A quick warning.
There are curse words that are unbeeped in today's episode of the show.
If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org okay, so we're going to start this week's show with something that's been going on behind the scenes of this year's midterm election.
It's called the precinct strategy.
It's something that's been around for a while, but it wasn't a big thing until last year when Steve Bannon, remember Steve Bannon, got ahold of the idea and started pushing it on his podcast.
So, Dan, the floor is yours.
You're about to offer a course on personal political empowerment.
How did they do it, Dan?
This right here is the video that started it all.
It's from February 2021, just Steve Bannon being the Steve Bannon we've come to know.
He's wearing at least three shirts.
He's framed by a row of MAGA hats lined up on a mantel.
And he's bringing on this guest, who is a longtime Arizona activist named Dan Schultz.
Dan Schultz is here to solve a problem.
Thanks, Steve.
It's real simple.
And most people learn this, at least I did back in the late 60s.
In seventh grade, in social studies, in sixth grade.
So what he lays out here, the way that Schultz and Bannon see this, the reason that Donald Trump isn't president anymore, it's not just, you know, election fraud by the Democrats, that's obviously a given for them.
But the real problem in 2020 was the Republicans who let them get away with it, but didn't do every last thing in their power to keep President Trump in office.