‘Elections Aren’t Enough To Fix This’ RW Podcasters Bannon, Bongino Push For Listeners To Reshape GOP, Take To the Streets

Remember  the show “Counterpart” where there was a gateway to a parallel universe which looked like this one, but the reality was entirely different and there was a Cold War going on between the two sides? It’s not sci fi anymore, we’re pretty much there. There are two Americas, contiguous, comingled and coexisting, each believing in a different version of what is real and what is fake, both in physical reality and in our national discourse.

Alternate reality, as transmitted by right-wing media, has become big business in this country. For reasons that historians and sociologists will scrutinize for many years to come, at least a third of America is gullible enough to believe the hucksters on right-wing media and subscribe to an interpretation of reality that flies in the face of empirical fact, whether having to do with the coronavirus vaccines or how many votes were cast in the last presidential election. Those are the two top fantasy topics, although by no means the only ones, that the vaccines are the tools of a sinister plot and that the last presidential election was stolen and that the Biden administration is illegitimate — which since the Obama administration was deemed illegitimate by some fringe theorists as well, but for different reasons, is not all that revolutionary a concept.

But the essential difference here is that John McCain was not a lunatic advocating that somehow he be elevated to the presidency despite losing the election, nor was Mitt Romney. Donald Trump is. He’s the author of the Big Lie, reportedly at the behest of Rudy Giuliani on election night, and now the hordes that voted for him are eagerly sitting in front of their TVs/computers and getting the indoctrination of the day.

QAnon plays a big part in this disinformation fest and it’s no secret that Steve Bannon played a key role in ginning up the insurrection that took place on January 6, that’s why he was subpoenaed by the House to testify. “All hell’s going to break loose tomorrow” were his words. And the beat goes on, with Bannon and others continually pushing the idea that there is some hope of “reinstatement” or “decertification” which are concepts that simply do not exist in the Constitution or anywhere beyond the fantasy construct of right-wing media. CNN:

The podcast, called “War Room,” is a six-days-a-week alternate reality that is kind of like Trump’s banned Twitter account revived in audio form. In the fantasyland of Bannon and friends, Trump won the 2020 election “in a landslide” (he lost), Trump’s victory (which didn’t occur) was ripped from his hands by a sprawling list of cheaters (pure fiction), and President Joe Biden’s win can still be decertified (nope). […]

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The podcast’s relentless barrage of election deception would be damaging enough to American democracy if it were just talk. Bannon spoke approvingly in October about how his efforts have reduced Americans’ faith in “the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s regime.”

But Bannon has also urged “War Room” listeners to take long-term action. He has made frequent pleas for supporters to reshape the Republican party by signing up to serve as “precinct committeemen.”

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“It is hard to overstate how dangerous Bannon’s words and actions are,” said Rick Hasen, a professor of law and political science and co-director of the Fair Elections and Free Speech Center at the University of California, Irvine. “He’s creating an army of duped people who will go into positions helping to run elections with the false understanding that the 2020 election was stolen. Who knows what such people are capable of doing when in charge of running polling places or counting votes.”

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There is no hard data on the impact of Bannon’s call to activism. But ProPublica reported in September that counties around the country had seen an unusual surge in people looking to sign up for Republican precinct positions after Bannon began advocating the idea early this year.

Dan Bongino on Biden mandates: “These people are animals. They are savages. They are eager to punish you and destroy you .. It is time for mass civil disobedience on a scale we haven’t seen. They can’t come for all of us at the same time .. There are more of us than them.” pic.twitter.com/mkuV3Qc5vs

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) November 6, 2021

“Elections aren’t enough?” Sedition, much?

This is not America. We used to be one nation under God, not two nations, each watching and listening to a different set of facts being broadcast via TV and radio. We might have had different opinions about Watergate, Vietnam, what have you, but at least we were in agreement about the basic facts. No more. Color the days of clarity gone.

This is the chief societal problem nowadays, this confusion and chaos. We can’t have children growing up thinking that Donald Trump is still the president, that Joe Biden is faking a presidency from a movie set, or that the vaccine contains parasitical lifeforms that will either kill you or control your mind. This is stick stone stupid and it is insane. The fact that there are Republican legislators going along with this, in hopes of staying in power, is unforgiveable. But this is where we are. It’s an old saw “the truth will set you free.” Can we get these people to accept the truth or is this the new subnormal, and we’re just stuck with it?