Bannon is as much of a conman as Trump, claiming to speak for the forgotten little man while sucking up to the Mercers and Koch brothers to keep him in the vintage wines he obviously enjoys. Hopefully he will be swept up in Mueller's investigation because he was there and knew much of what was going on in outreach to Russia.
16
The plunder of black, queer, Latinx, and female bodies must be stopped! Thank you Charles for keeping this front and center.
With the passage of tax reform, which allows the patriarchy and white power structure to steal even more from us, plundering us until nothing but our empty, cow eyed anger is left over, while those with homes in low tax states, 401Ks, and upper middle class salaries and STEM degrees and jobs that rely on racist hard sciences to get ahead, get even richer, we need to remind ourselves of this everlasting fact.
These white and conservative "success stories" would be nothing if it weren't for all of the wealth and life spirit they took from us - the people of color, and those who choose not to be slaves to the man and corporate greed!
3
Each day, I feel more despair because of Trump's actions . I don't understand this president. He seems dangerously unhinged. Why, I ask myself daily, does anyone support him? It's a rhetorical question; however, I'd like to hear from someone who has an answer.
7
Trump is merely implementing the late Stephen Bannon's key objective: the deconstruction of the US Government. What better way to do this than fill each Cabinet position with those who have personal agendas against serving the public interest. Betsy Devos, Jeff Sessions, Ben Carson, Rick Perry, Rex Tillerson ...its all of a piece. Gross incompetence and greed ..that is today's Republican leadership across the board. What better way to deconstruct the US Government than massively cutting budgets for all agencies and services. Our nation is now an international laughing stock ..the Chinese and the Russians have never been happier...but the super-rich oligarchs who own and control the GOP couldn't care less. They are too busy counting the money they are going to make at US taxpayers' expense. Yes, Steve Bannon's spirit is indeed alive and well in the White House.
11
Focusing on Bannon is the wrong strategy.
Hateful as the racists and neo-nazis may be, they are indeed a fringe group. A larger group than the extreme leftists who believe in top down communist government, but just as irrelevant to our overall politics.
Trump has in fact turned out to be a *fake* populist. Start there. Think about the fact that Trump won the Republican nomination, while supporting Social Security. Think about the fact that 80% of voters support Social Security, 70% support a higher minimum wage, and the majority want to put an end to *decades* of huge trade deficits. Many, many voters holding these beliefs voted for Trump. Why aren't Democrats trying to win their votes? Why didn't these voters believe Democrats were on their side? Well, Where were the bills and media fights by Democrats for a bigger stimulus, balanced trade, and a higher minimum wage in 2009, when Democrats had a 60 seat senate majority, and the economy was in tatters?
Swing voters, vote primarily on economic issues. If we focus on divisive wedge issues instead of unifying economic issues, then polarization will get worse. Oligarchy, tyranny, and fascism, thrive in such an environment.
The Democratic establishment is still *very* unpopular - that has not changed. "Not Trump" is not good enough, if you want to win.
If Democrats can't unite voters and win on economic issues, they will continue to lose legislatively and judicially on *all* issues.
4
Yes, in order to destroy the federal government, focusing in particular on Social Security and Medicare, Trump/Bannon is/are destroying the country. Bannon is a Leninist and like all good party members he is first and foremost a con man and thief. He has been very upfront about this. It is amusing (in a sick way) to watch the GOP fall into communist hands. Is anyone paying attention or are they all too focused on their billionaire butchery?
4
The thing that Trump craves most in life, are the cheers of the adoring crowds at his "Campaign Rallies". It's the one thing that sustains him, in his advancing age.
Bannon controls those crowds.
Not Trump.
Bannon can turn those cheers to jeers in a heartbeat, with a well organized character assassination campaign.
A Breitbart Specialty.
Trump knows that Bannon can do this, so he'll always answer Bannon's telephone calls, and listen very carefully to what he's told.
Trump's an Attention Addict, he has to have his "fix".
And Bannon supplies that for him.
4
As usual you got it exactly and sadly right about Trump. He does want to burn down the village and reduce it to ashes before he exits. Trump's revenge.
He is working fiendishly with his advisors, the majority of the GOP who are working strictly for their wealthy donors, and his Cabinet who were selected for the very purpose of destroying the purpose and laws of the agencies they represent. Mulvaney who threatened the CBO director with extinction when their heinous health plan was exposed. Trump has placed him at the CFPB to dismantle it or disarm it.
There will be no votes for the majority, after they finish purging voter registration rolls, no consumer protections, the rich are getting richer off us through the passed tax cuts, and they are moving to cut Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare.
This administration attacks America, our democracy, and we, the people. It is being fashioned to be an America for the wealthy only. The damage done to date is massive. Trump is also trying to get 58 white male supremacists judicial appointments through so that there will be no justice for all for decades to come.
The majority of Americans have stated they want Trump out, so he will be sure to leave a lasting legacy of horror behind him in pure spite. He doesn't even care that the Trump name is anathema to most of the world and that he has descendants who will bear his shame and spreading stain on America.
The reign of Trump, the Terrible.
7
Bannon is in fact a fascist putschist.
And as for Trump,
never ever
should Trump have become president.
He hasn't the required temperament or
the most basic moral sensibility.
Trump is clearly and brazenly a sociopath.
10
Yes, he is. But his continuation in office suggest that his popularity derives from validating a sociopathology that pervades the American public..
5
Not one whimper from the decrepit , doddering Dems?
2
Bannon and trump are clearly white nationalists but it seems that anyone who has been appointed to any post by Trump must at least be Ok with supporting it.
11
Amazing op-ed. Thank you.
7
What is surprising in all these discussions is that the possibility of impeachment is coming ever closer: from Manaport to Flynn, from Flynn to Kushner and Donald Jr. The end may be in sight, without wishful thinking!
3
We are seeing leaders of state such as Putin and Trump, move away from government as institution towards personality and individual. In this circumstance, it is more likely that men like these, when faced with their demise from age or outside forces, shall choose, with their vast access to means of destruction, to burn the house down with them.
Think of the shooters or other purveyors of murder who want to take as many with them as they can, such as the shooter in Las Vegas. We should be very wary that these men could behave in similar ways at massive scale.
It is one thing when they are temporary stewards of their government, who purpose is to leave the world in a better condition when they arrived, and who know they shall move on and others shall come after them.
But not so with these men. Russia is about accumulating unimaginable personal wealth. Trump is about himself as the center of everything.
There is every likelihood that men like these do not care what comes after them, and that they may even prefer that nothing exist once they do not.
8
“The Associated Press reported that a network of donors centred on the billionaire Koch brothers also sounded the warning: dismantle Obamacare and pass tax reform or face the fundraising consequences.”
Quoted from the Globe & Mail. The Oligarchs have spoken, and their venal lackeys in the GOP Congress have listened, hoping to be re-elected by an expensive avalanche of disinformation, lying ads, and media domination.
15
The GOP is silent and turning a blind eye to this white supremacy movement. They are too busy robbing the middle class for their masters - the 1% and wealthy donors. They are as guilty as Bannon and Trump.
12
As is typical, I find myself nodding in agreement to another thoughtful article by Charles M. Blow. But then this head scratcher concerning the term, "elective affinities" :"Even the phrase is likely taken from the title of an 1809 novel by famed German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, although its usage traces back earlier."
What? Does Mr. Blow mean to imply that "elective affinities" is a dog whistle for neo-Nazis because of its possible German origin? What else could he be implying?
Goethe was certainly not a proto-Nazi.
4
Trump claims to be a Nationalist which seems to mean America first, but he insists on sticking his nose into the politics of other countries. Notice his sticking up for the Nazi element in British politics and his attack on Muslims and other ethnic groups in that country. It is not nationalism that Trump supports but pure bigotry and we should not give his ideas cleaning up by calling it otherwise.
4
"Alt-right is just a new name for Nazis and racists."- NO Blow your wrong. If it were the same there would be no need for a new word. The alt-right, or alternative right, is a loosely defined group of people with far-right ideologies who reject mainstream conservatism in favor of white nationalism. Not Nazis or racists.
3
Everything Trump touches dies.
10
Every dangerous and ignorant bombast who lacks self awareness needs an army of goons to support his agenda. Hitler had his own surrogates and so does does Trump. Among them Bannon, Spencer, Miller, Sarah Sanders, Lewandowski, Conway, John Kelly and others. They will continually pour gasoline over our democracy so that their chief arsonist, Trump, can set it on fire. Set it on fire - he will.
Trump's whole personal history is littered with failures of every kind that would drive otherwise ethical people to intense self examination and shame. Not Trump. He takes pleasure in the gory glory of his failures.
The intensity of the fires that destroy the forest is a source of pride for an arsonist. It is up to the rest of us to stop the fire from spreading.
10
I've done Autopsies on MUCH Healthier looking Corpses.
Just saying.
12
Thank you, Phyllis, for a big laugh! Say, if you did a post-mortem on dissolute Bannon, would you find a heart? A brain?
2
As evil and dangerous as these immoral people are, the blame must be held squarely on the voters themselves. They put these disgusting creatures into the highest office. They will suffer their own reckoning for it.
11
Steve Bannon is not the only one pushing these ideas. Sebastian Gorka and Steve Miller are also white supremicist fascists pushing to destroy the United States. They are as destructive as Bannon.
15
mr blow per usual, reduces a proper cause for reflection and debate, goethe's elegant try at rendering the chemical and social bonds of attraction in his "die walverandtschaften," to a flat-footed singularity to suit his redundant (as in every time the same old stuff) ranting against anything that reminds him of his dereliction in letting trump ride the waves of media disdain to the oval office...thanks c.b.
bannon may be be dickensian, though, from here he leaps off the pages of dotoyevsky, say, smerdyakov, (in "...karamazov") while mr blow, a grimm character, if you will, persists as rumplestiltskin, destined to stomp, enraged, until...well, there are several endings to the tale, none of 'em good for the angry imp).
take a deep breath mr b, the new nazis and racists are, like the new campus censors and the brick throwing street thugs and the self-centered factions and the uncritical media, given rather to repeating the slogans of protest than exploring them both for sense, (usually little), and source (you want russians?) as the arrow points of an increasingly sophisticated subversive attack on democracy that began with the old soviets...take a good look.
1
Bannon would look very stylish in a Hugo Boss uniform circa 1939.
2
Let's not forget that Trump also has Stephen Miller at his service, good little neo nazi that he is. He's working on his career, and has a credible mentor in Bannon.
5
If I were told that Bannon sleeps upside down in a cave during daylight hours it wouldn't surprise me.
Blow should receive a Pulitzer for all his work exposing Trump and his inner circle of demons and sorcerers.
12
I don't have time to go through all of the comments, so someone may already have made this point: "Elective affinities" was a term from the chemistry of Goethe's time that he used advisedly to hint at the connections of the characters in his novel. Spencer's suggestion that he and Breitbart have a sort of chemical connection seems apt enough; it's extremely interesting that he'd use this now obsolete term rather than a term from modern chemistry. He may be trying to claim a German heritage by alluding to Goethe, so the use of "elective affinities" may be intended as a dog whistle to educated Neo-Nazis--except that Goethe was a humanist who never would have approved of Nazism or Neo-Nazism as creeds, much less of the crimes of the Nazis that their imitators dream about. Mostly I agree as usual with what Mr. Blow says, except that I think that Trump is too focused on himself to take an ideology from anyone. He just impulsively likes what he sees on Breitbart because it matches his existing prejudices. An elective affinity, if you will.
10
The real test will be if the dems can take back the house in 2018. That will put a major dent in the GOP agenda.
10
Mr. Blow, I hope you are correct and that they are only leading us to ruin. To me it feels like we've already arrived there.
8
Bannon's talk reflects a good education but his ideas reflect a malevolent spirit that directs his intellect towards malicious ends. He is endeavoring to subvert the liberal democratic political system which this country has tried to establish and to maintain for over two centuries to replace it with a system which promotes an old time oligarchy which assures the dominance of some over all others. That's the right's agenda since the 18th century because those the right disagree with the vision that all men are created equal and consider democracy the corruption of the state by the undeserving given authority equal to the superior people that they consider themselves to be. Bannon has the same goals as every tyrant in history has entertained, a world that is perfect because it's under the control of the right people.
3
"Bannon is the author of Trump’s ideology."
There is no evidence Trump has any ideology.
10
The time is overdue for there to be a real alternative to this - absent a platform of real economic support for the working and middle classes, what choice do many people on the margins have? If the Dems continue to represent a corporate/Wall Street, neoliberal perspective, they will only continue to lose. The enthusiasm was with Bernie's ideas - yet he was squashed and his followers - and their ideas - have been banished from the DNC.
What's an "ordinary" person to do?
3
Ellen , Then why did the working and middle class vote for Trump?Is it because Americans have become misinformed and convinced to vote against their own self interests? All is not lost if people wake up from their addiction to false information on social media (a very powerful tool weaponized ) Bernie has not yet disappeared from the scene and is a wily old fox but he needs to control the Bernie brothers who became way too radical for most Dems (think the 60's SDS all those groups ) both parties need reform for the better and lets not forget the most important , TAKE THE BIG MONEY OUT OF POLITICS!
2
"Deconstruction of the administrative state" presumably also includes "deconstruction" of democracy and the democratic process. That seems to be what Republicans are intent on doing, judging from the failed "health care" bills and the successful imminent vast redistribution of the nation's wealth to the wealthy.
In a republic, the process of legislation is open and public. There are numerous public hearings in which various stakeholders and positions offer their perspectives as part of the debate.
Republicans bypassed all of that. Their leadership worked in secret behind closed doors, with a focus on securing the barest minimum of partisan votes. The very few hearings were little more than one-sided opportunities to promote official Republican lies. The bills emerged from behind the closed doors days or sometimes hours before the scheduled vote, and were further frantically marked up in secret to secure the votes of any reluctant stragglers. Senate Republicans used "reconciliation" tricks to exclude the entire Democratic membership, nearly half the chamber, ensuring an entirely partisan vote.
Republicans have reduced the United States Congress to the sort of sham legislature found in China and the former Soviet empire, where one-party "people's deputies" dutifully gather to rubber-stamp the Politburo's decrees. It's entirely consistent with "deconstruction of the administrative state" into one-party authoritarian rule that exclusively serves wealthy Republican donors.
4
I love that Charles Blow continues to write about the disaster which doubles as the U.S. Government. What I don't love is that continues to continue. We're just starting to heat Pence's name thrown in with the others being investigated.
If we can finally get rid of Trump and Pence we can start worrying about Ryan becoming the President. I still can't believe how pathetic our system has become given what our leadership has become.
6
Pieces like this may be good for the soul, but they serve no real purpose. What Trump and Bannon stand for is well known by now. That they still communicate freely and frequently cannot come as a surprise to anyone who has eyes to see.
The only, the ONLY option is to take back control of as many Legislatures as possible. To take back control, too, in this manner of the confirmation process and to prevent the extreme right-wing take-over of the judiciary from happening. Unfortunately, I see very little happening on that front.
If that absence of an alternative lingers on beyond the Holiday season, Mr. Blow may resign himself to writing ever more desperate columns for the rest of Trump's term (or terms).
By now I think we all understand the problem. That said, it is important to DO something about it as well as just TALK about it.
Unfortunately, with the Republican majorities in the House and Senate, we are limited in directly pushing back on the trump administration. We cannot rely on impeachment... see Peter Beinart's article in The Atlantic entitled " The Odds of Impeachment Are Dropping" at:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/trump-impeachment/5...
On the surface, trump's presidency looks like an abysmal failure. Yet behind the din, the rightists are fighting and winning on a daily basis. To stay informed about what is REALLY going on, see Amy Siskind's brilliant daily political diary at:
https://medium.com/@Amy_Siskind
and in graphical form at:
https://public.tableau.com/profile/aaron2159#!/vizhome/AmySiskindWeeklyListOfChanges_0/AmySiskindDashboard
In just minutes a day (or just once a week) Ms. Siskind's diary will provide you with ample motivation to call or email the Congressional guilty parties. All that is necessary is to tell them that you can't vote for them if they continue to pursue such actions. Why is this important?
Because the ONLY thing Republicans fear on a day to day basis is the electorate. They must sense that they are facing a tsunami of angry voters in Fall, 2018 that will rollover the "base".
We may not win the Senate special election in Alabama next week, but we must let the Republicans know we are watching and wa
5
I wasn't aware that fascism had electives; I thought everything was required.
On a not very related note, Trump's contact with his amanuensis seems rather like the teen-age girl who is determined to carry on a relationship with the "bad boy" her concerned father has forbidden her to see or talk to.
1
What is the significance of the unelaborated (and indeed accurate) attribution of the phrase 'elective affinities' to a Goethe novel? The only connection I can even remotely imagine reeks unpleasantly of just the sort of blanket cultural stereotyping and guilt by ethnic association that the writer rightfully rails against.
The 'affinities' of the title are interpersonal, not political or societal; the novel is about two couple who ultimately exchange partners. Whatever twisted meaning relevant to his cause Spencer may ascribe to it, to implicate it as a natural source for his sort of thinking, mentioning only that the author was German, is to stoop to his level in a way that sadly undermines Mr. Blow's argument.
1
dear comrades on the far left,
isn't this anti- Bannon and Trump business a bit of exaggeration?
after all, just last week Susan Sarandon said Hillary would have been even worse.
so don't worry when your taxes go up, your health insurance gets worse, your labor, consumer and environmental protections erode.
3
Bannon is still running the Show. 13 more months and we will be singing the Russian National Anthem. Still Pulling the strings and America's evangicals too blind to see.
3
With the election of D.T. , this country took a giant leap backwards , to the days of the robber barons , the corruption of Tammany Hall , and the lack of protections from their abuse of workers , the raping of the land in search of profit and the enabling of all the old racial hatreds . We have all been complicit by our silence or inertia to change things for the better good of all , buying into those old dreams and promises of a grifter and his corrupt cohorts . Those who know better applaud because it behooves them because it's all for profit and the rest who speak out are made helpless thru the lies perpetrated by evil men.
2
Trump, Bannon and assorted white supremacists are fighting a war that they will not win.
America is steadily and inexorably becoming a nation predominantly populated by non-whites.
The numbers tell the story and depict a future America in which whites will become a minority.
In 1950, the year I was born, the United States was 90 percent white.
Today, the nation is just 61 percent white.
Most children under the age of 10 are non-white.
In 8 states, among them California, Texas, New Mexico and Nevada, whites are a minority. In Maryland, whites are just 51 percent of the population and are expected to slip into minority status in the next few years.
There's more.
In 2014, 78 percent of people who died in America were white. That same year in 17 states, white deaths outnumbered white births.
By around 2044, demographers estimate, whites will cease to be a numerical majority.
Their diminished numbers, of course, does not necessarily mean diminished power.
The example of South Africa is instructive.
But, as in that nation, the weight of the demographic shift almost certainly make itself felt.
California offers a valuable glimpse. Across the board, Latinos, now 39 percent of the population, are winning public office and are far more potent politically than just 15 years ago.
These alt-right marches are the death throes of an archaic and doomed movement. Racist tirades are the death rattle of white supremacy.
Seeds of a diverse America are sprouting.
