January 18, 2022 12:45 PM UTC

Down The Rabbit Hole With Rep. Ron Hanks

• 6 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Ron Hanks is the center of gravity in the Republican race for U.S. Senate, and it’s not just our opinion:

Hanks ran away with the only straw poll so far taken at a primary forum, he’s the only GOP #cosen candidate to appear on national cable this month, and as demonstrated today he’s the only one making headlines outside our insider @colo_politics publication.

— Ernest Lee Luning (@eluning) January 18, 2022

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Today, the Colorado General Assembly is debating and set to eventually pass a joint resolution urging the U.S. Congress to adopt comprehensive voting rights legislation:

WHEREAS, Falsehoods and conspiracies regarding the integrity 23 of the 2020 election have run rampant in our media and public discourse; and

WHEREAS, The months-long, coordinated attempt to interfere with the democratic process following the November 2020 election and prevent the peaceful transfer of power by overturning the legitimate results of the presidential election, which culminated at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, serves as a violent reminder of the fragility of our democracy… [Pols emphasis]

Now wait just a dang minute, says GOP House Minority Leader Hugh McKean in a statement:

In an epic waste of everyone’s time, Colorado Democrats are relitigating the 2020 election – yet again – attempting to bitterly divide the House chamber just days after we celebrated the accomplishments and memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The last election results are settled… [Pols emphasis]

“Settled?” That will come as news to former President Donald Trump, as well as the solid majority of McKean’s fellow Republicans who believe despite a lack of any evidence that the 2020 elections were decided unfairly and are ready to see them overturned even now. Trump’s political machine keeps zealous track of the opinions expressed by Republicans at every level of government and the party apparatus, so we wouldn’t be surprised if McKean finds himself having to explain his views in the woodshed very soon.

And if there was any doubt that McKean does not speak for Republicans on what has become the defining litmus test question of the era for that party, leading Republican U.S. Senate candidate, freshman state representative, and proud January 6th protest participant Ron Hanks blew it up like a misbehaving voting machine.

Who says the last election results are “settled?” Not this guy:

HANKS: The, the systems we have are not secure. The chips are made overseas. They are built with wireless modem connections in them. This is not a gold standard. This is a recipe for disaster, an intrusion by foreign powers. They’re built in China, who do you think it might be in this situation.

We have multiple lines of effort, this is coming from a military officer here again retired, who had 32 years of military intelligence experience, we have multiple lines of effort, from the communist Chinese party, to undercut this nation.

They’re doing it through supply lines. They could very likely be doing it through (pause) weaponized bio-agents. This is the easiest way to turn a country and to take it over. They don’t even have to buy a box of ammunition. [Pols emphasis]

And, truth to tell, that’s a, uh famous famous statement from Sun Tzu, a famous Chinese general from many centuries ago that you’ll just turn a country by the easiest softest means possible. Ladies and gentlemen I think we have a problem, I appreciate uh the recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King, may I be so bold as to say he might very well say we have a problem too. I ask for your support of Amendment L.005. Thank you.

There you have it, folks! A “unified field theory” of conspiracy that brings all the disparate pieces together: global supply chain and shipping backlogs, Dominion Voting Systems, and the big one–the “weaponized bio agent” the rest of us know as COVID-19–all part of a grand nefarious plot by communist China to destroy (or at least seriously screw with) the U S of A. You might think it’s crazy, but for millions of dogmatic diehard MAGA Republicans it fits perfectly with the narrative they’ve been hearing from the beginning of the pandemic. To watch Rep. Hanks lay it all out succinctly helps us in the reality-based community understand how so many fellow Americans came to believe something so outlandish.

Hugh McKean may not like it, in fact we’re sure he doesn’t–but Ron Hanks, who won the straw poll at a U.S. Senate forum in Monument last weekend, is the candidate who speaks for a majority of Republicans today. If you’re a Republican and that scares you, the only thing we can say is that denial of this reality won’t change it.