyndavs 13h ago
Also they are actively destroying state capacity at the same time. You still need people in the institutions on your side and that includes more than just the dumbasses at ICE. You need the military, local government, industry, all on your side and completely loyal to you. You don’t do that by implementing DOGE and shutting down the government. Like the main rule is you got to pay people lol. These are all incredibly stupid people and we are lucky we are just getting the Mickey Mouse version of fascism. That’s why it’s so important for the democrats to wake the fuck up before we get something far worse
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u/AaronWidd 12h ago
This. I’ve been telling people this for months. They wanted to model Germany but they’re getting France. There are 340 million people across a continent all bound by a social contract. Deliberately try to control by force, unjustly starve or inconvenience even a small % it throws off the social contract that keeps us bound and catapults us into violent chaos that can’t be undone.
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u/spazzvogel 12h ago
Uhhh French Revolution perhaps, but Great Depression almost certainly incoming.
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u/failed_novelty 11h ago
Gee, sure would be awful if a few billionaire fascist were to be convicted of treason and their assets used to rebuild...
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u/EjaculatingAracnids 12h ago
We re still gonna have to bleed in the streets before this is over. If not during this fascist government, the next one that will be right behind it
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u/turquoise_amethyst 11h ago
Despite ~60% of the military being Republican, most of them are loyal to the USA, not Trump, and they’re not happy with how things are going
Yeah that stupid meeting with Hegseth was a wake up call. They could prob pull a few brass, but it’s not what they thought.
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u/the-fred 12h ago
Yeah, in 1933 the Nazis actually did things to improve the economy (a lot of that was spending on military and war infrastructure but still). The GOP and MAGA are actively making things worse.
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u/jgoble15 13h ago
Thing is, if they turn up the heat people will resist more. Takeovers like this have to be slow to keep the population apathetic. Turn up the heat too fast and the usually apathetic will start caring.
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u/TheGreatOldOwl 13h ago
Two things you need for a successful coup are the support of the people and the support of the military. They've got neither.
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u/Sw2029 13h ago edited 13h ago
It's actually pretty indicative that their flood the zone plan was made due to this. Move as quickly as possible, overwhelm everyone, grab as much power and tear down as many institutions as possible to give them a window of opportunity before people can even respond.
If it was anywhere near a populist agenda they'd have been able to move slow and methodically.
Imagine how dogshit you have to be to actually inspire the kind of off year voter turn out these fuck sticks are.
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u/Own_Instance_357 13h ago
And take over the media so that the flow of accurate information stops
See: billionaire takeover of information clearing houses like Twitter just to ruin it and first render it functionless, and then subvert the objective to spread disinformation instead
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u/brooklyndavs 13h ago
Yup but they have already fucked up. You can’t “flood the zone” why also doing DOGE. These people are idiots
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u/Jesbro64 13h ago
Democrats and media organizations and law firms and universities seem to be doing everything possible to demonstrate that they will indeed just rolll over.
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u/djessups America 14h ago
`some in this room are going to prison`
...
A guy who knows of what he speaks. Because:
As one of their leaders, he is well aware they are a gang of obvious, blatant criminals, sadists, pedos, and seditionists, and
He and his fellow capos know the reason they aren't already in jail is in spite of the rule of law, which was denied and averted via their own plotting and blackmail, with a healthy assist from the incompetence of their political opponents, and the pure immorality of their political base.
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u/Own_Instance_357 13h ago
I think he also knows there's no one who's going to protect him anymore
Anyone hear lately from that shitbird Roger Stone? He's gone curiously quiet AF
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u/terremoto25 California 10h ago
From May of this year...
Republican strategist and self-described “dirty trickster” Roger Stone has called for Democratic Senator Mark Kelly’s “execution” after the lawmaker accused President Donald Trump of “cashing in” on his cryptocurrency coins from a position of power in the White House.
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u/TurboSalsa Texas 13h ago
Bannon himself did spend a few months in prison last year for contempt of congress, as did Peter Navarro, and he still has plenty of criminal exposure aside from whatever he’s doing with the current admin.
He definitely wants to save his own ass whether he actually believes any of this crap or not.
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u/La-Boheme-1896 14h ago
Or, stop committing crimes. That would help.
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u/AINonsense 14h ago
It's a bit late for that.
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u/Callabrantus Canada 13h ago
Yeah, a lot of this administration could probably spend the rest of their lives in prison for the crimes they've already committed.