4
This country needs a fire hose of revelations from Charles M. Blow and our stalwart reporters of the NYT, free press.
Trump and every one of his 'dark agenda' movers and mouthpieces have half this country believing the torch light is just tiki lamps at their luau.
When you're white, Republican, and mature, you can't even tell yourself that you're wrong. (I'm a white, oldish golfer btw.) Jack Nicklaus, for example, will never recant "a knee-jerk reaction" concerning the pre-election outrage over Trump's "Grab 'em.."
So, what are the chances that Mr and Mrs John Q Life-Long are going to get savvy about the stormtroopin' proclivities of the Trump Administration, the devolved GOP leadership, and the coming parade of Bannon ghouls aspiring to power? Zero.
Life-long Republicans think that they are heroes for railing against good governance (to clean up the mess caused by Reagan's failure to also require legislation to include criminal penalties for hiring illegals in his 1986 Amnesty) and for turning loose deregulators upon our Clean Air, Clean Water, etc.
They're not heroes; they're zeros. Leave them to their shrinking star's collapse. Any embers landing on our planet 'Reality' will be quenched by revelations.
1
I know it's serious, but really, they're like teenage boys trying to see who can make the biggest explosion. They're both just so....juvenile.
1
The dangerous Pretender to the Throne "advising" the dangerous Court Jester.
1
I am curious as to why you have not mentioned the Republicans. The only reason Bannon and Trump have any power at all lays with Republicans. They are the party allowing all of these horrible policies to happen. If the Republicans stood up to Trump he would be unable to do anything of signifiant importance.
They are a bigger menace than Trump. Why aren't the journalists holding there feet to the fire. It's easy to take a shot at Trump, even his own supporters know he is crazy. Forget about Trump for awhile and start asking tough questions of the Republicans. They are getting away with ruining our country right now and all we seem to hear is how crazy Trump is. Well so are the Republicans. Make them accountable!
4
This is awful! We must keep vigilance and oppose Trump and Bannon. These hateful men are a direct threat to our form of government and have appeared tp be that from the start far before the election disaster (thanks to treachery by own representatives and our former enemy the Russian government. There is tratorism in many directions these sad days. Don't give up hope. We have a form of government which has in its structure the Constitution. Keep your eyes on that fact, and push back against this evil effort with all you have.
2
Let us all hope that Muellers investigation does in fact lead to "locking him up". The question now is will Pence follow Bannon as well.
2
The alt-right is all trite.
3
Great article - I like your style - straight, no chaser! Don the Con most certainly has a wingman in Bannon and it is frightening (to me). They are evil, despicable con men who I pray are stopped sooner, rather than later...
7
Boy, the defeat of the pedophile Moore next week in Alabama would certainly clear out a lot of refuse with one pass of the garbage truck.
9
Alas, they believe that Democrats are kinky for being less judgmental about consensual sex.
It ain't easy to win an election when the voters believe that voting for you will get them sent down the memory hole at the Pearly Gates.
1
America First is America’s past
That never was
More than a mask
For the crime of slavery
To its racist ideology
Of white supremacy for all
Including the neo-Nazi.
But who needs a new Hitler
When you have a near Vladimir
Pulling Oval Office strings
With ropes made of the Confederacy
Ringed round the neck of our democracy?
And how many FBI stings will it take
To make America as great
As the words written on the Statue of Liberty?
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses”
And then send America First
Back to where cognitive dissonance bursts in a course
On how democracy thrives when autocracy dies
By seating all of Breitbart’s ugly white masses in classes
Before its First Student burns the constitution or more into ashes.
9
Charles Blow, as always, hits the nail on its ugly head.
Trump knows he's going down, as does Bannon. But Bannon has continued gain, until and beyond Trump's demise.
That is why they are going for broke, pulling out all the stops, no matter how outrageous the lie building is. They got their Supreme Court justice, their tax bill for the rich, and now they are trying to take down every institution designed to protect this country, from the CFPB to the FBI -- and don't forget Pruitt and the EPA.
Democrats must do everything in their power, from a grassroots level to leaders of the party, to fight back now and win in 2018.
I believe in Mueller. There is a lot we do not know. Once this investigation comes to its conclusion, we may see the VP and leaders of the GOP all complicit.
Dems should have outspoken, strong and charismatic leaders ready for a new election, perhaps before 2018.
#SpeskUp, just like Bannon does. It's gonna be a fight. It must be.
12
Democracy is a very fragile thing, and the problem is, we Americans are busy venting when we need to be taking serious action. The people who really need to be reading the New York Times are busy wiling their days away on "Fakebook" and getting their promoted fake news and misinformation from private interests bent on promoting their hidden agendas.
Has this criminal tax law been signed into law yet? Why had millions of people not mobilized on Washington and outside of state legislatures across America before it was passed, to shout it down and express their outrage at it? It is now obvious that our democracy has been usurped by a very clever, peaceful coup. This is nothing less than a direct assault on the national security of the United States of America. The founding principles of our republic have been, and are currently under direct attack by a tiny but immensely powerful group of self-interested billionaire agitators.
The single most dangerous enemy the United States has ever faced lurks and attacks it from within. Even now it is devouring our nation steadily - like a cancer. OUR Congress has been coerced into passing illegal and destructive legislation that will cause harm to millions of Americans. This is nothing less than high treason, and a war on the American people. If we continue to remain idle, we may soon find that the damage to our democracy can no longer be reversed by peaceful means.
4
At this point there are two different bills passed by House and Senate separately. The next step is appointment of a "conference committee" composed of selected House and Senate members to negotiate a compromise bill. After the compromise bill has been negotiated, both House and Senate must vote for it to send on to the president to sign.
1
Thanks Steve.
1
Bannon has found a stooge in Trump. He's lucky to have found this ego-eccentric casino owner - that is what Trump is....a casino owner....to manipulate. Bannon wants to be the bad man ... the evil doer megalomaniac as in all James Bond pictures but with success. As long as Trump's ego is fed he will condone Bannon's minions. Trump doesn't have the attention span nor the will to realize what is truth, what is honest, what is honorable, what is right, what is wrong. He has proven that he doesn't care, and will vassilate as the wind blows....as long as he is the macho, up front talk of the town.
10
The Bannon phenomenon is is every bit as malicious and dark as Blow describes.To address it we need to ask why it has gained some much traction here and elsewhere in the Developed World.Given that Democrats have no resonating counter message we must assume they have not figured out the root cause or causes.Until such time as they do, we are in deep trouble.Unless we believe that almost 50% of Americans are ignorant gullible racists, in which case we are in a different but equally bad situation.
2
And, Trump admits on Twitter that he knew about Flynn's lies to the FBI. Then, one of his lawyers says he wrote the Tweet!! Is there no shame at all, when your lawyer falls on his sword to lie for our President. Bannon is behind all this, I agree. And, don't get me started on how Sarah Sanders can stand up there everyday to lie to the American public. Bannon trained her well...
6
Rereading the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, used by psych professionals to determine personality disorders, I've come to the conclusion that most, if not all Republicans are sociopaths. They lack empathy, and they are incapable of remorse--the core characteristics of sociopaths.
It's hard to believe that Chuck Grassley is an elected member of Congress, since I suspect most of his followers aren't millionaires. What is wrong with them that they accept Grassley's characterization that they spend their money on "booze and women"? Get some gumption, voters!
12
Bannon and his ideology should be studied carefully and not just dismissed as a bunch of "Nazis and racists". While those elements exist, there are some broader underlying signals that the Democrats are simply blind to and have no effective response. For example, there is a sizable portion of the US population that has been so economically marginalized and desperate that they are now nihilistic willing to destroy our government, capitalism, institutions, and even themselves (opioid crisis). Simply saying this is a race thing misses the point.
3
Trump was a racist long before he met Bannon. They just happen to coincide on a lot of points but always destructive! It’s so easy to criticize, promote hatred until you have the ignorant and stupid masses foaming at the mouth.
But the mainstream media, which should have all roundly and loudly scored and deplored the Trump and Bannon rants during the campaign—particularly Flynn and Giuliani with their “Lock her up” rants during the Republican convention, were almost mute.
And, what can we say about the masses, American men and women—not the unwashed—who screamed out their hatred? So shameful, so shamelful...
I read that these masses are the ones who will lose the most under the Trump/Bannon administration, and I hope this turns out to be true. They deserve it.
2
It is the supporters of Trump "the basket of deplorables" that are responsible - they are cutting their collective noses to spite their face. I wonder if they look in the mirror and see themselves continuing in their deplorable condition since the past 10 months. Those who wasted their votes on third party candidates who were spoilers are to be blamed for the country's suffering under Trump and his forty thieves.
4
Fascinating: Banon’s three priorities—national security and sovereignty; economic nationalism; and deconstruction of the administrative state—are absolutely the last priorities that should be dominant in the US when The USA is no longer the dominant political, military, or economic force in the world. Interestingly, too, the latter is exactly the outcome the current Trump-Republican (identical) international pugnacity, anti-science, and anti-diversity of thought and population actions are hastening every day. It’s irretrievably late; we are already a “has-been” nation at which others increasingly look back with derisive scorn.
3
Charles seems to be either bored or desperate. There has been no news for a month or two on the one hope driving his life, that the America President can be removed from his job.
What did Nixon critics do at lulls during the year from the Congressional hearings until 8/6/74 when he left? They went back to the Checkers speech and the men involved in funding the break-in in 1972 at the Watergate.
We need to feel for Charles because the hole in his heart that was once filled by a truly progressive ideologue in the White House is only holding rage, and that is a terrible, morally dark place to be in.
Trump doesn't have much ideology driving him. He has the things living in this country have taught him over half a century of adult life - government nearly always messes things up, especially at the federal level. He understands what the founders said about trying to keep local things local, because they saw the century of corruption that our swamp is steeped in simply from their awareness of human nature.
He didn't learn that from Bannon any more than Charles learned hatred from his religious experiences in childhood.
1
Elective affinities is the wrong term, however, for the relationship between Trump and Bannon (with apologies to Goethe). In chemistry, this is an affinity between unlike substances. Trump and Bannon are not substances different in kind but birds of a feather.
2
The one thing that Bannon, Rush, Hanniity, Alex Jones;Manafort, the GOP, Mercers and TRUMP- all have in common; hatred and upheaval PAYS.
Jim Jones got rich by convincing Blacks to give up all their worldly possessions to him and convinced them to murder themselves. The aforementioned-- however, are not content to settle for killing their followers- they want it all- from everyone.
The question is; how many decades will it take to dig out from the rubble? Many of us won't be alive by then- (and that may be a good thing), but the pain and suffering of the survivors will be mighty.
3
Aren't we avoiding the obvious, perhaps out of fear that history may be repeating itself? In another time, a group of political novices espoused radical ideas of nationalism, racial identity and the rebuilding of a nation's standing in an unsteady world. These were people on the fringe, considered benign crack-pots at first, but tolerated by the weaklings in their government. The outliers gradually gained more power and standing with a populace so anxious to improve their economic and societal status that many fell in line. Guided by leaders expert in bending the truth to suit their goals, the radical revolutionaries melded violence toward minorities with enough racist justification to make it tolerable to those not targeted. And one tragic day their psychopathic leader became ruler of the nation and unleashed his personal demons on an unprepared world.
3
I agree with everything here except Mr. Blow's Trojan horse statement. There are no Trojan horses; wide open, transparent acts deliberately implemented to dismantle our institutions, our environment, our laws and rights are deliberate acts of sedition and treason.
AND, the GOP leadership does nothing while our country's stability is undermined every day.
3
The longest train wreck in history.
5
Mr. Blow, please write a follow-up column about the Mercers and their dangerous influence - and money - in this mess.
2
This is one situation where it certainly could be worse. Bannon is an odious human being (Trump's most encrusted advisor, per The Onion), but he is whip-smart. Image how bad things would be if he was still in his White House position, in Trump's ear daily. I can't help but feel optimistic that this barge can still be turned around, especially since Trump keeps tripping over himself. The next sane President (so, not Pence) will be positioned to be a hero, to swoop in and send this administration's people, policies, and other detritus to the garbage dump of history.
1
I can't wait until the Mueller team interviews John F. Kelly. If he does not lie, he will have some interesting things to say.
2
As alway, thank you Mr. Blow - our country desperately needs your enlightened voice!!!!!
2
yes.
Bannon works for himself, and the Mercenary Mercer Family.
The entire plan remain. The singular goal is to replace Comrade Trump with the sanctimonious Puppet Pence. The dim witted Comrade Trump is helping to sabotage himself with Bannon's whisperings in both of his crusty ears.
Bannon is more Iago, more Cheney and NOT as powerful as Faust. Bannon, however, is poisonous to one and all.
It is well past the midnight hour. It is time for ALL patriots to come to the aid of America, and tear her from the grip of treasonous Trump, Bannon, Mercers, Kushner, Jr, Sessions, and Pence.
They are a collective "Obstruction of Justice."
2
"Alt-right is just a new name for Nazis and racists." A clear statement of documentable fact!
If one is even slightly aware of the last 100 years or so, no need to write another word.
Nazi =mass murders not only of the 6 million or so Jews but of the other millions who died in or because of their war to save us all from ourselves and let them rule.
Racism = A bedrock insanity of one human race, being superior to another and therefore perfectly fine for the superior one to own the inferior one.
1
"Bannon is the author of Trump’s ideology."
Wrong.
Trump's "ideology" is Trump.
Bannon didn't invent Trump.
Don't confuse Trump using Bannon's, or anyone else's, words with influence or shaping. Trump hears what he wants to hear. And by guile or accident, Bannon happened to say things to Trump that didn't interfere with Trump's "ideology," i.e. Trump.
Journalists should stop trying to come up with any more theories about Trump. Trump is simple: Anything that Trump believes will make him richer, anything that strokes his ego, anything that protects him financially, politically, judicially, psychologically, he is for. Newspapers should stop supporting journalists' coming up with new, or rehashing old, theories about Trump.
Bannon has no power over Trump. Bannon needs no power over Trump. Even Putin needs no power over Trump, just as Putin needs little power over the Russian people, who mostly adore him, just as Trump's supporters adore Trump. Trump's enablers, Russian or otherwise, simply had to get him into the White House, wind him up, and let him be Trump.
For Bannon and Putin, who both want to destroy the U.S. as it exists, Trump is the perfect, self-perpetuating bull in the china shop. And the Republicans and their donors believe this is going to work to their own advantage.
People also thought they could ride Hitler to their own agendas.
I can't really believe the way Bannon talks about Mexicans. It does sound just like Hitler. Totally cold and out of touch with the fact that sending 10 million people back to Mexico could be a death sentence. Mr. Bannon, stop and think for a minute!
The more people like this think in the abstract the more evil they get.
But Trump, trump thinks of all people in the abstract. We're just little puzzle pieces is a sick game.
Have you ever seen this person smile? He doesn't smile. He has no soul.
I'm getting sicker by the day because of this. I know I'm not alone. This can not be real.
1
So, Bannon is Trump's "wingman."
Somehow, his wings need to be clipped, but good.
Let us be clear that the Bannon-Trump-Spencer "philosophy" of America First is code for White America First. I know that Mr. Blow was quoting from The Daily Beast, but the term "white supremacist think tank" surely must be the year's most obscene oxymoron. This tank "thinks" only if violence-enabling racist bile is classified as "thought."
At Bannon's urging, the President of our cradle of constitutional democracy endorses a bigoted child molester for the US Senate. He cavorts with the world's champion autocratic thug as his global partner. He trashes his own law enforcement agents who daily put their lives on the line to protect us. He re-tweets bigoted lies the further to divide his own citizenry. He perpetuates his racist birtherism and denies his own formerly admitted statements recorded on tape.
The president calls himself a patriot when his actions consistently spell treason. He possesses the opposite human qualities of the attributes most Americans desire for their developing children. He is a charlatan, and a loudmouthed, craven, violent, kleptocratic, mean-spirited, lying one at that. He is unfit to lead a prison cell-block residents' association, let alone the world's most powerful democracy.
The Bannon-Trump-Spencer cabal is a carcinogenic axis of evil spreading through our body politic. It must be excised with all due haste.
1
Similarly "white privilege" is code for anti white racism.
No, "white privilege" is code for the American reality that has in-place since colonial times and remains today.
"Alt-right is just a new name for Nazis and racists." Finally, someone states this concisely and clearly! It is maddening that all media outlets happily latched on to the "alt-right" terminology at the simple introduction by American Nazis in an effort to soften and normalize Nazism in America and across the globe.
We can always count of Mr. Blow to tell it like it is without unnecessarily mincing words. THANK YOU, MR. BLOW! Sincerely, THANK YOU!!
"Alt-right is just a new name for Nazis and racists."
Similarly "progressivism" is just another name for Stalinism. Two can play at that game.
The Communist Party of the USA used to endorse candidates, usually Democrats. That didn't make the Democratic Party a tool or dupe of the Communists.
The fact that neo-Nazis claim support of or to be part of the alt-right movement or of Breitbart doesn't make the alt-right or Breitbart tools or dupes of the neo-Nazis. When Blow tars the more reasonable elements of the "Alt-right", some of whom have legitimate grievances, with the dirt of neo-Nazism, he drives them into the hands of the haters and extremists.
There are many Americans with legitimate grievances who feel left out of our society and find the alt-right to be attractive. Blow's position may sound good in the NYT echo chamber, but risks creating a genuinely dangerous extremist movement.
11
You sound like a white nationalist/supremacist apologist. Akin to a German citizen during Nazi era Germany saying the he or she didn't vote for Hitler but likes some of his more 'reasonable policies.' Fine with mass deportations of Jews to concentration camps but will draw the line at having them gassed or burned alive. The 'Alt Right' is a domestic terrorist organization in my book.
Too many specifics are missing and/or not readily inferable from this comment to know what it means, e.g., which are the more reasonable elements of the Alt-right and which of these have legitimate grievances and which does Mr Blow tar; who are the many Americans with legitimate grievances who feel left out and feel the alt-right to be attractive and why. The missing and not inferable specifics then raise the question, why is this a NYT Pick.
2
As if we don't already have a "genuinely dangerous extremist movement". Don't worry about the Dems. We are far from extreme unless millions of us march in unity to remove a dangerous extremist and his buddies. You remember that, yes?
3
"Alt-right is just a new name for Nazis and racists."
This is a dangerously lazy and dismissive comment. It shares DNA with that feeling so many had Nov 9th, 2016 — disbelief and worse, deep denial. But Breitbart and what it and the worst aspects of Trumpism represent are obviously attractive to a much, much broader audience than just 'Nazis and racists'. At some point it doesn't matter that based on evidence and level-headed scrutiny they are complete whack-jobs; they are a growing and dangerous force that parasitically feeds on disdain and dismissal.
It's a darker expression of the same fundamentally shallow, arrogant and unsustainable stance the GOP seems to make at every turn: act as though America isn't full of poor people.
Liberals do this too: if you can't see that a great number of AMERICANS deeply, passionately believe that abortion is literally murder, you'll never bother to understand why they're so motivated.
The recent Times article about 'The Nazi Next Door' was really telling—more so for the absurd backlash it received. We NEED to understand how dangerously normal these kinds of deeply flawed belief systems are becoming.
