PROPHECY: Bannon's supporters are outside the gates!

TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 2024

How did it get this far? Will President Biden get re-elected this year? No one can say at this point.

If he loses—is Donald J. Trump returns to the White House—what happens after that? Routinely, prophets here in Blue America say "our democracy" would be destined to die, not unlike sacred Troy.

They say our democracy will cease to exist. We can't swear that that's wrong.

When it finally came, the fall of Troy moved well past violent toward vicious. Recently, we posted an excerpt in which the late Bernard Knox summarized those events. 

The excerpt comes from Professor Knox's lengthy introduction to Robert Fagles' 1990 translation of the Iliad.  As the excerpt begins, Hector has been slain by Achilles—and sacred Troy is thus destined to die. 

Hector, the more noble warrior, has been slain by a brute. Knox's portrait of the two civilizations at war in that day mirrors the way we in Blue America tend to picture our two Americas today:

The whole poem has been moving toward this duel between the two champions, but there has never been any doubt about the outcome. The husband and father, the beloved protector of his people, the man who stands for the civilized values of the rich city, its social and religious institutions, will go down to defeat at the hands of this man who has no family, who in a private quarrel has caused the death of many of his own fellow soldiers, who now in a private quarrel thinks only of revenge...And the death of Hector seals the fate of Troy; it will fall to the Achaeans, to become the pattern for all time of the death of a city. 

The images of that night assault—the blazing palaces, the blood running in the streets, old Priam butchered at the altar, Cassandra raped in the temple, Hector's baby son thrown from the battlements, his wife Andromache dragged off to slavery—all this, foreshadowed in the Iliad, will be stamped indelibly on the consciousness of the Greeks throughout their history, immortalized in lyric poetry, in tragedy, on temple pediments and painted vases, to reinforce the stern lesson of Homer's presentation of the war: that no civilization, no matter how rich, no matter how refined, can long survive once it loses the power to meet force with equal or superior force.

In the tenth year of their siege, the barbarians finally burst through the gates. Foreshadowing themes from this very year, they exact their revenge on the more civilized society which has been holding them off.

In Blue America, we tend to picture ourselves as the ones with the civilized values. Certain behaviors by certain others will inevitably tend to suggest that this flattering self-portrait may be justified.

Last night, Rachel Maddow played fairly extensive videotape of a modern-day barbarian who is loudly and aggressively perched at the current-day gates.

The person in question is Steve Bannon. Briefly, the tape of Bannon was joined by videotape of Marjorie Taylor Greene, telling Dr. Anthony Fauci that he should be arrested and charged with a giant number of deaths.

As for Bannon, he was shown, in excerpts from various presentations, calling for arrests and deaths after Trump returns to the White House. The videotape includes a speech by Bannon at last weekend's Turning Point Action conference.

Bannon doesn't directly speak for Donald J. Trump at this point. Perhaps for that reason, last weekend's speech largely went unreported.

CNN did publish a full report on Bannon's address. Headline included, the CNN report starts like this:

Bannon vows Trump’s opponents will be prosecuted in a second term

Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of Donald Trump, vowed investigations and prosecutions of those who have probed the former president and his political allies, declaring at a conservative gathering Saturday that Inauguration Day in 2025 will be “accountability day.”

Pointing to Trump’s recent conviction in New York, Bannon told a crowd at Turning Point Action’s “The People’s Convention” in Detroit, hours before Trump was scheduled to speak, that the former president’s allies are going to “get every single receipt.”

“You are going to be investigated, prosecuted and incarcerated,” he said. “This has nothing to do with retribution. It has nothing to do with revenge. Because retribution and revenge might be another order of magnitude. This has to do with justice.”

Bannon was referring to recent comments by Trump vowing to be his supporters’ “retribution” and saying that “sometimes revenge can be justified.”

According to CNN's report, Bannon told the crowd they are the “vanguard of this revolution." "We are not prepared to be governed by criminals,” the former Trump adviser said.

Media Matters posted tape of the way Bannon ended his speech. You can see the video here. That said, here is the gentleman's text:

BANNON (6/15/24): Between now and Election Day they're going to try to take out so many people and that's where it's next man up, its next woman up. Are you prepared to fight? Are you prepared to give it all? Are you prepared to leave it all on the battlefield?

[AUDIENCE ROARS]

I can't hear you! And they can't hear you!

AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

BANNON: Ladies and gentlemen, it's very simple. Victory or death!!

The Achaean invaders exacted revenge. So, it might seem, would Bannon. For ourselves, we'll go with the famous question famously posed in The Godfather:

How did it get this far?

Maddow played extensive tape of this particular "barbarian at the gates." For the record, we don't know what a President Trump will do if he returns to the White House.

That said, an enormous division has come to exist within the realm we call "our democracy." How did it ever get this far? 

The answer takes us back at least forty years. In part, it involves the competence, or lack of same, possessed by our journalistic and academic minders, by our corporate "guardians."

Just how sharp are Blue America's "thought leaders"—for example, the ones we see on TV? 

Almost everyone will look good compared to a player like Bannon. For now, we're going to leave it right there, with Bannon screaming at the gates and a widespread prophecy producing a bit of an historical rhyme.

Will President Biden get re-elected this year? We may get a clearer reading on that question next Thursday night.

That said, those of us in Blue America are inclined to picture ourselves as the ones who are refined, civilized, like the population which died along with sacred Troy.

In truth, we may be a bit less impressive than we're inclined to think. Tomorrow, we'll try to get our own current rumination back on track.

For today, we'll leave Steve Bannon screaming at the gates. In Blue America, thought leaders continue to say that "our democracy" may be destined to die.

How did it ever get this far? What can we do to stave off defeat?

Those are extremely good questions. Whoever wins the election this year, we'll guess that hard times lie ahead.

Tomorrow: Sexual politics, then and now