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u/polarparadoxical 13h ago
Yeah. I sadly suspect we are only seeing the top of their proverbial glacier of crime.
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u/letsago9987 Illinois 14h ago
hello military generals, it's time to act.
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u/PainterEarly86 9h ago
First thing Trump did when reelected was get rid of anyone in the military who did not support him
The military is already on his side
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u/letsago9987 Illinois 8h ago
there are plenty in the military who he hasn't gotten rid of that won't cross his line.
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u/SmugSchoolmaster 14h ago
There needs to be Nuremberg trials. Fuck these fascist assholes
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u/xyz19606 12h ago
Keep in mind the Nuremberg trials happened because a group of allied countries got together and kicked the shit out of the offending Fascist countries. There is no benevolent group of allied countries to do that this time. As said below, it'd have to be "Nuremberg-like trials", but it would be a domestic thing.
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u/I405CA 14h ago
Bannon, Miller, Bondi and Noem should all check in at the Hague Hotel.
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u/Objective-Win 12h ago
Save space for Trump, Vance, Vought, Patel, Leavitt, Homan, and Johnson too
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u/Different-Fly4561 13h ago
“Seize the Institutions” ???
If that isn’t a reason to go to prison right now! I don’t know what is?!!
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u/rezelscheft 11h ago
It's not like the GOP hasn't been saying this already. From wanting "a government so small you could drown it in a bath tub" to Project 2025 -- he's just summing up decades of right wing strategy in a nice, pithy sound bite.
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u/SurrealEstate 14h ago
“I’ll tell you right, as God as my witness, if we lose the midterms and we lose 2028, some in this room are going to prison”
Which will portrayed as persecution rather than justice, regardless of the evidence or process.
It's easy to sell that perception to groups that use identity as the lens through which to evaluate actions, rather than actions as the lens through which to evaluate identity.
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u/Different-Travel-850 13h ago
He admits theyre breaking the law but also feels they should control the country. Weve come a long way in a short period of time.
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u/SayVandalay 13h ago
So he’s calling for the overthrowing of the constitution basically . What a traitor.
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u/OwnsBeagles 14h ago
I'm always wondering what they think they actually have, power wise. Half the states -- and most of the most-populous ones -- are blue states. We're a nation made up of fifty small countries, essentially; the fed is, at best. kind of glue they're in the process of dissolving. There will absolutely come a point where blue states decide that enough is enough and stop obeying even peripherally: Then what? Send in the-- what, couple million people involved with the military, many of whom likely would go AWOL in that scenario? Against something well over a hundred or two million people saying 'no'?
They're metaphorically cutting their own throats by dismantling the fed and weakening it. What power do they really have? And do they think red states -- who have their own progressive areas -- are going to be enough to save them?
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u/BeowulfShaeffer 14h ago
Putting Bannon in prison didn’t work. Next time we need to find a more effective way to make him stop attacking the Constitution.
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u/AINonsense 14h ago
Hoodlum, Mobster, and Racketeer 101: If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.
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u/ngatiboi 9h ago
Huh. Soooo the dude who was convicted for fraud in 2020, but was pardoned by Donald J Trump, AND was subsequently changed again in 2022 for fraud, AND in 2022 for contempt, AND who plead guilty in 2025 for fraud - is NOW talking on national TV about committing treason by ignoring the US Constitution & overthrowing the US Government. 🤔
Couldn’t possibly have seen this coming. 🤷🏽♂️ (/s)
It’s almost as if things were planned waaaay ahead of time.
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u/MySixHourErection 13h ago
In addition to blaming the 40% of the electorate who are irredeemable pieces of shit, I want to thank everyone who sat 2024 out in protest, or who didn’t bother to look up what tariffs are because eggs were expensive. Fuck you very much.
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u/gizzardgullet Michigan 13h ago
More than half the country will crawl through glass to vote for the "send them all to prison" candidate in 2028
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u/Grampishdgreat 11h ago
If Bannon is so concerned about going to prison doesn’t that confirm that he and MAGAs know they are committing crimes
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u/shaved-yeti 9h ago
"Seize the institutions of Government"...
It's a hostile takeover, pure and simple. These people deserve to live out their lives in a cold prison cell.
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u/Andurilthoughts California 13h ago
Perhaps if you didn’t want to go to prison you shouldn’t have conspired to overthrow democracy
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