We are increasingly turning to dismissal as a response to the hard fact that we SHARE OUR LAND with many people who really, really don't think like we do. At some point it won't matter who is right and wrong if end up pointing guns at each other. The idiots are likely to be better prepared for that.
34
We can "see that a great number of AMERICANS deeply, passionately believe that abortion is literally murder." We just want them to understand that banning abortion, sex ed, and contraception is not the best way to minimize the number of abortions.
2
I agree with Mark Holmes that the path forward requires that we build bridges of discussion, learning, understanding and compromise among widely divergent viewpoints. That way leads to consensus among the greatest part of our country and would leave the true skinheads and such (who are really just a tiny sliver) alone and impotent on their little island of hate. Unfortunately, Trump‘s primary strategy is to ratchet up the country's emotional level to blinding heights. That widens the divide to infinity. The solution is to sidestep his nutso-bombs - even, regrettably, the ones with real consequences, now that he has real power - and talk to each other across the various, vast ideological divides. Frankly, though, I have no idea how to make that happen. ”Social media“ certainly don't help.
Totally agreed; I am 100% on the choice side. And yet outright dismissal is a guaranteed fail ('no pro-lifers allowed in the Democratic Party kind of nonsense) I'm honestly at a loss, because I'm not sure how and if we can re-learn to talk to one another. But I am sure that if we don't try something drastic, we're all going to lose — bigly.
Bannon /Trump alliance seems to be trying to establish a right wing white nationalist dictatorship right here in America with complicit oligarchs needing their protection offering support. Targeting minorities, the intel agencies, justice dept and now the FBI leaves Trump to decide all legal issues and with a suppressed media except FOX news lackeys Trump will be the source of all governmental information. This is fascism and sad so many Trump supporters are quite comfortable with that status.
15
"suppressed media"? give me a break. The news media is more energized right now than they have been since the 1960s-70s Viet Nam, Nixon, etc. era
Having reassumed the reins of Breitbart, Bannon has even MORE influence over Trump than he did in the administration. Trump seems terrified of offending Bannon (even going so far as to endorse Moore, Bannon's candidate, while he was campaigning for Strange). It seems Trump's universal news feed has shrunk to Breitbart and neo-Nazis (sorry for any redundancy).
13
This piece gets it about right. Bannon has some vision for the US. It seems to be an amalgam of anarchy, white hero myths, and a bit of video-game fantasy, while Trump has been sure of one thing, undoing President Obama's legacy. Unfortunately neither of these are coherent visions for our country, nor do they actually espouse either conservative or liberal agendas. Both men are troubled in ways I can't even begin to guess. That Trump had the charisma to become president is an American tragedy. That a considerable number of people are still being conned by both him and Bannon through the alt-right media they consume is sadder still.
18
In reality, neither 45 nor Bannon possess any true political ideology except for getting lots of attention and making lots of money. Sadly, we cannot ignore them because doing so will cause them to keep doing more and more outrageous and dangerous things to force us to pay attention.
3
Why must the public be forced to follow his every move. Yes, it is good to stay informed with current affairs and meaningful news, but I personally do not think that it is OUR responsibility as citizens to have to police this nut job. Yes I admit that I do it too. But we are not the FBI or the CIA. THEY should be watching, collecting intel, planning his future behind bars, and so on. Why do we have to get high blood pressure, insomnia , and anxiety when we cannot really go in and remove him. I also believe that giving him so much attention feeds his sense of power and that the media need to show us less of his oh-so-handsome face. Times are crazy, but don't let this fascist loser hijack too many moments of our precious moments on earth. These low-life operatives succeed by getting into people's heads and igniting fear. He will dissolve soon.
1
So sad that we have to re-litigate the Civil Rights movement, and charitable capitalism
7
As the "deconstruction of the administrative state" proceeds, one wonders how its architect and chief demolition man can reconcile their aim with the bodies left in the wake. I think both Bannon and his witless henchman have a philosophy of life that amounts to this: Those who can survive and prosper, should and will; those who can't, shouldn't and won't. What makes their me-first approach to the world false is the reality that the way up for both of them has been greased significantly by systemic advantages and leg-ups. I wish the devotees of Breitbart would move away from needing to bash the mythic "liberal" over the head and recognize their chieftain and their president for the selfish charlatans that they are.
4
It seems like what Trump and Bannon have in common is a desire to destroy things. What these guys attempt to do is to advance themselves and their agenda by trashing everything around them.
Blow says "they are leading us to ruin" but I disagree.
They will fail.
9
Every time Trump installs another burn-it-down department head such as Mulvany, I know that Bannon still has his ear. Damage to our democratic ideals from Bannon's institutional deconstruction continues at a hell-bent pace, under the radar of the daily fire hose of headlines from Trump's latest distraction. I worked with the Dept. of Education for several years, and so far Betsy Devos is frustrated, I hear, at her inability to remake the Department to her liking due to long-established procedures and rules. Never thought I'd cheer the dizzying array of regulations I had to navigate back then, but they were the rule of LAW, designed to protect all children, not just rich ones. Bureaucracy has its purposes: Regulations and laws will probably be the end of Trump and Bannon eventually, if history has anything to say about it.
9
If one should put on rubber boots and wade into the Breitbart swamp, the first thing noticed is the brevity of the stories; nothing over 200 words, no complex sentences. This is the short simple attention crowd. This view is reinforced by the voluminous comments sections where gangs of trolls hurl childish epithets, i.e. "stupid libtards", back and forth in ten and twenty word semi-sentences.
All of this prompting this observer to note that among many Republican gifts to the nation, the elevation of semi-literacy to a place of pride, indeed to the oval office, is perhaps the most onerous.
19
Anyone with a mind knows, like Tillerson and McMaster, that Trump is a(expletive deleted) moron. He can’t even keep his lies straight. But what strikes me is that, like Bannon, he talks about his country like an outsider. He is the President of the United States but he has attacked every single component of a civil society except perhaps the military, though even there he has insulted a good star family and treated a widow with colossal insensitivity. I have no idea what demons these two men have, but it is clear they are both massively insecure, with chips on their shoulders. I don’t see how Trump can survive his term. Like Charles Blow, I think he wants to bring the whole structure down with him.
11
Trump is said to have always been insecure and resentful that he was never taken seriously by the elite in NYC.
Why do these idiots insist on the ruination of America? to what purpose?
3
Power and money.
Steve Bannon is ugly to the core.
9
Yep, both Donald Trump and Steve Bannon look like they fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.
I fully agree Timbuk (too).
And Breitbart is an ugly sanctuary for lost persons who have no other purpose in life other that to wreak havok to distract themselves from their own pain or complete numbness as a result of their own failures in life and the simmering anger that results when a person feels hopeless and desperately unworthy...... and must take it out on others , rather than take personal responsibility.
Also, Bannon wants so badly to be Darth Vader. Just grow up !
And Trump is at that ugly core.
Mr Blow I have never read your column before, just scanning the head Line was enough for me. Having read this one I can see how nicely you fit into the Times editorial page. Oh bye the way you and most of comment posters don’t have a clue. You are truly living in la la land.
3
Why don't you enlighten us?
For so much benighted criticism, would you deign to tell Mr. Blow and NYT readers what we all seem to get wrong? Or do you not care enough about your fellow concerned citizens to so as to have a discussion for us to learn from one another?
Talk is cheap, especially when one thinks that no one would possibly reply to a clever witticism. In this case it barely masks bad faith and a contempt for one’s fellows under a veil of self-superiority.
That said, no one is keeping you from having something specific or constructive to say about a well-considered opinion. I suspect many readers would be interested in hearing something other than a glib quip.
1
Mr Nacey the truth hurts. Everything in the piece reflects the actions of the mad man Trump is.
1
" national security and sovereignty; economic nationalism; and destruction of the administrative state". Throw is tiki-torches and we have a 21st century version of a Nuremberg rally. The National Socialists started with a hell of lot less than what Bannon has going for him.
8
One of these days, Charles is going to publish something truthful and accurate, with zero hyperbole.
Then, Hell will be covered in glacier ice.
3
Charles Blow is one of the few people in journalism who can write truthfully and skillfully about race. How fortunate we are to have him writing........
2
Out of this dismal period of what will hopefully soon be history, comes the hope that the United States will renew its commitment to its founding ideals. More citizens are becoming outraged and engaged. The pendulum will swing back with force gathered behind disgust with this President and his abettors.
Bright moments of opportunity will arrive for Democrats in 2018 and 2020. We need good, new, people to stand up and seize them. And we need the old guard to get out of the way. It's time for Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Diane Feinstein and Hillary Clinton to leave the stage. It's also time for Elizabeth Warren, whom I love as my senator, to recognize that her place is in the senate.
Let's make way for the likes of John Tester, Kamala Harris, Corey Booker and John Hickenlooper to run in 2020. In 2018 let's get new blood into the House.
As for the Republican Party, they must face the reality that their collapsing star is already a black hole who is sucking all of their values into an alternate universe. When he is gone, his dark gravity will continue sucking for years. Eventually the light will shine again, for our country needs responsible and patriotic conservatives. And when that light does shine again we can hope it will find the likes of decent men like Evan McMullin.
3
It's very interesting that the Republicans and Bannon have found a stooge in Mr.Trump. I don't think for a minute that the Republicans thought he would be useful at first but they found a way to use him and continue their march towards screwing up this country. Mr Bannon knows he can play Trump like a puppeteer plays his puppets. Mr. Blow says in closing that together both Bannon and Trump are leading us to ruin. That gives Trump much to much credit. Hillary had it right in the debate. Trump is a puppet for anyone who can con him. I always thought con men were tough to con. Apparently that's been proven to be wrong.
4
I like this as a new euphemism, Mr, Blow. "Cushion" for twist, as in "Sarah Huckabee Sanders cushioned the claim...." And twist the truth, of course, itself stood in once for lie.
The Trump gang. Cushioning us to hell and gone.
2
Let's face it: we are watching an anti-democratic coup against the U.S. government unfold in real time and, frankly, the plotters appear to be winning. For an additional chill (and maybe a preview of things to come), note this passage in today's article about the potential for a government shutdown:
"Citing the power that Democrats hold under Senate rules, Representative Trent Franks, Republican of Arizona, complained last week that his party was being forced, despite having majorities in both houses, to “produce basically a Democrat document.”
“It’s an untenable, unworkable thing, and it’s a hell of a way to run a railroad,” he said.
Imagine that - having to work with the opposition to negotiate compromise! What an absurdly outdated concept.
17
what a nightmare these horrible people are. all of them. i shoudn't be reading this before bed.
4
Trump, Bannon et al. Truly, a 'basket of deplorables."
4
Oxymoron of the day: "White supremacist think tank."
22
"Racism" is so prevalent in Blow's Opinions that the term has lost all meaning.
His overuse of the term "white nationalism" is becoming meaningless also.
3
If you want to know the meaning, jck, just read President Donald Dumb's Twitter messages.............
1
That is just the way Trump/Bannon want you to react. To rephrase their teacher Goebbels, repeat the truth enough times and it ceases to have any meaning.
1
What's so nefarious about Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Mr. Blow? You write that "Even the phrase 'elective affinities' is likely taken from . . . an 1809 novel by famed German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . . ." as if Goethe's writings were themselves suspect. How so? Because Richard Spencer may have borrowed a neutral term, "elective affinities," from them? Because J.W. von Goethe, like the Nazis, was German? If Spencer cribbed the word "bodkin" from "Hamlet," that alone wouldn't make Shakespeare a font of White Nationalism, even though both Shakespeare and Britain First are both English. Are you perhaps confusing Johann Wolfgang von Goethe with the pro-Nazi eugenicist Charles M. Goethe? The majority of your column is lucidly written, but your loaded reference to J. W. von Goethe is baffling and uncharacteristically sloppy.
2
Bannon is one twisted dude. Can some reporter with access do us all a favor and dare him, on camera where his reaction can be captured, to take a drug test?
3
Bannon is evil and Trump is "confused". Will the Republican Party do nothing to rid us of that cancer? Our country and its international reputation are being destroyed for the sake the "one percent". How ludicrous. Unbelievable. Hopeless.
If there is an afterlife, Hitler must e giggling. He has not completely failed.
3
Masha Gessen writes about this monster beautifully in her new book. Our country has been fully taken over by white nationalist fascists. This includes so-called "Republicans", and, yes, we are in deep trouble. Jews, blacks, Latinos, and gays are at best foolish to align themselves with these oligarchical curses.
The United States Government has fully collapsed as a result of Russian collusion and 60 million or so American Idiots.
We have to hope that Mueller can make resignation the only logical course for the monster(s) in the White House, since impeachment is now almost impossible since 70%+ Republicans still back the monster. Like the Nazi's his base is rabid, uninformed, racist and unrepentant. They really don't care if the country sinks. In their minds they are with Jesus (a 5'5" Jew, I remind you).
7
"Even the phrase 'elective affinities' is likely taken from the title of an 1809 novel by famed German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe..."
A bit over the top here, Mr Blow. Not every German is a Nazi, and your implications are simply the inverse of Breitbart's Alt-Right propaganda.
1
What a repugnant and repulsive individual - much like the man he serves! A living nightmare! How long will it take the country to undo the damage.
3
"The alt-right is just a new name for Nazis and racist." Thi's says it all Mr. Blow and I couldn't agree more. Thank you making it clear the relationship between Bannon and Richard Spencer. The catch phrase itself has been credited to tha white supremist Spencer and willfully opted by Bannon and defended by Trump. Bannon is owned by Koch and Mercer and all three ultimately have served Richard Spencer, a man who has given his life to spreading hate and inciting violence against all who stand against Nazis, the KKK, and his own despicable self. Bannon is nothing more than your run-of-the-mill white nationalist, like his pal, Trump.
I can only hope people will look into their hearts and recognize the evil that these men represent and will not let them normalize racism and religious bigotry.
6
Trump relishes destruction. It makes him feel powerful now that sex has faded. A narcissistic, negative pathological liar.. As for Bannon, I dont believe a word he says either. He has no vision. Another power grabber. But just because he says he has Trump's ear, doesnt mean he does.
2
I'm not a fan of Bannon. He's divisive & an intellectual bully. Having said that for Blow to imply he's a Neo Nazi is sloppy. To say the Alt-right is just a new name for Nazis & racists is utterly ridiculous...it's more complicated than that. But then nuance isn't Blow's strong suit. No doubt some racists have tried to attach themselves to Trump. But Bannon has repeatedly distance himself from the white supremacists, & nationalists who are supporting Trump and his agenda. He has distanced himself in this paper as well as the MSM. Blow shoulh have mentioned this. On 60 Minutes Bannon said “They’re getting...a free ride off Donald Trump” calling them a “small,” “vicious group” that “add[s] no value.” Bannon has gone on to dismiss the Neo Nazi's who rallied in college towns saying “These guys are a collection of clowns, “Ethno-nationalism—it's losers. It's a fringe element. "I don’t need to be lectured....by a bunch of limousine liberals... from the Upper East Side of New York , about any of this.”... we gotta help crush it." His real target is the Establishment Republicans who he despises. He recently said ‘The elites in Republican Party can either go the easy way or the hard way, But they’re going." "They" in this instance is Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, etc. Bannon & his allies have much more disgust for RINOs than they have for Democrats. The reason Blow doesn't mention any of this is that it would undercut his very clumsy smear.
5
Bill Brown: I have done research on Bannon, and I agree with you. And if Trump campaigned as far to the right as Mr. Blow and NYT claim, the wouldn't have been elected.
The Alt Right is similar to the Nazi Party in its early days. It presented itself as an alternative political force draped in populism and nationalism to garner wide support from the German citizenry. It enshrined a German First philosophy and tar and feathered any minority group in their borders from liberals to the Jews as easy targets for people's hate and anger. Hitler and his cronies went after legitimate institutions from the courts to the media with false claims and smears so the masses would distrust the very things that would protect them from a Hitler. Then they passed laws that slowly chipped away at folks civil rights and protections. Ramped up to mass deportations, confiscated property from the Jews and the Gypsies, and purged universities of subversives and free thinkers. Banned books and bibles that would challenge an authoritarian state under Hitler. We see echoes of that today with immigration detention centers with no due process or habeas corpus, attacks on the media with 'fake news' smears, stocking federal benches with far right judges, curtailing of civil rights with stringent voter suppression laws, and etc. For the true aim isn't going after the Establishment but reshaping the federal, state, and local governments to serves the interests of white nationalists while everyone else is excluded or marginalized. It will not happen overnight but in degrees while folks are distracted with ginned up cultural wars. America will become the 4th Reich under Trump.
1
So is "alt left" another name for communists, anarchists and black lives matter? Do the ghosts of Blow and his fellow journalistic meddlers still haunt the streets of Ferguson, long after they have left. Will they be back anytime soon to actually make a positive contribution to the community?
1
Don't give Kelly a free ride...he is a big time Bannon toady!
10
I was horrified the other day to see that MSNBC was interviewing some guy from Breitbart. Why would they give a person that kind of credibility? It's no different than interviewing the Grand Wizard of your local KKK.
4
better the devil you know
The weird alchemy that combines the "elective affinities" of Stephen Bannon and Donald Trump predates pre-recorded human history. It is, quite simply, the will to evil; to hate; to destroy.
Trump, without the moorings of morality that most of us have, is helpless without Bannon, clearly the brains behind the Trump presidency. When he was floundering in mid-2016 with Paul Manafort in control of the campaign, Trump turned to the alt-right guru for advice. Bannon got Trump to drink the acid Kool-aid of white supremacy; he even took Ronald Reagan's famous deconstruction of American government to new depths.
All ears now, Trump got the message: his populism would be based upon mistrust of everything that is foundational to our democracy. He got high on the curious poison that Bannon peddled: a race-based anarchy, one built upon white nationalism and the never-ending threat posed by immigrants, Mexicans and home-grown insurgents (blacks and other mongrels) who suck the life out of decent, God-fearing Americans. And 62-million Americans saluted the ragged flag as it fluttered up the pole. It's still there.
The danger that Bannon continues to pose to our country is that he is smarter by half than his pupil, a man whose learning has always been called into question. Bannon was (and is) a scholar and thinker, but one ruined by hate, a man unable to see another viewpoint or to consider that one may be valid.
Trump's evil philosophy is Bannon's own. Trump is merely a follower.
8
Trump is a lap dog for Bannon and for Putin or anyone who will stroke his ego.
Thoughtful piece, as always, but the paragraph on Goethe is a mis-step. How is the author of "The Sorrows of Young Werther" relevant? Oh, he's German, and so, Nazis... you know. I assume this is sloppiness in writing and/or editing, and not an endorsement of the Goldhagen thesis. Sorry, but the Goethe bit rankles, especially since it seems such a departure from your usual standard.
1
Bannon, the emcee. Trump, the village idiot doing stand-up via twitter.
Any questions?
5
Yes, Phyliss, I have a question. What is the role of the GOP in this? How can they stand by and let our international reputation go up in flames? How can they watch and listen as trump assaults the very governmental institutions they are sworn to protect and defend? Did the words "checks and balances" elude them as they (hopefully) studied our system of government? Will they be happy with fascism? Or do they in fact welcome it? These are the questions that keep me up at night. Trump and Bannon I get-- they are evil. The Mercers, the Koch bros-- I understand them-- greed is their religion. I think it pains them that good/generous people like Buffet and Gates are richer than them. Huckabee and other trump trolls are no different than brain-washed people or groups throughout history. But the elected congress of the United States of America? Confounding. Blow is a good columnist-- but he overlooked this most important element of the wanton destruction of our nation.
