On Monday, July 1, Steve Bannon reported to federal prison in Danbury, Conn., where he will serve a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress. Before doing so, the former adviser and ally to Donald Trump claimed he was “proud to go to prison” and, in so doing, to “stand up to tyranny.”

Bannon will be released on Nov. 1, just four days before the 2024 presidential election.

In the run-up to his prison term, Bannon sat down with the Washington Post’s David Brooks to discuss what Brooks called “the global populist surge.” During that interview, Bannon reiterated some familiar themes but broke new ground in laying out his vision for a Second American Revolution.

He criticized the “ruling elites of the West,” who he said have “lost confidence in themselves” and “lost faith in their countries.” Those elites, Bannon noted, “are more and more detached from the lived experience of their people.”

Bannon compared former President Trump to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and credited Trump for being “the most nationalist guy we've ever had.” But he told Brooks that many people, and especially those on the political left, don't understand that the MAGA movement “is moving much further to the right than President Trump.”

Bannon's vision of a Second American Revolution combines an embrace of Christian nationalism with a program to put “American Citizens First.”

Americans need to take that vision seriously.

Many progressives seem to be in a state of denial, writing off talk of a Second American Revolution as just a flight of fancy from a rabble-rousing populist figure. They are consumed for the moment in trying to figure out what to do about President Biden’s flailing campaign.

Meanwhile, populists like Bannon have laid out their vision of what change in America should look like. They are speaking for millions of people who are not just part of a MAGA hardcore. Calls........

© The Hill