Steve Bannon forced to report to prison. Is Trump next?

By order of a federal judge, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who previously served under President Donald Trump, must report to prison by July 1 for a four-month sentence following his conviction on two counts of contempt of Congress.

Convicted for refusing a congressional subpoena to appear before the House January 6 committee in 2022, Bannon has evaded his sentence for almost two years. Yet, as election season heats up, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols is attempting to compel the popular podcaster and Trump ally into prison for the four months preceding the election (if Bannon complies, he will be released just four days before Election Day).

“Former White House adviser Steve Bannon is set to take a lengthy summer vacation from riling up the far-right on behalf of his former boss,” gushed MSNBC opinion writer Hayes Brown, openly admitting that the purpose of the ruling appears to be to keep Bannon away from the campaign trail. “It’s an order that is set to neutralize one of the MAGA movement’s most influential bomb-throwers and propagandists until right before Election Day — and Bannon has nobody but himself to blame for it,” the writer concluded.

Notably, on the same day that Bannon was handed his prison sentence in 2022, the House also issued a subpoena for Trump, prompting his supporters to speculate that the opposition aimed to see him behind bars as well. Two years later, the former president has recently been convicted of 34 felony charges. He now faces the prospect of prison time.

Regardless of one’s political preferences, this scenario does not bode well for the nation. It suggests either that one party is dominated by convicted criminals or that the other is engaged in overt political persecution of its opponents.

Or maybe it has less to do with political parties and more about the failures of a system that has strayed from the Constitution.

As I wrote after Bannon’s sentencing, “Our political system is unquestionably broken. Merely sending ‘better’ politicians into the Swamp isn’t enough. It’s time to make structural fixes to Washington, and we can do that through an Article V convention.”

Voters claim they are sick of petty, vitriolic politics. If so, we must reclaim the high ground. This endless typhoon of investigations, indictments, and arrests will never fix the country. It will only serve to divide us further, dilute justice, and, ultimately, empower the oligarchs who seek to control us.

What this country needs is an Article V convention—a constitutional solution for restoring federalism. The social and political chaos of the past ten years reminds us of why the Founders gave us federalism—and why we never should have deviated from their model.

If you, like thousands of your countrymen, yearn to return to first principles, equality, and justice, sign the Convention of States petition below and join the fight to reclaim federalism.