When the 3rd Reich was losing the war badly, Hitler ordered that eveything in Germany (infrastructures, etc.) be destroyed.
With Hitler’s successor in DC, things remain the same. Destroy before leaving.
8
Steve Bannon as a political force will burn out sometime between now and thre 2018 elections. He'll continue to blab at Breitbart to the idiots in the trump base. Sometime after that, when he realizes he's really a nothing, I wouldnt be surprised if he didnt blow his brains out.
Can't come too soon. Let's hope he's standing next to Trump at the time.
1
Alt-Right Nazis and racists - Steve Bannon's legacy to Donald Trump. His vile propaganda has definitively swayed the minds and lives of Trump's loyal and ignorant followers. Like the followers of the weasely German propagandist, Josef Goebbels, in the 1930s. We remember how the Third Reich ended up in their Holocaust for Europe's and Germany's Jews. And the Nazis self-immolated after 12 (instead of "a thousand!") years. Steve Bannon is Master to Trump's moronic Blaster in 1985's Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome Redux. So, Charles Blow, How can we rid America of Steve Bannon's ghost and Trump's demented view of reality before they bring down our country and western civilization? Bannon, "the president's wingman " is flying us all right into the Rockies, like a suicide piloot.
1
Brilliant thinking, let's blow up the government, don't need it. With WW3 just around the corner, you might get your wish. Back to the good old days of long ago, when we lived happily in caves, cooking over the camp fires.
Alt-right is Alt-wrong but how do you fight stupidity?
5
And this corrupt GOP Congress still supports this Trump Regime. To the voters of America: Term Limits exist, we just must exercise our rights and vote these people out of office - that is real Term Limits, and our power!
3
the honey badger has you pegged, Charles. You are shrieking so hard, you don't see the truth: this is the last man that cares about the forgotten American man and woman.
That group could include you, if you let it.
The Dems have walked away from truth generally, and the American worker specifically. They have walked into the morass of identity politics foolishness, like moths drawn to a flame.
You can redeem yourself, Charles. Join us.
4
The fury, the hatred, the blame game against others because of the horrendous fear that entitlement for the American Worker (i. e. white men) is disappearing. Please, please remember, education, retaining, adaptability, are the key to survival in any population. That is the way it has always been. Too bad so many scream and blame others for their inability to be flexible in a changing world. What did Hatch say about "hitching a ride". That appears to be you.
Yes. Join the Putin-brainwashed white supremacist Trump apologist dead-enders. That will solve everything.
1
Richard L. refers to Bannon's face...either rosacea...a form of acne possibly related to alcohol abuse or some forms of skin cancer. Even non-melanoma skin cancer can prove fatal. The guy is supposedly a multi millionaire. Can't he afford to see a dermatologist and spare us his ugly face. He looks like his skin is rotting off. Guess it reflects his soul.
Bannon is the author of Trump’s ideology? And what would that be?
The Trumpelstitskin "administration" is more like a motley but numerous crew at sea hunting for an idea, a philosophy, an ideology. Something sounding like that.
You wonder what they might do if they actually come up with an ideology. Like lebensraum or purification of the races. So far, they have managed to destroy everything from Obama's legacy to laying waste to the public lands and the country's environment, never mind polluting the whole world,
They've made the country either a laughing stock or a scary war mongering nation of uneducated idiots.
To MAGA they must destroy it. To make their Amerika great, some sixty plus percent of us must be made powerless and invisible, distracted and driven mad by the incessant loop of sewage coming out of Trump's tiny mind, grinding, grinding.
I wonder how the fervent Trumpites cope with that.
1
Does anyone remember when he first joined the Trump campaign and described DT as a “blunt instrument” for his or the party’s agenda? It’s not flattering and at the time seemed very telling, but it never bothered Trump. He knew what he was doing, I just can’t understand why!?!
1
Bannon is an ideologue.....if your idea of being an ideology is chaos, discord and destruction. That is what he is trying to sow, and personally, I know people like this. Fundamentally, they hate others and that is their driving narrative--how much discomfort and division can I get away and still call myself a good guy? It's a game. SNL captures him perfectly when they paint him as the angel of death. He may not see himself as "an evil doer" but de facto, the result of his work is destruction of tenets, norms, relationships and people. What would you call that?
In Trump, he found the perfect stooge. A man that you can easily feed with compliments and false bravado--a man whose engine is driven towards one end only: his own glorification. Trump's ego is a bottomless pit of want and just like throwing coals into a steam engine, you drive Trump by feeding his ego.
At this point, this whole house of cards is coming down. The question is not if, the question is when.
Personally, I suspect that a shrewd character like Bannon is very well protected. Unlike the other stooges that surround Trump, Bannon was the only one ever capable of strategizing. I think he walks from this unscathed, enriched and untouched. Maybe reputationally ala Cheney.
You know who is in interesting pickle, then? Kushner. Undoubtedly Trump is telling him that if he "fixes the Middle East" he will be politically covered. Ivanka, YOU KNOW BETTER. Save your husband from your father and cooperate!
1
I think you cannot write a piece about Banning and his connection to the White House without mentioning Robert Durst and his daughter, Rebecca. There’s the “deep state” that has brought us the travesties of corporate and hedge fund tax cuts etc etc etc.
1
I’m sure you mean Robert Mercer
You seem to limit the discussion to Trump and Bannon. The already have very powerful collaborators in influential places who either share their ideology or fear them; 240 representatives, 52 senators and 34 governors, all Republicans.
2
Mr. Blow - I wonder if you or my fellow readers have considered whether Bannon has anything to do with the re-surfacing of some sexual harassment accusations against vocal progressives?
For instance, Leeann Tweeden's ridiculous drama over Sen. Franken. As a rape survivor, I was thoroughly offended by her inappropriately melodramatic reaction to an alleged sloppy stage kiss, and to his stupid but utterly harmless frat-like photo gag. But, my lord, did this Fox News contributor milk her story for every drop of hollow popular outrage she could get.
The careful reader would note that in many instances, informants have been not just anonymous, but completely mysterious, identified only by way of such artful phrases as, "the Judiciary Committee was informed that..." Informed? When? By whom?
For instance. When former governor of NY, Democrat, Eliot Spitzer, was discovered to have been paying a call girl, I read that a vindictive group of Republican cranks had hired private investigators to uncover compromising information and hit the jackpot. Collecting dirt on an adversary is so common in politics, I suspect that the only reason all the sins aren't splashed across the headlines is because everyone has dirt on everyone else.
Opinion, anyone?
3
I had the same reaction to the Tweeden thing. This feels like a set up. Distraction. Amazing it hasn’t dawned on the GOP that Trump and Moore deserve immediate, in depth investigations of all of their sexual wrong doings. Not a peep. Crazy.
6
Bannon is a convenient excuse for Trump’s ideology which really is to decimate America’s institutions on behalf of Putin’s Russia. Bannon is merely a pawn in Komptromat.
"Buckets?" Buckets, instead of categories? Instead of sets? Instead of areas?
You're losing your touch, Mr. Blow. Or someone's getting to you.
One of the most important reasons I read your writing is because it is so masterfully composed, so vibrantly eloquent, so polished. This is, in fact, the first poor choice of diction I have ever come across in an article of yours.
Please, buckets are for mops & construction sites. Let us uphold the magnificent standards of usage that give brilliant thinking its essential framework.
it irks me to see the homely face of Steve Bannon in paper or TV speaking looking more and more like a cave man who has no right to surface and pollute the World .
This is a melting pot of all ethnicity and religion and the man wants America to be analt-white Country.
Thank goodness that is not happening , who will ever want their Children to look like Bannon...shudder.
3
"Anakin, meet Senator Palpatine".
Trump does real harm to his country and to the American people when retweets fascists and Islamophobes, but all he cared about this weekend was changing the subject from Flynn and so once more he went to the magic well for what he knows will infuriate his opponents and delight his base. As for Bannon's being so smart, when the people you're working overtime to deceive are basically ignorant morons who are hopelessly enthralled by what can only be described as one of their own, how smart do you really have to be?
You stated that, “Trump may one day have to abandon the post he inhabits, but he plans to reduce the village to ashes before he exits.”
Your colleague at the NYT, Thomas Edsall noted that, “President Trump has single-handedly done more to undermine the basic tenets of American democracy than any foreign agent or foreign propaganda campaign could.”
Trump is the leader of a true fifth column movement. A fifth column with a legacy of Nazism, the John Birch Society, Roy Cohen, Breitbart, Bannon, the Koch Brothers, and the cabal of fascist loving billionaires. All are dedicated to overthrowing this Republic not with bullets, but with money.
If we don’t want to live in a variant of China/Russian oligarchy by 2020 then America needs to wake up.
1
The drunken sod called Bannon isn't an 'ideologue', he's the initiator of a vendetta. The core vendetta isn't really 'nazi, it's from the days of the Confederacy of Slave States, 1860-65 (but his puppet, Donald, is a neo-Nazi by mood and ethnic identity). 'National sovereignty' isn't that, it's a rogue policy on polluting the Earth and stealing resources from subject states like Iraq. 'Economic nationalism' is a code-word for ethnic nationalism and neo-colonialism. 'Deconstruction' is Bannon's illiterate mis-use of 'destruction' -- he couldn't 'deconstruct' his own cholesterol readings. The correct term for Bannon is right-wing anarchist working for local oligarchs.
1
“ . . . are leading us to ruin.” You’re a great journalist, Charles. It’s unlike you to get the tense wrong. It should be “ . . . has led us to ruin.”
Every tyrant needs a propaganda machine to get their message to the masses in a way that's palatable and non threatening. Hitler had the volkischer beobachter and the der angriff, two newspapers dedicated to getting his message to the masses along with his radio addresses. Trump has Breitbart, Limbaugh, and Fox news as his propaganda machine. The BBC countered by telling the unvarnished truth. Their truth agenda did eventually prevail.
The problem is figuring out how to do so here so we can get through to Trump supporters. Keep in mind many were angry at both parties which is why Trump prevailed. Tell them what's happening because of the policies and people that Trump has put in charge of our government agencies. Don't make it political, just tell them why they should care about the agencies mission and the damages Trump's decisions are causing. In the end the truth will prevail.
Once the infamous wall is built, I wonder how long it will take for it to become one to keep people in rather than out! At least the Canadian border is longer and easier to cross. But just in case, time to invest in companies that make razor wire if you do have spare funds.
2
Your writings about this abhorrent administration serves us all to be more vigilant,and for that I thank you, and all the honest journalists out there. I am a great fan, and love to watch you on TV. Keep up the good journalism, that is what this country so sorely needs in this repressive atmosphere.
1
The adolescent eagerness of Donald J. to make noise and rattle the sensibilities of the adults in the room has now transpose itself into deadly serious violence against our very institutions (the court, human rights, our earthly environment), and possible nuclear destruction. Yes, con artists, grifters all, but now with lighted matches in their hands stumbling into our uncertain future! We must, as Americans, turn this around. Democracy - and far more - IS under assault.
1
Elimination of the Administrative State is the elimination information, laws, law enforcement,taxes and Property. If the State does not know you own something, someone with a gun or more "friends" than you can take it. The State protects us from Anarchy. I think many Libertarians don't understand the difference.
1
Can we please give up the pretense that Kelly is the adult in the room checking Trump’s affinity for white nationalist and racist Bannon.
First, it’s both alarming and depressing that we have reached the point where we want/need the Generals - Kelly, Mattis and McMaster - to be a check against an autocratic, incompetent President who deliberately divides the country along racial and religious lines, attacks an independent, free press, attacks an independent judiciary, creates a personality cult - all for his power and his and his family’s financial gain. We are deep into full third-world territory when the Generals are seen as our saviors.
Kelly took the Homeland Security head position because he fully believes in and supports Trump’s border wall and Muslim ban. He was not a moderating force, but a true believer.
He attacked a black congresswoman with lies, defended Trump’s attack of a Gold Star widow. Said General Lee was an honorable man. That the Civil War could have been avoided with compromise (what is the right compromise for Slavery?).
Kelly served honorably in the Marines. He is the highest ranking military person to have lost his son in combat - he is a Gold Star father. His family’s and his service and sacrifice for our country will always deserve gratitude and honor.
But Kelly has also demonstrated that he is fully on board with Trump/Bannon white nationalism. Sad but true.
3
So, what I'm not clear on is what is the plan if the dismantling of the so called "deep state" is successful? Who's in charge post "deep state" considering the deep state seems to include anyone that works for a federal agency. Does the alt right have the technocratic know how to keep the government working? Just gonna guess that guys that got their 4th Reich tiki torches at Home Depot haven't thought much beyond that.
2
The Bannon- Trump theme in common is destruction of the government as it is: perhaps for different purposes, but with the result being crippling of agencies that had missions and structures that made them somewhat independent of short term swings in popular thought. Trump has good reason to dislike government - he has violated the laws or skirted laws for years, and would benefit of the FBI, IRS, etc, ware unable to investigate him. Bannon just seems to have settled on destruction out of anger at not originally being one of the powerful, an delight at inflicting pain and chaos.
The part that continues to surprise and alarm - the views of either of these guys wouldn't have withstood a good argument at the local bar. How could have been this easy for them to have slithered into prominent roles in politics?
"Trump the conman has a wingman and together, in the shadows, they are leading us to ruin."
Exactly! Trump does seem to care about his daughter, perhaps to lessening degrees, other members of his family, but nothing for anyone else, including Bannon. A con-artist exploits whatever he can without guilt or concern for the well being of others.
"Birds of a feather, flock together!" Bannon is alt Trump. He just doesn't have enough charisma to exploit his way up the political landscape. So he exploits "Losers Row", the lost souls unable to find a place for themselves in our ever changing society.
He uses the ages old tactics of splaying, collective reasoning and confirmation bias. A bully splays or separates a target in school on the play ground, at the office. Then if interested he might become political and find certain groups to target Black folks, illegal immigrants them liberals.
Then comes the collective reasoning, which humans use to learn about history and science in school without having to reinvent to wheel or go back in time. But the ugly Bannon's of the world will find organizations like planned parenthood to attack with a pack of lies. The world is flat!
He does not like Jews and confirms the prejudices of low level types like members of the KKK.
3
Why keep bringing this guy up? He's had his fifteen minutes, let him go.
So to summarise what Charles has said so powerfully: Trump and Bannon are racists and fascists who seek to promote the destruction of democracy in America and are governed by an ideology of hatred and bigotry. They are enabled by the cowards and spineless sycophants of the Republican Party, who are prepared to trade whatever small shred of principle they have in exchange for a disastrous tax cut for the already-wealthy and corporations. This should not be allowed tocontinue for one more second.
2
That Trump is a Nazi sympathizer at best and pro-active supporter at worst is obvious fact. No doubt he learned that from his dad, Mr. Drumpf, a German immigrant during those fraught times to this country. I recall news reports describing a American Nazi march and rally on Long Island; it was mentioned that the FBI visited Trump's father after the rally. So there was some connection, maybe not criminal. But the story of this connection was squelched. Meantime Candidate Trump accused Cruz's father of some connection to the Kennedy murder (lol). But after all, the most damaging evidence of Trump's alt-right sympathies comes from his constant behavior. He is methodically dismantling democratic government and endorsing fascism daily. But it's good to have the conclusion stated clearly by someone.
1
It is immeasurably unsettling to witness the utter self centered conduct of Trump and his supporters. None of his apologists and enablers have any fealty to either truth or democracy. The 'American way' is trampled in their greedy sprint to unlimited access to wealth. Freedom, equity and justice for all all in a Nation committed to the well being of each American is a dream now lost as we have become suffused with dark matter, pure evil perpetrated by Bannon/Trump and their prevaricator in chief, Kellyanne Conway. They each shamelessly exploit us without regret, remorse or restraint. It is now abundantly clear that our president is like Bannon, a heartless, unprincipled, lying parasite whose bizarre misconduct should get him impeached by the Republicans yet they too are scavengers seeking without principle to suck America dry with tax breaks for the campaign donors who are themselves unrestrained parasites. We are now witnessing the malevolent transformation of a once proud and free Nation into a force for evil. We are on the doorstep of our most malignant metamorphosis but we must speak out or lose everything our sons and daughters have fought and died for over our history. Our freedom is at stake. Our democracy may perish amidst a tweet storm and its metaphoric implications unless we rise as one and impeach him and vote out the complicit Republicans.
1
Bannon is Trump's Svengali, Rasputin and Pied Piper all rolled into one. Trump is such a political neophyte that he needs someone like Bannon to flesh out some unholy amalgam of racism, fascism, Social Darwinism and oligarchic "Divine Right of Kings" that Trump can fantasize about as being "policy".
Trump probably has no concept of Bannon's stated tripartite agenda - what it is or what it means. But Trump is intrinsically drawn to anything that appeals to his inner con man, provocateur and bully.
Bannon no doubt knows this. I'm sure he doesn't even attempt to school Trump in the finer points of policy or geo-politics (however warped and nonsensical Bannon's may be). Bannon simply knows that he only has to "egg on the bully" in Trump - and Trump will do the rest.
And Bannon and his following of plutocratic fascists, oligarchs and army of resentful rednecks all believe that when "the establishment" collapses in ruins, they will somehow find riches and their Brave New World somewhere in the rubble.
The only appropriate synonym for Bannonism (which Mr. Blow amply demonstrates is the beating heart of Trumpism) is "NIHILISM". That's where Trump and the mutant GOP is rapidly taking our nation.
And stop them we must.
1
The result of this American first movement will be to help China keep moving forward, getting more college graduates and market share around the world, including solar panels.
The end of the British empire didn't happen overnight and that is what will happen to us if we don't turn this around.
And if the alt-right wants an example, look at Germany after Hitler. They learned their lesson.
Then they made a government that works to give their people a good education and health care.
Germany has faced the same globalization that we have. They are known for manufacturing. They retrain their workers for high-tech manufacturing. They don't have the poverty, crime, incarceration rates, and Opioid crisis we have.
They are even beginning to do high-tech manufacturing training in South Carolina since our government doesn't.
On the other hand, a year of incarceration costs on average $30,000. Much higher in some places. That's the price of a year at college.
But Republicans would rather pay for prison that pay for preschool.
2
The Bill Bright, Loren Cunningham Seven Mountain Domionist societal transformation is a key tenet not reported frequently? Why?
Bannon, Pence, DeVos, Conway and golden boy Ted Cruz are Conductors on this train. A chillingly dystopian view of the tracks ahead with these disciples charting the course.
Color me suspicious.........I would not be surprised were Steve Bannon, in the not too distant future, to end up as a new American Dictator after eliminating all possible challengers and leaving the US. as a smoldering wreckage. These are dangerous times, friends, and best we pay attention to who is doing what to whom........the victims could be you or me or us......
1
I am waiting for someone knowledgeable to explore the connections, any and all,, the alt right, of the NRA, Breitbart, and contributors lining the pockets of all the Republican congressmen, even the likes of John McCain and Susan Collins, who supported the the event increase-the-deficit budget. Follow the money; see who threatened to withhold campaign financing if tax cuts didn't tilt their way.
