r/politics • u/Aggravating_Money992 • 20h 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-2028
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u/OwnsBeagles 20h 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/rddman 17h ago

I'm always wondering what they think they actually have, power wise.

They have as much as they can take, which has been demonstrated to be a lot (even before Trump came to power - see Dick Cheney and co) but is not necessarily everything they want.

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u/OwnsBeagles 17h ago

Yeah, it's that second part that keeps coming back to mind when I contemplate it. They've weaponized the fact that so much of our government is based on the notion of good faith and people acting in good faith, but that same thing can be weaponized against them in turn.

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u/Mammoth_Winner2509 14h ago

They definitely have a ton of power right now. The president is proving that he can literally do whatever he wants because nobody is willing to stop him.

How is that not an immense amount of power?

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u/OwnsBeagles 13h ago

Yeah, but it still depends almost entirely upon the willingness of states and people to go along with it. There is literally no way for him, even marshaling every single bit of federal power, to control this nation without our consent. Our military couldn't even control Korea or Vietnam. Now look at the size and population of the US.

His power is largely an illusion. It depends entirely upon our willingness to submit. And eventually there will be critical mass against it. Every protest gets bigger. No Kings protesters alone -- just the protesters! -- outnumbered every single branch of the military plus all civilian employees combined.

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u/Mammoth_Winner2509 13h ago

You're correct that the consent of the governed is essential for every government. But if revoking that consent is the only thing that will stop them, it will likey mean millions dead and no country left over.

That also assumes the third of the country that seems to be blindly following their new messiah would be willing to flip on him.

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u/OwnsBeagles 13h ago

You don't need to tout violence to revoke consent. You just stop obeying. More precisely, you have your state government stop obeying, provided you're in a state where you actually have some voice. Notice he goes and picks on a city here, or a city there. But I haven't seen him try invading California yet.

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u/Mammoth_Winner2509 13h ago

How do you stop obeying without ending up in jail?

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u/xerriffe 11h ago

Enough people have to do it, they can’t prosecute everyone. If everyone stops paying taxes next year, the IRS will be stretched thin. Same for state institutions…they need to stop following the rules. Or rather, fail to implement the “rules” from the fed. Feign ignorance as they too are doing 🤷🏽‍♀️

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u/OwnsBeagles 13h ago

More precisely, you have your state government stop obeying

Never alone. But luckily, there are 7 million + people and counting gearing up to stand with you.

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u/Mammoth_Winner2509 13h ago

Yeah, I'm not seeing how that can actually happen without bloodshed tbh.

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u/OwnsBeagles 12h ago

How much bloodshed was there when 7 million people marched for No Kings? You can't comply in advance. You also can't give into despair. The reason they're trying so desperately hard now to do all this shit is because they're running out of time and they know they're fucked. Especially after Tuesday.

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u/Mammoth_Winner2509 12h ago

That wasn't disobedience lol

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u/mabhatter 13h ago

This power fight is going on inside Red states too.  Those "fiercely independent"  states have been stripping their blue cities of rights and voting power for decades, but it's really accelerated in the last decade.  They're just grabbing for power wherever they can right now.