Charales Blow's comment that alt-right is just the new name for nazis and racists is not an overreaction.
1
"Trump may one day have to abandon the post he now inhabits, but he plans to reduce the village to ashes before he exits."
I believe this sentence accurately expresses the current state of Trump's mind. The entire village (not just the idiots) is in peril.
The president has a heart?
Bannon aspires to be "the platform for the alt-right.” .... a new name for Nazis and racists. David Duke is happy. Richard Spencer is pleased with Bannon's leadership. Trump is pleased when "good people" march under a Nazi flag, but he sneers the word "Antifa" like a curse word.
Antifa warriors, few as they are, need a style change. Anything that doesn't look like ISIS. Perhaps an all-white John Lennon look, the better to show their blood on TV. Antifa should stand strong for non-violence, not carry weapons and only fight back if they are attacked. Antifa should not hesitate to praise this country's greatest military legacy - the defeat of Nazi rule in WW II. Anyone who marches under a Nazi flag spits on that legacy. If Nazi loving appeasers had marched during WW II, it would not have gone well for them.
President Roosevelt rallied America to the fight against Nazis, fascists and brutal authoritarians. A lot of good old southern boys were in that fight. That's what good leadership looks like. Trump's retweeting of formerly obscure nazis rallies his supporters to their side. "If Trump likes them, so do I."
Two thoughts about this analysis. One is that nomenclature matters. Decent people must never use the term alt-right. They are Nazis. Do not allow the right to dilute this as they have successfully done with so many other self defined benign sounding terms. They are Nazis. There were no fine Nazis. Second - while Bannon may have found a demented empty vessel into which he could whisper is perverse nothings, Trump was a racist and a mysoginist long before Bannon. One needn't look further than the Central Park 5. Trump continues to insist they are guilty despite the FACT that they are innocment. And of course his brother lie. He and Bannon are a match made somewhere very south of heaven.
2
Trump, Bannon, Breitbart, white supremacists are all linked in a fascist conspiracy to destroy democracy in America. Trump should go and Breitbart should be shuttered since Breitbart is not a "news" organization as much as they are a propaganda machine for American fascists. Too many white Americans are tuning into these alt-right "news" venues and receiving, not only "fake news" but these venues a re dealing in lies and distortions that that should not be protected under "free speech" rules. Free speech should include lies, slandering, false information and character assassination. These are tools of fascist and autocratic states not democracies.
It's said that by age 50 you have the face your deserve. Well done, Steve Bannon.
1
For anyone who may have lingering doubts as to whether or not Breitbart is a website that caters to skinheads and racists, I encourage you to go there and peruse the comments left by visitors. There you will find the most vicious, racist comments imaginable. There's no other way to describe Breitbart readers other than as a hate-filled bunch of misinformed malcontents who just so happen to support the corporatist/Wall Street agenda. A real bunch of crumbs.
1
The problem with personality cults is that they tend to morph or disappear once the "leaders" shuffle off the mortal coil. Trump, in his mid seventies, evidently has poor dietary habits, poor sleep patterns, little exercise and is obese. Bannon, on a good day looks like someone lined up outside the mission clutching a paper bag in a shaky hand. His destiny seems be following the path charted by Breitbart himself.
To this laypersons eye, both appear to be reaching the limits of their shelf life. The trick will be to contain their damage as much as possible before nature runs its' course. It is not helpful that a group of self-interested hucksters called the GOP enables this cabal to succeed in foisting their nihilistic vision on what was once the greatest democracy in the world.
How mighty are the fallen.
1
I suspect in an Oval Office closet hangs 45's white hoodie and brown shirt. The hidden tax forms are hidden there too.
All great except of course, CB was entirely complicit with TRUMP coming into White House. Blow supported Clinton early and unconditionally and when the left was divided and lost, he dug his heels even deeper. And. Is he is complaining about all the folks in the White House? Why? You asked for this... there was no democracy in the democratic primaries and now you want democracy?
Bannon is Trumps seeing eye dog.
Trump has become a danger to America and must be removed from office as soon as legally possible.
2
Bannon sees himself as the President's wingman? More like wing nut, from the sound of it. But then too much Scotch and
a reading list full of obscure, fringe social-political mumbo-jumbo will do that to a man, won't it? Time to put both of these mis-guided but still dangerous genies back in their respective bottles.
Charles M, Mike Roddy is more effective.
In a room with someone like Charles Grassley Steve Bannon looks like he's on weekend release from the county lockup. He's pathetic. You dignify. Right at the moment Billy Bush is way bigger, than Trump too. Watch out Bill.
The Republicans should be charged with aiding and abetting.
It's quite extraordinary the band of anti-social psychopathic misfits that Trump - being one himself - has manged to assemble at the White House.
I agree with Charles Blow that they are leading us to ruin.
2
Which will be gone first, Trump or Bannon's liver?
2
"Bannon is the author of Trump's ideology" Really? Can a Stream of No Conscience-in-Chief have an ideology?
Thank you for the illuminating piece. If the ghost of Steve Bannon swirls through the White House, it is almost certain that the true spirit of Goethe's "Faust" is alien to both Bannon and Trump.
For Bannon, I would quote the following line from 'Faust':
"I am the spirit of perpetual negation"––Mephistopheles, line 1338.
For Trump, these lines foretell the future--
"Mortal! the loftiest attributes of men,
Reason and Knowledge, only thus contemn,
Still let the Prince of lies, without control,
With shows, and mocking charms delude thy soul
I have thee unconditionally then!
Fate hath endow'd him with an ardent mind,
Which unrestrain'd still presses on for ever,
And whose precipitate endeavour
Earth's joys o'erleaping, leaveth them behind.
Him will I drag through life's wild waste,
Through scenes of vapid dulness, where at last
Bewilder'd, he shall falter, and stick fast;
And, still to mock his greedy haste,
Viands and drink shall float his craving lips beyond--
Vainly he'll seek refreshment, anguish-tost,
And were he not the devil's by his bond,
Yet must his soul infallibly be lost!
—Mephistopheles
Let sycophant Republicans also take note!
AG
Calgary, Canada
1
But before Bannon there was Fred. Fred Trump, that is. Donald's daddy. Who, according to a review of the KKK in the New York Review of Books, was unrobbed and arrested during a demonstration in New York City in the late 20s or early 30s when the Klan was at its zenith in popularity. If true, Donald was custom fitted for bigotry long before Steve Bannon.
1
What Bannon preached to CPAC is frightening. And, I fear, quite possible. America should be afraid, very afraid. And Bannon's attachments to Koch and Mercer enhance the dangerousness, and make it very real and immediate. I''m glad I am old. Better wake up, America............
1
A little too obsessed with race. A little too obsessed with Steve Bannon (who is no longer in the White House). It's a new game, Charles, and it's called "Mr. Mueller Goes To Washington". Stop whipping yourself into a race-baited frenzy - the show will be over soon, and the Fifth Act will prove to be very interesting, methinks.
2
There is another ghost in the mix, one that is actually dead: Roy Cohn ( https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/eavesdropping-on-roy-cohn-and-d... AND https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/donald-trump-roy-cohn-relationship ). Cohn was an aide to Senator Joseph McCarthy. From the opening of latter essay:
"In 1973, a brash young would-be developer from Queens met one of New York’s premier power brokers: Roy Cohn, whose name is still synonymous with the rise of McCarthyism and its dark political arts. With the ruthless attorney as a guide, Trump propelled himself into the city’s power circles and learned many of the tactics that would inexplicably lead him to the White House years later. ..."
The irony is that Lenin did not destroy the "administrative state." He created an even bigger one (Soviet central planning).
And Nazi Germany, up until driving the country over a cliff with WWII, actually ran a rather efficient "administrative state."
Trump/Bannon, in contrast, represent just the populist subterfuge masking plutocratic laissez faire pillage.
What they do have in common with Lenin, however, is that they came to power with the help of a hostile foreign power (in Lenin's case, the Imperial German high command).
Again, thank you, Mr. Blow. I hope that we can end the electoral college, gerrymandering, and Russian interference in our election process that put this idiot and pathological liar in the White House. The misogyny and racism will take longer to eradicate; it is so ingrained in our so-called democracy.
As a lifetime educator, I still cannot believe that seemingly intelligent and supposedly educated people voted for him. What were they thinking? Just responding to the dog whistles of racism and sexism? Hoping that he wasn't as bad as he seemed? Well, that didn't work out. He is worse.
"Alt-right is just a new name, for Nazis and racists"
Racists perhaps. Nazis, they are not the real thing and in any case it would be better to use "Neo-Nazis". There are still a few survivors (!) alive with numbers on their arms put there by the real Nazis.
1
Of course you're right, Mr. Blow. Anybody who thought Steve Bannon's exile from the White House meant that he was out of the picture for good, underestimated just how deep his roots there really are.
But as a great fan of Charles Dickens, I refuse to associate Bannon with him in any way, shape, or form.
I prefer to compare Bannon to Mephistopheles, as the demonic aspect of his character is not to mistaken for anything other than what it is.
He is the one in control, and the one who is shaping the political dialogue of this country.
It is by his hand that this government is being desecrated, only to be replaced with right-wing, racist neo-Nazi minions.
The signs are all there: the Ku Klux Klan endorsement of candidate Trump, Richard Spencer's daylight rally next to the White House just days after the inauguration, the uptick in reported racist hate crimes -- and lest we forget, the torchlight parade in Charlottesville, that resulted in the death of an anti-Nazi demonstrator.
Hitler would've been proud that Donald Trump called them "fine people".
That is what we're living with here in America today.
And that's not even counting the all-out assault on the American public by way of a Republican Congress that is dedicated to stripping us of everything we've got, while sparing the wealthy upper-classes.
It makes no difference if Bannon is Trump's "wingman", those wings need to be clipped, and they both need to be brought down before they end up doing that to our nation.
"Alt-right is just a new name for Nazis and racists."
It's exactly this unnuanced, dismissive, reductionist thinking coupled with a lack of repudiation of the left's own not unsubstantial wacko wing which cost the democrats the 2016 election. Like it or not, disaffected white men form a very substantial voting block. To dismiss their justified-or-not-but-its-real-to-them angst as simple "racism" (whatever that means - the term seems to be inconsistently applied) not just would be, but has been - has OBVIOUSLY been in the recent past given the election of 2016 - very dangerous indeed.
Blow's string of pretty decent editorials clearly has ended at this throwaway effort which focuses on the optics of tiki torches and breathless insinuations that Trump is greasing the skids towards "more fascism."
“Darkness is good,” Bannon told Vanity Fair in Novemeber (2016). “Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power.”
I have saved this little ditty to remind myself who Bannon is. Nobody says something like this unless they believe it. He is the Deep State. It saddens me that there are too many people in the U.S. who welcome this — are begging for authoritarianism and who welcome fascism. They are becoming bolder. The “it can’t happen here” set had better wake up fast.
It's bad enough we have a "fake" president to deal with but we have a Republican congress that is beyond the pale. The spoutings of Grassley and Oren Hatch reveal the jabbering of mean, ignorant men who demean the poor and unfortunate in life with no understanding or compassion. They are disgusting and it's time for them to go. As to this Bannon creature whose pimply face is a
horror to see - it seems to express the ugliness that lies in his riddled soul. How much more of this governing can the American people put up with? These Republican die-hards in congress should take their tax cut nightmare and stuff it! It's time for them all to go and take Trump with them.
Planning an escape route would be a very good strategy Mr. Blow.
1
Yeah, the “undergraound railroad” to Canada!!! Been there.
We must assume Robert Mueller is going to someday answer the question:
What does Bannon know about Russia and when did he know it?
1
Bad week for Blow and his ilk. Trump's agenda is marching on. Supreme Court will hear gay wedding cake case on Tuesday. Expect freedom of religion for bakers to trump radical political correctness. Tax cuts for all and Obamacare next. Path to 2020 is clear now.
Yes, Faust is flitting all about Trump's hollow skull.
Trump, and his ilk, are easy fodder for Faust. That twit in Missouri is a lackey for Faust, as he is for Trump. My, oh my . . . a heck of a "reckoning" awaits America for all those who did nothing while pure evil danced around them.
Silence has its price.
2
Charles the single most important element in your column is that you call the Breitbart-Spencer-Bannon followers for what they are, Nazis or neo Nazis, as they are called here in Sweden.
Spencer has allied himself with Swedish Nazis to create the AltRight Corporation that links Spencer with Arktos Media, a Swedish publishing company with the goal of pouring out Nazi literature world wide (from Buzz feed). Sweden has the euphemistically named Sweden Democrat Party but we understand all too well that this party has deep roots in a Swedish Nazi-faction past.
Charles, show your colleagues the way, Nazis is the name to be used for those who support Trump's plota against America, euphemisms just won't do any longer.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
1
Will no one in Congress have the courage to acknowledge all of this as the reality of the Trump-stain in the WH? All that Bannon has done would be accurately defined as treasonous in a sane world.
This is where we are now: even members of Parliament in the UK have denounced the president as "stupid, racist and even fascist." Dickensian describes Bannon and Dickensian describes the Trump Republican tax-cut-for-the-rich bill.
Some weeks ago we read in detail the leaked emails between Breitbart, the neo-Nazis and the White House. They were in daily communication. They read one another's drafts. They strategized. Things could not have been more deliberate. They are all one and the same miserable racist thing.
How does this all fit together? They all want to reduce the village to ashes: Trump, Bannon, and even the Congressional Republicans. We are looking at even greater inequality, with all of the spoils going to the 1%. Life will be harder and meaner for everybody else. The strong will do as they will while the weak just survive. The white nationalists and their Congressional Republican enablers will burn everything to ashes, if they hold on to power. If they cannot, they will destroy all in their passing.
Bannon is evil, and looks like evil. And I would say Trump is his wingman.
Most frightening of all is the white nationalist movement that propels Vladmir Putin who is Trump and Bannon's mentor and idol. All three believe in neofascism, condemning a free press, ridiculing the rule of law and harassment of minorities. Now we have in today's NY Times a more frightening article based on e-mails that the NRA has some involvement in Trump's love affair with Putin. The NRA should be declared a terrorist organization dedicated to arming white supremacists. If Trump follows patterns of fellow neofascists and strongmen like Putin, Trump will manipulate a the system to gain more power. Not hard to do when you have the GOP and NRA aiding and abetting his psychotic and ego maniacal rise to power.
American Voter, the next act is up to you. Democracies don't get too many chances to defeat fascism at the ballot and when democracies don't defeat them at the ballot it takes bullets.
Rise up and get to the polls and send the American fascist party back to oblivion or your children will not live in freedom or a middle class society. They probably won't have a job that doesn't involve the military industrial complex by then.
Get Out And Vote.
I'd just like to note that as far as I've seen so far, and further expect, Charles Blow also speaks for me. Certainly in issues relating to Liar-in-Chief Donald, and likely most others. Go Charles!
Charles M. Blow has slipped past any rational thought when it comes to Donald Trump.
A bigot does not tolerate opposing views and when i look, i see bigots, bigots, everywhere.
1
Dear Mr. Blow,
Everything you wrote is true & will come to pass, the problem is , Trump has a firm hold on his base, and nothing you wrote will change that.It is only when disaster befalls the Trump administration that Trump will lose his base, until then he merrily rolls along.His base is a combination of bigots, religious groups, & devious fat cats that live for the moment, in summary, Hillary said it best, the deplorable.I believe Trump didn’t need Bannon to realize he was not going to appeal to the educated elite, & realized that his base had to be the out of work minors, & factory workers, the angry evangelicals,& bigots..Bannon just helped in his making contact with these voting blocks..
2
The alt-right is nativist anarchism, more than racists and neo-nazis. It is just that anarchy speaks to the nut jobs and the racists and the neo-nazis.
Steve Bannon may speak to the President every few days and he may not. It doesn't matter which as long as people believe it. Truth dies first in anarchy.
And the votes for anarchy are strong. Congress is busy setting the stage to make sure that those of us who survive without medical benefits to old age are denied a shot at surviving much longer. They are already cutting medical programs; can social security be far behind?
Trump is dissolving actual government: the State Department is an example. For the small government crowd, those employees are useless and did nothing. But that crowd also believed Donald Rumsfeld when he cut the number of support troops and privatized military function. That efficiency got us right in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan, no? Mission accomplished. Expect the State Department, the EPA, the USDA, the Department of Education, the Interior all to be similar success stories. And expect that the clean up in a few years will involve a gigantic tax increase, or cuts to your or your mother's survival income.
That will be Bannon's legacy. He will be the voice that led to the destruction of the status quo. But he won't ever own up to the reality that change does not have to be for the better. It can go terribly wrong.
1
Putin really got his money's worth on Trump and Bannon. This is way cheaper than war and much more effective.
2
Mr. Blow, I agree with you on nearly everything. (I am, after all, more or less sane.)
One thing I would like to see adopted though, is a less equivocal position on this madman in the Oval Office. I use the term madman, not as an epithet, but in its technical sense. He's clearly no longer sane.
Insane people are incapable of having anything we can call an ideology. A man who denies an event for which he has already appologized (the access video) does not need to be diagnosed further. Note also that he made this denial for no reason; this was old news.
We need to focus on the element of insanity, because everything else suits his playbook. He loves adversity; he loves insults flying around like moths; that's his game.
He's a pathetic, deluded, loser. Let's focus on that. Bannon's star will fall with his.
1
Is Steve Bannon the definition of anarchist ? Or is he opposed to democracy or human rights?
I am a faithful reader of Mr. Blow's column, finding it a vital source of sanity and an impassioned defense of ethics and equity in our democracy. I must take issue with two statements in today's piece, however. Mr. Blow describes Steve Bannon as the "guide of the Donald Trump administration and the soul at the core of its beliefs," later noting that "Bannon still has the president's heart, as well as his ear."
Alas, we are in Oz, clearly dealing with people who lack souls and hearts.
2
Steve Bannon is a washed up has been - a blip on the American radar.
His ideas are reactionary, his vision for the US one of the last century - or later - his biases open and unwelcome in the current US - his writing abysmal - and his thought process so poisoned by his biases that he cannot think cogently - or accept truths - and argue from them.
This article, and the other gratuitous media coverage of his pitiful calls to a base that is already won are giving him way too much credit.
He couldn't make it in Hollywood, or in business, or in government - now he pretends to be a guru of some sorts - with failed policies and less than stellar performance in any of his iterations.
I'm not buying it - he's preaching to the choir - not changing any minds - or bringing any new life to the conservative cause - not bringing anyone new into the fold.
He does not deserve your attention, nor the attention of the American people.
Trump probably thought it was best to let Bannon back to Breitbart where he could shape public opinion and still advise Trump from the shadows. Bannon claims to know history, therefore it is even scarier that he believes in fascism, given where that belief led the world in the past.
Trump is rudderless without Bannon. Trump isn't capable of strategy but Bannon is. As Bannon has said, Trump is his imperfect tool. Bannon wants destruction and manipulates Trump to do it.
Don't just attack the Bannon Frankenstein monster. Trump and his tribe are results of long Gop trends as they've veered right, purged moderates, and served their corporate masters, with no duty to voters or society.
Singling out Bannon gives this evil character a starring role in this horror movie. But the casting should include all the excuse makers and rationalizers in our politics.
As Norm Ornstein’s op ed says, "Gop leaders have been blunt about their motivation: to deliver on their promises to wealthy donors." What has set the stage to enable these ugly characters to do such damage to our democracy? Seems our Constitution and Court can’t protect us.
NYT columnists, full or moral outrage, ignore the way we pay for elections as a First Cause of our destruction. Both parties must compete hard for big money from corporate megadonors. This blocks any fight for We the People, who aren’t represented but must vote for the nominees that big money allows. So we get an atrocious Gop and quite mediocre Dems. Both pay back their big donor’s investment.
Is campaign finance such a boring topic for NYT columnists, compared to the ‘evil doers’ like Bannon, and the rest who furnish plenty of drama for columns?
LIke dictators, the rw enflames hostility between groups trying to cope with crumbs from our Darwinian economic system. They have no scruples and will go to further extremes. Let's start street protests to change how we pay for our elections and wake the media up. .
1
I think a Civil War is coming. There are too many factions left unrepresented and disenfranchised by Bannon and his Howdy Doody like marionette Trump. With the tax cut stitched up, but it's overall negative impact unknown the crowds will display their contempt and anger as they see the damage effect them personally. This stuff takes time. In the meantime the contempt will grow. The internet will speed the arrival of bad news all around, people will feel it in their pocket books and see a growing national discord with more domestic disaffected allies coalescing into a formative opposing force...restoring Democracy, redistributing wealth by widening and fixing the safety net, and repairing international relations. In the short run Bannon is a nasty piece of work and trouble. In the long run he is a burned out overweight drunk with a weight problem who belongs in a basement somewhere on his laptop babbling in a chatroom...
1
Bannon stands out as particularly odious, with his villainous appearance and history at Breitbart. But Trump is no better.
It was no coincidence that Trump ever gave Bannon, a white nationalist, manipulator and spreader of fake news, so much clout. Trump and Bannon are two peas in a pod.
So that is not Bannon's apparition we see; that is his spirit incarnate, Donald Trump.
1
Not sure that focusing on Bannon is the best strategy.
There is real damage is being done in congress, where Republicans are trying to get a horrible bill out of conference, and get final votes.
Long after Bannon and Trump are gone, establishment Republicans will still be making economic life ever more miserable for the 99% - with token resistance from establishment Democrats, who didn't raise wages and balance trade when they had 60 votes in the senate.
Fighting Bannon and Trump - by attacking and demonizing *all* of their supporters as racists, is not the way to beat them. There were in fact *lots* of Obama voters who switched to Trump. This may be hard for liberals to believe, in their echo chamber - projecting their own partisan hatred for anyone who doesn't agree with them on every. single. wedge issue. - onto the swing voters they need to *win*.
Demonizing all Trump voters may feel good, but it just increases polarization among voters, when we need to unify voters to change our *economic* policies. If Democrats (or a third party - as Democrats show little signs of reverting to their New Deal past) don't focus on the 80% of voters support Social Security, the 70% who support a higher minimum wage, and the majority who want to put an end to *decades* of huge trade deficits - they will continue their long term decline. If Democrats can't unite and win on economic issues, they will continue to lose legislatively and judicially on *all* issues.
4
One of these days a book will be written about the words that will compare the words Trump used to describe others and what he actually end up doing or being himself.
Every invective that Trump has uttered about others, it is he to whom he was speaking about.
As for Bannon and his alt-right friends.
How can these people call themselves leaders/better, superior to anything when they feel they have been so emasculated as a race.
Yes, Mr. Bannon and your alt- right friends, just like Jesse Owens proved that on a fair playing field, there is nothing called superior, just more determined.
Mr Blow's comment "Trump may one day have to abandon the post he inhabits, but he plans to reduce the village to ashes before he exits" is spot on. Trump either knows that Mueller has something on him that will bring him down, or suspects as much. He obviously won't go down without a huge fight, and once he realises that articles of impeachment are on the cards, or he is otherwise subjected to overwhelming pressure to resign, he will immediately start firing up his base to rebel, specifically to start a civil war and cause as much mayhem as possible, including violence. After all, if he is forced out he will be considered the biggest loser of the century and the worst president of all time, which he can't live with. Along the way, and just as a form of distraction, he may even consider starting a war (North Korea? Iran?) in the belief that such a distraction would delay, or even prevent, his demise. Is it so far-fetched? Considering that he has no morals, no conscience, no ethics, no integrity, it seems to me to be utterly plausible.
1
Reading up on the so-called Economic Nationalism fantasy; it simply makes no sense: Remove the immigrants and minorities allegedly taking white's jobs; build that wall to insulate the worthy and keep out the miscreants; then what?
America's corporations will still export its jobs and factories to cheaper locations; America's products will still be exported and foreign goods imported by American distributors. The Agriculture Industry will implode and America's white so-called "forgotten ones" will still be forgotten. Steve Bannon is the true pied-piper ready to line his own pockets with gold while tossing fake gold coins like so many trinkets from a Mardi Gras Float.
1
For the life of me I cannot figure out Bannon's ideology--assuming he has one. I hear what he says, read what he supposedly thinks, but it all seems like so many words strung together at random.
He calls himself a Leninist, but Lenin sought to tear down the existing order for the purpose of establishing a dictatorship by and for the working class to the exclusion of all others--including folks like Bannon himself and the billionaire Mercers who underwrite him. To hear him talk, it sounds more like he just bought into tear-it-all-down part without much thought into what might come next.
Or is it that Bannon's vision for America's post-destruction phoenix is simply so dark he can only hint at it? He appears to be joined at the hip with the Roy Moores and Mike Pences of our world--white male Christian theocrats who seek to transform our government into a white male Christian theocracy to bring women, homosexuals, people of color, non-Christian-believers into line. Moore wrote a textbook claiming women are unfit for public office and should at stay home in their God-ordained role. He advocates prison--nay, execution--for homosexuals. And don't get me going on his white supremacy or his views on Muslims and Jews. Pence may be savvy enough not to say so publicly, but what he does say smacks of the same.
Is that the vision for America Bannon is stoking via Trump? If so, the rest of us need to be doing a whole lot more than just wringing our hands.
1
Mr. Blow:
Donald Trump is non-ideological: He does whatever his constituents want him to do including going against Republican orthodoxy if necessary. They revel in seeing his Tweets make his opposition (e.g. you) ridiculously apoplectic. That is a major factor in his continued popularity among his base. If you haven't figured that out by now, then you have no business writing a newspaper column.
1
"Something Wicked this Way Comes" (From Macbeth)
Ghost? Poltergeist is closer to it.
Or ghoul ... .
Steve Bannon may or may not be the inspiration for Donald Trump, and the doubt arises because we know that Trump harbored racist, anti-Muslim and misogynistic impulses before he ever met Bannon.
It is also seems too generous to speak of ideology and Donald Trump in the same breath, since Trump is more of a one-dimensional narcissist than a deep thinker.
There is no question, however, that Steve Bannon provides President Trump with the guideposts for the positions and talking points necessary to endear him to the white supremacists who form Trump’s core group of racist supporters.
Bannon’s biggest service is providing Donald Trump with a steady stream of propaganda or fake news to feed the neo-Nazi hatred and culture of violence.
Bannon likes to characterize himself privately as the ‘wingman’ for Trump. It would be interesting to learn if Joseph Goebbels used the same term to describe the role he played for his boss.
But the good news is that when North Korea lobs an ICBM at us, destroying one U.S. city or another and poisoning the atmosphere for all of us, we'll forget about the ruin to which Trump's white nationalist policies have led us.
Charles,
All that you say is preaching to the choir and non of us in the choir can vote more than once. I recommend you take your rhetoric and redirect it and change its format to appeal to the audience made up of the millions of citizens who do not care enough to vote or claim they are disenchanted by the voting system.
Nazis and the alt right have always existed and they make their voices count by voting. Things will not change until the millions I mentioned are lead and encouraged to vote for a better choice than Trump. More than any other reason, Hillary lost because she could not count on the millions of voters much of her platform was begging to serve. Go figure.
Just to look at the published photo in Mr. Blow's piece is to understand the soul of Steve Bannon. A picture speaks a thousand words: shifty, suspicious eyes, simultaneously paranoid yet conniving; a bloated face, gluttonous for power along with personal appetites; a mouth awaiting venomous words, manifesting a warped cerebrum. Yet he lives on invading Trump's supporters' lives with lies and hate. Indeed, a true soul mate of the dangerous man taking up valuable space in the Oval Office.
1
I watched the first episode of a BBC series, The Dark Charisma of Adolph Hitler, this weekend. The similarities to DJT's political rise were chilling. From isolationism and racism to media manipulation, it all sounds far too familiar. I'm not sure Bannon provided the playbook, however. Didn't he have a volume of Hitler's speeches long before Bannon befriended him?
For an accurate appraisal of the dissolute condition of Steve Bannon's soul, one need look no further than the dissolute condition of his face.
Lately, I've been thinking of 45's mentor in his early career: Roy Cohn. It was Cohn who introduced 45 to Rupert Murdoch, who represented him against violations of the Fair Housing Act. Bannon is just the latest to step in and provide 45 background and a platform as an excuse for racism.
Plenty of blame to go around. I would like to nominate the tenured faculty at most tier one universities and colleges for a share of the blame. They scream about the need to respect faculty governance in their institutions. Yet these tenured professors aren't so willing to fight to defend democracy and human rights in our society. Case in point: the University of Virginia faculty Senate is mired in bureaucracy and spends most of its time fighting in a zero sum game over the limited amount of silver spoons made available to them by the administration. During the Nazi marches this summer the many of the faculty and the UVA administration conspired to retreat from the violent actions of the alt-right. Few UVA professors are actually leading the fight for justice in Charlottesville, Richmond, or DC. They apparently prefer to experience their protests through google and facebook and keep their work within the safe confines of the institution. Sure there are UVA professors that have become adept at writing about counterprotests that they themselves did not join. I'm waiting for the faculty at UVA to take their governance responsibilities seriously enough to actually fight for something beyond the deck chairs and lifeboats of the Titanic.
1
Ruin is exactly where the US is headed under the guise of MAGA. There is an evil quality to everything Trump says and does. The Republicans joyfully passed a tax bill that will destroy our economy and struggling working families down the road and the only people not affected by it are the extreme wealthy who actually benefit from it.
While Trump's supporters are responsible for his election at some point they'll realize he never cared a whit about them, and when they wake up from the dream they're living in and realize in reality it's a nightmare they'll feel Trump's sting but it will be too late by then,
The US is on a steep decline on the world stage, one in which the Chinese and Russians are only too glad to step in and take charge.
Trump is not just a fool, he's a traitor who should be tried, found guilty, and spend the rest of his days eating Big Macs in prison fantasizing about what a great man he is.
Evil indeed.
5
" Steep decline ..." Began under which administration?
By stating that there are pillars of a philosophy, you are supporting the con, Charles. There is nothing in such philosophy that supports a tax cut for the rich. It is just one more leg of the Republican strategy: Evangelical? I give you anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage; racist?, I give you anti-immigration and welfare cutting for the "lazy" ones; laid off by a closing big company, I give you economic nationalism.
Recent Republicans have always been about Hood Robin, taking from the poor to give to the rich.
1
Mr. Blow, I respect your opinions and enjoy your column. Today, however, I need to push back on something in this column. You've implied that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is somehow associated with the foundations of contemporary alt-right nazism because a term Goethe used is also used by the alt-right - "elective affinities". On this argument you haven't done your homework. Goethe was a Weimar Classicist - a German literary and cultural movement, whose practitioners established a new humanism, from the synthesis of ideas from Romanticism, Classicism, and the Age of Enlightenment. Goethe would probably like your political perspectives. It's sad that his wisdom and idealism is being misrepresented here.
3
The vast right wing conspiracy continues to invade. Bannon ad nauseam. By God, if only everyone had raised pitch forks back when HRC had the guts to speak the truth! Now what? Who’s going to raise pitch forks now to save us? Will the folk of inner America know how to resist this take over or has the vast right conspiracy already methodically dumbed them down too far?
2
Did HRC have the guts to speak the truth? Like EVERY politician, she also erred on the side of politically expedient. Now she is more interested in public gloating and catharsis, and while she is absolutely entitled to privately, it takes away from the centrist pragmatism (that can be called her strength) that the country needs to find again to bridge the widening chasm and misinformation. Yes, it is true that she has been caricatured since the early 90s and hobbled by both the conservative establishment and sexist press, let’s find a way to stop that from happening to all women and politicians with some principles.
"Elective affinities" was a chemical term first, what we now call valence, later used by Heine to describe the special relationship between Germans and Jews, which turned out to be much more special than he could have imagined. I would guess that Richard Spencer has read something of German history and philosophy.
Bannon is the ring master of the awful mess that we are witnessing in our country....the attempted destruction of “ the administrative state.” Trump is a strutting, unhinged , clown, the entertainment. He fills our tv screens with hateful , bigoted and dangerous distractions. But we need to be alert. These guys are the front men. Well funded, by alt right conservatives, they are aided by a cabinet full of billionaire swamp creatures whose sole responsibilities are to destroy our institutions , deliver even more power and money to the wealthiest Americans... the 1%, while pulling apart the framework that supports the values ( possibly the future) of our democracy. It’s that diabolical. Education, consumer protection, Medicare, social security, free speech, civil and human rights, the environment, health care, equality, justice... all the things that actually do make America great. Constant accusations alleging “fake news” and the stirring of fear of all “others,” are efforts to stoke fear and insecurity and the desire among some for an autocrat, because “only he can fix it.” so called president., his posse, and the GOP led Congress have been bought and paid for.
112
First, the first POTUS who arguably put SS in danger was LBJ, a Democrat, who merged the SS Trust Fund into the General Fund, because he needed the SS money to pay for the Vietnam War. This was a dangerous precedent that allowed SS funds to be "borrowed" by other branches of government and never repaid. This was NOT Steve Bannon's fault. Secondly, the first SS COLA was implemented during the Gerald Ford Administration, and Ford was not a Democrat. The SS COLA was essentially killed during the Obama Administration, and no Democrat (other than Warren and S. Brown) dared to defy Obama and defend SS beneficiaries from this stealth cut to SS benefits.
This article and letters such as yours help me to know that I'm not alone !!
Trump is a traitor - plain and simple - and his cabinet is made up of traitors.
The fox is in the hen house. Who knows what will be left of us when we finally
get rid of him. Thanks, Fredrica !
2
He's the Svengali who fills Trump's mind with a toxic ideology and Ayn Rand/libertarian nonsense. He's also like Rasputin, 'the mad monk of Russia' who held the Czar Nicholas and his family in thrall. Trump is drawn to Bannon like a moth to the flame. Its like an addiction--he has to get his daily 'fix' of Bannon's lies. It's a dangerous fixation this president has. Be warned. .
1
The stock market is up to record highs again today, but keep thinking the sky is falling.
2
What goes up must come down. :/
Charles - The most demoralizing aspect of the past year is that a large portion of the country, including Republicans in Congress, have removed their hoods and shown who they really are - racists with terminal moral apathy. Slavery is this country's original sin that will never be atoned for as long as shills like Trump promote racism and throngs of racist, homophobic, xenophobic voters cheer him on. American exceptionalism? That's always been a myth.
2
The alt-right says in public what the right says behind closed doors.
2
It is nice to see, Mr. Blow, that something other than being a victim of racism is living inside your head.
I'm not sure that the ghost of Steve Bannon is much of a step forward, but as long as you continue to personify the evils that you perceive, the more completely irrelevant you remain.
Perhaps it would be wise for you to consider those policies and programs that would be an improvement to our world, and to build the argument and allow you to obtain the votes necessary for you to prevail at the ballot box.
2
Bannon may no longer be in the White House, but Stephen Miller is. A snake if ever there was one. And every bit as ideological as Bannon.
1
I have a problem with the NYTimes continually giving these people credibility and legitimacy by interviewing them (Bannon, Hannity). That strategy helped elect the disaster in the White House now. Had the media not given him all the attention for every inane thing he said and did, taking his phone calls on television, falling all over anything he said and did during the whole primary campaign and falling for his celebrity and TV showman style as if that entertainment style should be taken seriously, maybe, just maybe we would be in a different place today. The more you give him attention, the more he craves attention. Had he been ignored and put on the back pages, if even there, we could be reading very different news and very different op ed columns. This spoiled child should have been treated as such, ignore him and move on. Now sadly, it's way too late.
1
Jared Kushner failed the great test of his life when he neglected to respond appropriately during the election campaign to his father-in-law’s close association with alt-right Breitbart and their resurrection of the America First ethos that called the loyalty of Jews in this country in the thirties into question.
He still possesses the opportunity to redeem himself by telling the American people just a fraction of what he knows about the Russians and Trump’s finances.
3
I wish Steve Bannon were a real ghost. Might scare some people away from him.
Sadly, what we have have today is an America enthralled and bowing down to two 'men' - Trump and Bannon.
Donald Trump - If he was not President, the entire country would see a reality TV star on a bad diet full of himself and pleased with his self-serving sleazy life.
Steve Bannon - A man who looks like his daily hangover is getting rougher and controls a website.
These two 'men' have been propelled into our entire national fabric with an outsized and immoral push of billionaire money with the intention of an money is power grab of all of our national institutions: government, military/industrial, banking, economic, trade, natural resources, social structure i.e. health, education, welfare.
America and all within, including the main stream media, are now seeking watching and nodding at these two men who a year ago would have been amusing at best and tolerated by few. Talk about changing times.
I don't know which came first - an America in decline ready for the takeover or the continued and growing influence of private big money - but we are here now and should be frightened and ashamed.
And oh so saddened.
It is time to hit the streets and the voting booths.
108
You're right on the money !
1
Let's see to it that the entire crew is newly departed.
When are any of these people going to actually tend to governing this great nation? Our serious problems get little attention. That is usually The Occupant saying he did something, and then picking a Twitter fight with the people who point out that this "something" isn't sufficient. The Trump administration is a sham and he's a con.
It is a difficult sell to say that Trump has an "ideology". Bannon may have an ideology but not Trump. Ideologies are deep. Even a 'Strategy' is a stretch by current Trump standards. What Trump has is a collection of disparate objectives--self aggrandizement, helping rich, white constituents and their hangers on, racism, promoting big business and stomping on environment, regulations, law or anything/anyone that gets in his way. These objectives are in turn animated by extreme narcisisim, ignorance and a need to obfuscate or justify his legion shortcomings and moral turpitude. So Trump strings together tactics including putting like people in positions of responsibility, maintaining a high tweet profile, being outrageous. He reacts to events.
Repetition of tactics substitutes for strategy and may seem like ideology. But Trump is far too shallow and ignorant to have ideologies. He is consistently outrageous and 'dumb' owing to these ugly tactics. Let's not endow him with animating ideology because that's a dead end --selfishness and ignorance are not ideology. They are selfishness and ignorance.
Mr. Trump will serve out his term in office, there is no political will to impeach him. The difference maker might be if Republicans lost the House or Senate, that seems less than likely.
Media attention and "Hillary-type" attention is so easy to distract because despite lip service, they want to focus on race and gender issues over class issues -- representing the changed meaning of "the left" since the late 1970's -- a shift that explains the history of falling working class income.
Bannon would NOT have tolerated the class impacts of this tax bill. Bannon was the voice (albeit race-baiting and otherwise very flawed) of the working class. The Paul Rands and mainstream oligarchs pushed Bannon out to clear the way for the tax bill. If Bannon still had Trumps ear, this tax bill would not have passed, and there might be some push toward a healthcare solution.
I don't like Bannon's ideology or his tactics, but he was a voice of opposition to oligarchs, and his economic populism, which Trump once shared, is why Trump is president.
We have all the lessons of history at our fingertips. Many Americans are familiar with what happened in Germany between the two world wars of the last century. But, too many Americans don't have the critical thinking skills to link what happened then to what is happening right now in front of us. Our own lack of education and thinking skills is dooming us to repeat a horrible, disastrous, deadly era in world history. Our bigotry, racism, and ignorance fuel this repetition. Bannon and Breitbart are the impetus behind the ignorant and racist among us.
1
Trump is a figurehead. He hasn’t a cogent plan if any kind. His joy in life is strut and bombast, and the actual course of the administration is dictated by Bannon and Mercer, while the GOP Congress responds to its own select group of billionaire weirdos.
The powers behind the throne need to be put in the spotlight. The fiction that Trump and the GOP Congress are originating forces pursuing their own plans has to be replaced by reality. Put the bonkers billionaire Oligarchs and Theocrats out front where we can see them clearly.
2
Well I think JOHN Kelly should punish the president by taking away his phone. That’s what I would do to my belligerent petulant teenager who refuses to abide the rules.
What a joke this whole presidency is. We have a man child pulling the strings with a bunch of Minions masking and making excuses. That is what a parent does as she tries to raise a responsible child. Too late for Mr Trump. Glad his supporters are enjoying themselves because the rest of us are totally gobsmacked by it all.
Great article Mr. Blow. You speak the truth as eloquently as anyone. What I want to know is: What is the true motivating factor- other than money, that all these ugly, nasty people have in common. I get the greediness for wealth, but weren't they (Trump, Kushner, Bannon, et. al.,) all wealthy anyhow? Is this just hubris by a few or is this something much bigger? Is this a conspiracy that encompasses powerful, worldwide factions not yet uncovered?
So many ask why the Republicans would pass such a horribly unpopular tax bill (apart from needing to appease their donors): it is because the GOP, from McConnell on down knows that their deluded base of voters will blame people of color, i.e. Mexicans, African-Americans, gays, the poor and sick, for the loss of their Social Security Disability checks, their food stamps, their downgraded pensions, their overall devalued standard of living. The GOP knows all they have to do is stoke the cultural wars/racial strive and their voters will be back on the horse shouting "Build the Wall!" and "Black Lives DON"T Matter!" Why not? Its never failed them before. They know they will not pay for the harm they are causing Americans.
1
As a lover of German literature and German Romanticism, I just got sick that these bottom-dwellers, these traffickers in rabble, used the term "elective affinities" to describe their understanding of how their movement congeals.
Maybe so. But there are higher elements, and Bannon and his ilk traffic in our worst tendencies.
1
This is the same Richard Spencer who Trump wants to lead his new 'intelligence' organization in Whitefish. The same Whitefish, Montana, that got the no-bid contract to 'fix' Puerto Rico. The same Richard Spencer who's Russian wife (spy?) looks uncannily exactly like velnitskya, the lawyer who was talking to ALL the trumps that fateful day about adoptions- er, I mean, SANCTIONS.
We need to scrape them out of the Very White House, NOW.
1
Thank you, Charles, for making sure we don't forget what is at the core of the lunatic-in-chief and his enablers.
I wish we all would spend more time talking about how congress enabled the dismantling of the Federal government we are now witnessing. Sure there is the horrible tax bill. Before that, though, Republicans fast-tracked Mike Flynn, Betsy De Voss, Steve Mnuchin, and many others (I can't even remember the guy's name who jetted all over the world in publically funded aircraft, and had to resign, let's face it all of the nominations have been terrible).
Under Obama Republicans demanded background checks and qualifications before even considering confirmation where it was required. Obama obliged. Once the racist-in-chief was elected with Russian help, same Republicans fast-tracked those confirmations. Not surprisingly, Trump's picks have been incompetent and embarrassing. Yet, there is so much rot and incompetence in this administration, and with congressional Republicans that we forget about these things. Every time the incompetence, dishonesty, or treason of Trump's appointments is exposed, please remind everyone the hand congressional Republicans had in all of this.
1
Always appreciate your analyses. Things are doing south fast: what can any of us do?
So if Bannon is the author of Trump's ideology, he must also be the author of the GOP's ideology. Trump embodies everything the GOP stands for. The GOP created him, enables him, protects him. Bannon doesn't strike me as the evangelical "Christian" sort, but imposing their form of "Christianity" on the nation is part of the GOP screed. Trump has the support and "blessings" of the evangelical faux "Christians," and he mouths their dogma, so there you go.
1
These are the worst people imaginable, and we gave them power to hurt as many Americans as possible.
Thanks Wisconsin, Pa., and Michigan. They couldn't have done it without YOU.
Yes it it is always worth remembering Breitbart's, Bannon's, and Trump's alt-right affinities. Trump doesn't even try to hide it with his retweeting of anti-Muslim hate content and his tacit support of white supremacists and neo-nazis in Charlottesville and elsewhere. It is no coincidence that these people have come out of the woodwork in droves since Trump's inauguration. I am heartened by the anti-Trump response in England to Trump's incendiary tweets. There must be a penalty to Trump's actions; if America can't do it, then we need Europe to help us. If anyone knows the danger of ignoring nazi sentiment, it is Europe.
2
The core threat of Trump directed at republicans is: If I go down, I'm taking all of you with me.
1
Bannon is in the White House ..you just don't see him. This was a flanking move by he and trump, but the goal remains the same. Don't be fooled.
1
I appreciate your thoughts. I have long been asking how Bannon has gotten ignored. It is hard for me to believe that anyone wants to completed destroy all our fed components--including national parks-- and loves benign called a white supremacist. To me it seems that most people fail to see his continued power. Thank you.
1
As vile and despicable as Trump and Bannon are, they could not pull this off without the complete complicity of the GOP.
Give them a big enough tax cut and they'll follow you anywhere, even off of a cliff.
Their north star is money, and they will throw anybody under the bus to get more of it and do it without any shame.
2
Don’t they say we get the face we deserve by 50?
1
Trump and Bannon betray the very essence of the Constitution of the United States. Jean is correct here Bannon is not good Catholic and his loyalties are to his Biblical dogma. Religion and ‘God are on the side of heaviest cannon’ Napoleon Trump is loyal to his wallet.
1
donnytraitor's disruption of our government is done at the behest of Vladimir. Make no mistake about it!
Bannon is still President with Trump as his puppet. He knows how to handle a narcissist for his own twisted and sick ends. Congress is so incredibly complicit in this destruction of the republic.
1
The media attention given to Richard Spencer and those like him has been a dream come true for these extremists who otherwise would be virtually inconsequential and unnoticed.
Blow's Opinion and the Times coverage of these extremists is a major part of the problem, not the solution.
I read something like Bannon was a genius. On the contrary, I think he is "small". The "three pillars of America first philosophy" should have absolutely nothing to do with race. Unless it was really "white America first". Seriously, Mr. Bannon, the reality is America is full of non-white people now. Even after deporting every undocumented immigrant, you still face the same reality. By many accounts, Hispanic Americans will become the majority in the future.
However, there is this possibility that Bannon is merely using white race to accomplish his goals. Even if I give him the benefit of doubt, he is still small in my eyes. Ecnomic nationalism won't work. Pay attention to the photos published by NYT when they show photos of small business. Most of the workers doing tedious and repetitive things are immigrants. So tell me why you rather want to import foreigners to make things in America. The social cost is much higher. If I want a white America, I will import goods but not people.
I want to disrupt the administrative state too. But unfortunately, it has become stronger. Administrative state is not just government workers. The military industrial complex, oil industrial complex, financial industrial complex are all part of it. The tax cuts will make the bonding stronger but not weaker.
Mr. Bannon, you are winning battles. Unfortunately, America is losing the war. Sad!
1
Bannon, a Catholic, is the enemy of compassion who attacks Pope Francis and supports the nemesis/enemy of Pope Francis, who is Cardinal Raymond Burke.
Yes, there are two types of Catholics, those who believe Pope Francis is too loving and compassionate, and those who feel Pope Francis is not tough enough on Muslims, because he speaks of "love" and "compassion" too much.
In other words, Bannon believes you gain less by being kind and gentle, loving and forgiving --- and you gain more by being tough and hateful.
Since you can't bomb your way to peace, it seems love and compassion would create less tendency to create angry youth willing to join ISIS.
1
"Even the phrase 'elective affinities' is likely taken from the title of an 1809 novel by famed German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, although its usage traces back earlier." Does "Even" here mean that, though Goethe was not a Nazi, his being German is still a worrisome sign? I hope not. But what else could it mean?
A bad dream.
A continuing nightmare.
An ongoing throbbing headache.
Cancer has been spreading unchecked for 10 months.
Why do 35 - 40 million of our population believe #45?
"...but his spirit lingers there ..."
Judging by Bannon's appearance, his spirit is not the only thing that's lingering.
1
Trump is a pox on the White House, America. Bannon, the flea carrying and spreading the plague.
Republicans in Congress bar the doors to antibiotics, doctors, exterminators. They are busy exploiting the plague that sickens America, undermining our values, imposing the will of the few upon the lives of the majority.
Calling out Trump or Bannon doesn't get to the root cause of our affliction. It is the Republican Party that has knowingly betrayed our nation, our people.
Brannon is comfortable with aiding and abetting the openly proudly racist members of the so-called alt-right of today therefore he is one of them.
I have zero doubt that Trump released Bannon from the confines of the White House to go forth and promote his agenda with no constraints. Of course he just didn't kick him out and never has contact with him. Bannon can say what he wants, when he wants. Trump is destroying from within, with Bannon destroying from the outside. Which one is the puppet?
95
Bannon is part of a movement to return the US to a 19th century Anglo Saxon paradise. Such a fantastic and unobtainable goal, similar to turning the clock back 200 years, is bound to fail. The chief agent of that dream's failure is not the mealy mouthed politicians who are afraid of their own shadow but demographics which is rapidly making Bannon and his band of destroyers irrelevant, as they become a minority racial group in America.
4
What Bannon did was use the social media as a platform for indoctrination. The Democrats were caught flat footed. Hillary Clinton's outlandish claims that the Russians were the reason for Trump's victory has thrown the Democrats and news media into a dead end story which lurches to its conclusion. The bad guys won. Barack Obama's great 2008 victory was followed by low energy poorly planned out Democratic campaign in 2016. Bannon realized the extent of bigotry and anger that was brewing among whites in the critical states that allowed Trump, despite losing the popular vote, to win the electoral college. The country has suffered the misfortune of a worst case scenario occurring with the grossly incompetent Trump being inflicted on the country.
3
In my view, a sense should be also on the maneuver-capabilities of the white supremacists, by mimicries, moqueries, inflammatories with an incredible speed, possibly often in disguise on social media or by propaganda like acts of their operatives. In my (limited) observation, many hard working people who voted for and may still be supporting Mr. Trump are not necessarily racists, but, they are prone to be influenced by misinformation or intended exaggeration when given or heard that their lives and neighborhood will be in peril due to immigrants, or some people of colors if nothing is done, in being provided with falsely plausible x, y, z as fake evidences. The writer may think that a naïveté resides in my part. But, if true, that naïveté may be a special one, having been beaten thoroughly.
1
‘Trump may one day have to abandon the post he inhabits, but he plans to reduce the village to ashes before he exits.’
Such very very scary words. What can we do? He also is set to decimate bears ear national monument and others today! What can we do?
A heavy sadness envelops our country.
11
What can we do?
Organize and work very very hard to get Democrats elected in 2018 and in2018.
In the meantime, write, call, and email your Congressmen. Speak out whenever you can.
1
This is a kleptocratic administration of the worst in our nation's history, and we have been through a Gilded Age or two before Trump careened into the White House driveway.
Interior Sec. Ryan ZInke wants to sell of our wildlands and National Parks to the highest bidders from the energy industries (in the tradition of Reagan's first Interior secretary, Anne Gorsuch, if that name sounds too familiar); EPA Sec. Scott Pruitt, is running the same game; Education Sec. Betsy DuuuuhhhhVos wants to privatize K-12 education to legitimize the old school "choice" voucher programs that have been defeated so often; Energy Sec. Rick Perry, remains in the shadows simply to endorse whatever Zinke and Pruitt plan to destroy; the other cabinet secretaries are completely off the radar for now.
Our democracy is under full assault by the likes of Bannon and Spencer. How they walk a fine line between the First Amendment and treason is beyond me. But as long as the Jim Crow South continues to fight the Civil War's faith in slavery and the lynching of those who resist, subhumans like Bannon and Spencer will thrive, coming to the surface of the primordial ooze of their own making to show the rest of the world just how much danger they represent.
Bannon is outspoken about his desire to deconstruct our democracy in the white nationalist model he envisions and that should tell the FBI he and his ilk are traitors to America and must be pulled down for it.
14
Wasn't Bannon the guy that was supposedly "speaking for the middle class?' Haven't heard a peep out of him regarding the tax cuts (that will make the corporations and the wealthy more wealthy and leave the proletariat in the dust) that the House and Senate are trying to push through.
3
Great point. Let's have an in-depth interview with this individual about the merits of the "tax bill" and how that jibes with his "policies." Put him on camera and let's see the squirming.
Steve Bannon was in favor of raising taxes on rich: https://theintercept.com/2017/07/26/steve-bannon-pushing-for-44-percent-.... The traditional GOP managed to win this round. Bannon has also come out AGAINST US participation in pointless ruinous wars.
Claims to hate crony capitalism but loves Putin, the biggest crony capitalist of all. Seems to be at home with all the crony capitalists around Trump. He's a phony.
1
I believe that Trump is incapable of long term strategic thinking and implementation of policy on his own because of mental disturbances that have been on view for some time now. I have read many opinions that describe Trump as a political genius and master strategist and at times it may seem so but I do not buy it. Outcomes that have been favorable to him were the result of the very flaws that make him unsuitable to be president and also , serendipitous events, a perfect storm of political and cultural circumstances. Who then is the grey eminence? Who has captured the mind of this troubled man, a man who more and more thrashes about as he becomes increasingly entangled in his own lies? There are many but Charles is correct when he points his finger at one in particular and those who fund him.
5
The votes of the Blue states are wasted by the unrepresentative Electoral College and Senate. Citizens United and the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine further drive a dagger into the body politic. Soon their will be no tools to implement needed reforms to move our nation forward along the lines of the original intent of the revolutionaries who created it. When that happens tools will be useless and weapons will be required to water the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants and patriots.
2
Before this is over, the president and his cronies in congress will have us all out on the streets again. We'll be grayer and using canes and walkers, but we'll show up.
9
Bannon is no "ghost. And never will be. It is rather juvenile that Trump waits until Kelly is not around to talk to Bannon. Kelly is ineffective as a Chief of Staff, his military background not withstanding. Bannon is still the Chief of Staff and is calling all the shots. It is just behind the scenes now. It is disgusting that this man who calls himself a Roman Catholic is attached at the hip with White Supremists and the Alt-right. He forgot his catechism lessons.
Maybe he should be consulting with Pope Francis before he completely loses his humanity. Trump has already lost his so no point in him consulting with anyone.
167
I don’t remember my catechism so well either, but if Mr. Blow’s opinions hold water, it would seem that ex-communication for Mr. Banning ought to be an avenue worthy of exploration.
2
" He forgot his catechism lessons. Maybe he should be consulting with Pope Francis before he completely loses his humanity. "
Francis is not his pope. His pope is John Paul XXII a very reactionary pope that barely seemed Christian.
2
Steve Bannon spoke at the Vatican last year after being invited by arch-conservatives in the White House. There is a large faction in the Vatican which doesn't like pope Francis and wants a John Paul II figure in the Holy See. It's naive to say that Bannon should consult the pope. Even in the USA, the Catholic bishops and the head of the NY diocese, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, are not favorable toward pope Paul. They are more hardline on social issues and didn't support the Trumpcare abomination because they think it's a way to stop abortion access.
Get your head out of the sand and join Catholics For Choice. They are working to liberate the Church from the heavy hand of the hierarchy, and that hierarchy is 'married' with the Evangelical/political right. Find ways to work against the alt-right. I'm not Catholic but I do make common cause with good everyday Catholics to stop further clergy sex abuse scandals. The movie Spotlight highlighted this and now we know no one in the Vatican is protecting children from further sexual abuse.
Join SNAP (Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests) and be on the side of holding these awful people, (and Bannon abused his ex-wife and threatened to kill her and their son) responsible).
1
Ever wonder how Steve Bannon and Rence Preibus have remained mysteriously absent from implication in any of Mueller's investigations so far? It's not because their hands are so clean. They are the ones orchestrating and feeding the intel that the investigators have been receiving. It is no coincidence that the investigations are closing in on parties Bannon and Preibus most resented and considered threats and stumbling blocks to their own power. They hate especially Kushner and and Ivanka with a passion; Bannon, because he is an Anti-Semite who suffers from as bad a case of Megalomania as Trump does with Narcissism and Priebus because he thinks Kushner is more of a renegade Democrat than a Conservative Republican. They would both be very happy to see Kushner take the fall, content in the knowledge that Trump himself would sacrifice his own family to spare himself grave Narcissistic injury. And the Democrats would gladly let it happen too, even if it meant that the real dangers to our Democracy were free to run amok for another three years because, they, themselves, are a bunch of headstrong arrogant Keystone Cops who are happy to indulge their own prejudices, however self-interested and short-sighted they may be.
21
You could be right -- we would have to un-turn more stones to confirm that.
I'll stand with the Democrats on these issues. They may seem ineffective right now, but the deeper truth is that they are our only watchdogs. I listen to what they say very carefully. True, they have very little power in DC right now, but they ARE our primary protectors.
1
All too true but the alternative to the cowardly lion is the tin man -- an even more frightening reality (unless pence is knee deep.in coverup) - then that leaves the choirboy straw boy - the vacuous alternative. With apology to Olive Hardy: "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into."
12
The GOP's plan for our future, with or without Bannon, is now unfolding in Venezuela and Honduras; use the NYT search for more details.
The Kochs are foolishly suing the government of Venezuela for millions; widespread protests against the rigged elections in Honduras are becoming riots in the streets with several fatalities already.
However, the revolution is now devouring its own children: CEO's who do not escape in time are being arrested. A warning for our own oligarchs?
18
Charles, you write about Bannon and Trump, the incredible and hateful nastiness they espouse and yet the very late and long overdue fight-back is yet to evolve. That is what is so disheartening. When does the overdue revolution occur? Where is the long awaited call to arms?
The Democrats must begin their fight.
268
Thank you for that comment. I am hunting for like-minded souls here in Denver to ignite our own revolution to return America to a democratic form before this kleptocracy destroys our fragile democracy. We are in the throws of the worst case of The Gilded Age imaginable. Not even Teddy Roosevelt could end this madness.
Since I am not a social media maven, I will be contacting my local Democratic State Committee, and my Democratic Senator Michael Bennet for insights into the Fight for 2018.
RESIST! RETAKE! REBUILD! REJOICE!
2
And there lies the crux of the matter. Brilliant analyses, strong words and a clearly articulated path of needed action - the almost daily output of Mr. Blow and his fellow journalists. But who else is speaking? Is anyone doing anything to remove Donald Trump from this office? We are all in peril and are frightened.
2
Revolution. Call to arms. Fight back. None of that would be necessary if we would just turn off the FOX, read more newspapers and vote. 49% didn't bother in 2016, which allows 30% to win. This country needs to grow up and act responsibly. That would be a revolution indeed. Right now you can find the call to arms in Alabama. Donate to Doug Jones for Senate.
2
Stop. You forgot to mention the most important aspect of this whole ugly mess. Which is the role of congress that not only does NOTHING to stop this trainwreck but actually promotes it with their lies that are just as blatant as Mr. Birther's.
Every single day that passes and Ryan and McConnell back this monster they bring our once beautiful nation down in shame. They nauseate me far more than Mr. Birther because he could do nothing without their explicit collaboration.
58
Right you are, Christine. If you get a chance, read the editorial in the Dec. 2 NYT from Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann about how this Republican party has spent the last 30+ years calculating the strategy that brought them to this grim period; The Party of Lincoln is now a criminal enterprise, traitorous to the corps, and complicite in the unraveling of our democracy. Mass indictments for treason would be my choice to rectify this situation before we become the most powerful third world nation on the planet.
RESIST! RETAKE! REBUILD! REJOICE!
1
Save the money you have now because the crash is coming. This one will be the last one.
9
Author, Michael Lewis, taught us how the Wall Street gamers brought us The Great Recession. Where we had subprime mortgages being bundled as top-rated bonds back then, here are the new danger signs:
Too many Americans have too many credit cards and they are maxing them out. The next subprime lending crisis is happening in the auto loan and dealership businesses. To unload all those cars, SUV's and pickup trucks, dealers and lenders have created the 96 month loans to lower the monthly payments to palatable levels. Most of those loans are happening in the luxury car market to keep those BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes, Audis, Range Rovers and exotic sports cars selling quickly. They are selecting the 96 month loan because they cannot afford those vehicles otherwise. That is the subprime auto loan biz and those loans will be bundled into collateralized debt obligations (CDO's) as were the real estate subprime loans. There will be loan defaults on those expensive machines, to be sure.
And, as you noted, the crash will come, and will a long period of "belts and suspenders" for most Americans.
I'm more worried about the promises he made to the Evangelicals.
9
This horrifying mess of an administration, picking fights with an unstable nuclear power like North Korea, gives the Evangelical/Born Agains a new opportunity to set up another date for the "end of the world." With Trump in that chair, any one of a number of really bad things can happen. Our public health systems are at grave risk of failure. Pollution has increased while national parks have suffered and decreased. Maybe we should just ask them to send the asteroid.
5
Yes, Trump and Bannon are leading us to ruin. But they would not be able to achieve this goal without the cooperation and enabling of this Republican Congress, who are willing participants in the effort to destroy America in it's greatness and all that it stands for. Corrupt grifters and thieves all.
50
Exactly! And I refer you to the excellent article (Dec. 2 in the NYT) by Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann about how the Repugnant Party is solely responsible for the downfall of our democracy. It is oligarchic, it is autocratic, is it treasonous.
1
Mr. Blow, all these people are on the take. Bannon, like Trump, manipulates, twists, and moves the alt right to do his bidding. Why? Well for one thing, the money is good. I do not give any credit to Bannon and his ilk that they are true revolutionaries. If they were, they wouldn't be living in the grand houses that they own, or driving around in limousines which they so often seem to do. Feeding racism pays. Sneering at the press pays. Telling people that they are good for nothing because they spend all their money on booze, women and movies pays. Saying that being anti-abortion is more important than stalking teenage girls pays. Money. Bannon never left the White House. The money is too good.
214
Same with James O'Keefe. Where else would he make ~$300,000 a year? He's unfit for employment in any other line other than rank debasement and racism. To your point: the money is too good.
2
Absolutely with you. Just goes to show how much their followers don't get it. By, get it, I mean how much the far right snookers their people, even when the "deals" go against them.
1
Thank you mr. Blow .
This is a very scary and prophetic article.
The “ elective affinities “ ( die Wahlverwandtschaften ) between trump and bannon are a bold conspiracy attempt to destroy the democratic values of this Great Country.
These deplorable people ( GOP ) are attempting to change the reality of our world with some kind of self serving , destructive rules that are going to jeopardize the future of Americans particularly the younger ones .
They are going to create a socio- political instability that will shake our democratic institutions.
Something has to be done to stop the demise of our Country.
The only tool that we still have is our VOTE and we MUST use it !!!
28
I fear it will take more than votes. What is happening within the Republican Party and its most influential partners, Bannon and Spencer, is nothing short of a crime spree. How they walk a fine line between the First Amendment and treason is beyond me. There are laws on the books when it comes to treason and an autocratic takeover of our democracy.
We will need those laws as much, or more, than the voting booth.
There are more guns in this country than people. Stop with the insistence that voting is our only tool. If voting could change the system it would be outlawed. Coming soon to a democracy near you.
What does is say about a leader who allows a guy like Bannon lead him around by the nose? Has trump ever had an original thought about anything?The GOP loves Trump because he can play their fall guy like no other. Bannon comes across as a guy mad the world who could probably get better with some professional help. For Trump to even listen to a guy like Bannon says all you need to know about Trump.
10
It all the Republicans politicians helping Trump destroy the country. They are drunk with power and will not stop until they get everyting they want. The best example of this terrible tax plan they just passed overnight.
Unless the 2/3 of us and the weak Democrats start fighing back, we will allow Russian and China be the leaders in the world..
14
Code for Bannon's three pillars.
1. National security and sovereignty
This is code for draconian border and immigration enforcement. It also aims to back door attack civil rights by enabling rabid search and seizure and incarceration.
2. Economic nationalism
This is code for granting oligarchs power to do anything on the trade front. They just need to spin it as America First.
2. Deconstruction of the administrative state.
This aims to dismantle public institutions like education, state parks, USDA, healthcare, EPA, in short anything the government does to make our lives better.
In DC Comics there is the League of Justice led by Superman and The Legion of Doom led by Lex Luthor. Bannon's three pillars, decoded, sound like Lex Luthor's master plan. We need Mueller and the League of Justice to take it down.
275
I agree "Get Real"
But, in Superman comics the "people" are ALWAYS FOR Superman. In the USA at least one third of the country is against Superman and FOR Lux Luthor. No matter what he may do or say. "Uber alles" !
One would have hoped that humanity itself would have changed after the holocaust. Why aren't all of us humans permanently altered as a result of learning how much suffering happened at that time, of how gargantuan the slaughter was? How can they, with 20/20 foresight buy into it? How can they not draw the analogies to slavery and the genocide against the Native Americans here? And we can extrapolate those situations to so many other genocides!
I ran into an acquaintance on 9-11-01 who is of Native American descent.
He said to me, " Now you're getting yours !" How awful? How awful to be FOR mass murder and mass suffering? We have no ethical basis for such feelings in any of our religions - Christian, Hebrew, Muslim - name any? Are we really "human"? What does that word really mean?
1
The "justice league" is the voters. We are the only ones who can save the nation.
3
May his own ''night of the long knives''may be short in coming, and the long arms will be offering law enforcement badges and identification.
It would not take water boarding to flip him. Just a lesson on the facts of life.
In supermax.
8
Across the land is a fury of a population seeing its influence begin ebb as others they've excluded ask to be included - straight white, Christians. They see themselves as victims, when they have been perpetrators. Their fury knows no bounds and because they wield the levers of power, they are dangerous and unpredictable. Almost a primal scream: if they can't have it their way, they'll rip it all part so no one else can. The tax grab was a petulant example of their taking to the detriment of all, and is but the beginning.
2018. Think 2018.
6
But we've built up from ashes before, we can do it again.
3
Yeah, well I'm getting sick of the Cha Cha Cha.
Racism is so pervasive, I was surprised to learn that it exists in Africa, within Africans as well, the lighter tones of black being preferred to the darker tones.
http://www.pbs.org/video/episode-7-children-of-the-revolution-tfi2xl/
Throughout human history, this seems to be the case. European colonists took a step further when they termed colored people "inferior" in intelligence, less civilized and mostly primitive, whether it was in Africa or Asia or the Americas, the natives were designated second class status. This human weakness is so ingrained that it won't disappear wit Steve Bannon or Trump, it will take generations. Thankfully my kids are already color blind as well as gender blind, they treat each human as a living breathing being, I feel optimistic that our millennials might bring about a revolution. But they won't depend on Charles Blow who dismissed them as less than human adults (perhaps that is how he treats his own children).
1
The republican party has been sabotaging agencies since the reagan admin. Do you remember back in the 70's when no reporter could find any examples of government being the problem as reagan kept saying from 1968 on? Then a year after he took office in 1981 he finally has an example and holds a press conference to show us this wastefulness and stupidity (maybe the agency head did it) and it later turned out that the "mistake" made by the agency employees was due to the changes in procedure the agency head made which forced the employees to do the thing that was wrong.
This is the essence of what the republican party is. Bannon isn't even new at that. They have only gotten worse and dirtier in the last 37 years since that day.
Nope Bannon is a common as dirt money grubbing republican who is an outsider because he has delusions of grandeur. Just as it is with all republicans everything Bannon stands for is UnAmerican and runs counter to the principles and goals of the Constitution.
5
He’s not leading us to ruin alone. The a Republican Party is complicit. Will they dump him when their horrible tax bill becomes law?
8
The only power Steve Bannon has is what we give him. Just like Donald Trump.
Both these men are hollow souls surrounded by a facade of magnetism engendered by their zealotry. Trump's zealotry lies in his self-promotion, Bannon's in his wacky and destructive ideology. Their link to each other is their love of inciting chaos.
If only the public, the press, the world would consign them to the obscurity that they both so richly deserve!
252
You are one of the first, Mr. Laer to recognize is power is conferred far more than taken...
The power-hungry can attempt to seize authority, it is the ruled that allows them to do it.
It is astonishing the degree to which the left has ceded to the Trumps and the Bannons, and Fox News all of the political power in the nation.
Of course, the left has managed to cede 100 seats at the political table since 2010, but they seem uninterested in actually doing something to restore their brand and influence.
Why?
3
In response to Teg Laer of NYC, who asserts, "The only power Steve Bannon has is what we give him. Just like Donald Trump," I'm no so sure about this familiar bit of pop-psychology wisdom. The notion that someone can cause you harm only to the extent you allow him to doesn't ring true if your adversary holds a pistol, eh?
Here, Bannon is heavily funded by the billionaire Mercer family, and money can buy all sorts of weapons, including the rotten yellow press that churns out Breitbart propaganda. And aside from that pistol-toting adversary I mentioned, who was it that said, "the pen is mightier than the sword"?
Trump, in addition to money pouring in from all quarters, has his Executive position to appoint a wide network of corrupt minions to carry out his twisted wishes--such as Ryan Zinke, Sec'y of the Interior, who has recommended giving away public lands "from sea to shining sea" to oil, gas & other natural resource rapists.
I didn't vote for Trump and I didn't vote for Zinke, nor did I vote for Bannon, and they certainly don't have my permission--but dang if they aren't doing my beloved Country a lot of harm!
3
So true. Why do people enable this freakshow ? If only the general public had
better critical thinking skills (ie: common sense) and would treat these charlatans like the badly-behaved derelicts that they are ..... best left alone in a "time out" like a child needing that lesson via disciplinary isolation. The time is now to press to stop sensationalizing / assisting Bannon's exposure. This dark person of apocalyptic hatred [Bannon] needs to be shut out by the daily press and everyday
people ; let him know that he is a " has been ". But keep the FBI on his deranged
tail nonetheless. The Empty Vessel Trump is still a willing puppet for his voice.
1
Vote for the progressive candidate in ALL local, stat & national elections.
8
Facsim grew in Germany for many years under the radar. But in 1933, it reached the Chancellor level. From there it quickly turned into a dictatorship that lasted for 12 years and a world war that killed 63 million people and wreaked the world. If the German parliament had not given in to the fascists in March of 1933, it might have been different. But the enablers always thought the "buffoon" would be controlled.
Now we are at a similar pivot point. The Republican Senators think they can still be in charge. But like Germany in March of 1933, fellow travelers are quickly eliminated. Republican Senators are not known for their knowledge of history, but must this time, and put Country ahead of party, or risk fascism and dictatorship with an ensuing world war.
9
My first phone call to my Senator, Ted Yoho, was telling. His aide advised me not to worry, that "the ship would change course slowly." Despite my concerns, Yoho, the Tea Party holdover, plans to seek re-election. He has no plans to respond to his constituents' concerns. Yoho is just another trump lackey falling in line with bannon.
It is not that the ship is changing course. The ship is sinking now ever so slowly; our democracy is being destroyed daily as our elected officials sit back and watch.
6
Trump is a mere conduit for implementing the Bannon agenda of dismantling the state. Trump doesn't know, and Bannon conveniently forgets, that a government is "of the people, by the people, and for the people." It is not to satisfy some Neanderthal view of the world in which a man can grab whatever he likes, whenever he likes, and from whomsoever he chooses to grab whatever.
7
Can you give us an argument as to why dismantling a goodly portion of the bureaucratic state, an organization designed pretty much to push paper to others who need the paper to push?
There are elements in our federal bureaucracy that are incredibly hard working and dedicated to doing a good job.
But there are hundreds of thousands in that same bureaucracy who are duplicating the work of others, creating a forest worth or useless documentation to justify what are common sense decisions, or just plain featherbedding.
Let's cut down on the number of bureaucrats. If some are cut that might be needed, they can be put back in place. And given the glacial pace of federal government action, it is obvious that any "necessary" position that is cut could easily be refilled before any meaningful or lasting harm could be done.
Such trimming would also help in keeping our burgeoning debt from reaching even further unsustainable levels.
Steve Miller is still there.
How about some detailed time line history of who chose candidate Trump, when they met, how they decided on their horse, how they designed their PR machine? The little that I have seen contains the names Sessions, Miller, Bannon. Who else participated in this coup?
5
You can start with the Mercers.
1
It is only by seeing his grave in Christmas future with his name inscribed, “Ebenezer Scrooge” that Scrooge can see how his colleagues hated him and wouldn’t go to his funeral without a free lunch, how his life was a lie based on misspent values of money rather than on humanity so that he could begin transformation and redemption.
No such hope rests for Trump because he is heartless, ignorant and has whatever shriveled substitute for a soul be sold to the write Bannon. For the evil they have unleashed into the world, may they be bound by chains and locked boxes as Jacob Marley. Bah humbug to the pair and may they reap what they have sown: eternal damnation.
3
I agree with most of what Mr. Blow says here except for his final line: "...they are leading us to ruin."
No, they're not. They're leading themselves and their ideologies to ruin. They are not ruining "us." We will stand strong through all of this and cheer while they tighten the nooses around their own necks.
Malice, bigotry and ignorance might enjoy temporary victories on the political battlefields, but they always lose the wars. And the people that wage them are forever stained in the annals of history.
Bannon and Trump cannot and will not ruin me. I'll be standing long after they've crawled off to whatever sewers will have them.
354
I appreciate your strong optimism, but I am afraid it applies only to those with a fat cushion of money to see them through the hard time ahead. There will be collateral damage and innocent casualties, especially for the poor and about-to-be-poor middle class, and yours truly. Mr Blow is speaking from compassion for those who really are going to be hurt.
4
Ah, if that were only true. But the hard truth is that all the rest of us are victims of their malice and stupidity. We will live for years with the impact of the judges that Trump and his accomplices are rushing into place. We will live for years with the impact of the economic blow back of this tax bill on education and healthcare. Innocent people will die because they can't afford healthcare. And the long term impact of this administration's climate policies will likely cause irreparable harm to civilization.
You may be standing when they're gone. But you might be standing in ruins.
2
They are, however, dragging our institutions behind their bumper as they tear down back roads together. They can, and under Bannon's standard, will certainly try to take down everything with them. Nothing a punk likes more than a book of matches to torch houses; we have two of them working in concert.
I never thought I'd actually detest anyone as much as I detest these two.
3
Sith Lords: “Always two there are; no more, no less. A master and an apprentice.”
- Yoda
If he is “The Apprentice”, who is the master?
3
When you look at Bannon's turgid "intellectualism" the only "there" there is a desire to CRUSH our Democratic Republic and create a dictatorial state where things are decided by...Steve Bannon, either directly or, as Rasputin, whispering in the puppet dictator's ear. That's really all the "deconstruction of the administrative state" means. It means simply destroy limits, laws and rules for the rich and powerful, back to the feudal barons, answerable only to themselves and what they think they can get away with.
This is why a disrespector of all laws, rules, norms, and decency like Donald Trump is the PERFECT "New Decontructive Man" for Bannon.
4
Trump and Bannon will lead US to ruin only if we allow it.
We can still say no to tax give-a-ways to the rich.
No to xenophobia.
No to racism and white supremacy.
No to the gutting federal departments and the civil servant jobs that make the government run.
No to anti-Muslim rhetoric.
No to taking away protection of our national monuments.
No to the wall.
No to anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies.
No to the lies on top if lies.
We can say no to all if this. Give control of Congress to the Democrats in 2018. Send Trump home in 2020.
We get the government we deserve.
5
What Trump and Bannon share most of all is the "vision"of the suicide bomber and the mass shooter, like that man in the hotel in Las Vegas. And the vision is this: "If Im going down, I'm taking as many people as I can with me."Meanwhile, even if Trump is ousted, he will make out like a bandit with his new tax reform.
2
Thank you, Charles Blow, for shining a light on the deconstruction of our democracy by Don the Con and the odious Steve Bannon. Sunlight will ultimately prove to be the best disinfectant.
2
Trump is weak-minded and Bannon is monomaniacal and deviously clever. Neither understands much about history as most commonly interpreted, and that contributes to their collaboration being an evil mix.
Yet, this evil collaboration is what a winning minority elected in 2016. The price of their naivte - and the majority's inability to overcome - will be paid for years to come. And who knows if the damage will ever be repaired?
18
"And we know that Bannon still has the president’s heart, as well as his ear." But as Trump is all about Trump, Bannon is all about Trump. Bannon will not have the president's back. When the evidence of Trump wrongdoing whether conspiring with the Russians over election meddling or engaging in financial transactions with Russians when no American bank would finance him, Bannon will throw him under the bus if doing otherwise will be harmful to Bannon.
Bannon is a nihilist. His three pillars: national security and sovereignty, economic nationalism, and deconstruction of the administrative state do not serve any positive values. They are just phrases that really mean (1) a police state, (2) isolationism, and (2) anarchy.
20
Trump and Bannon will conjure up a war, somewhere, to deflect attention from the Mueller investigation. Since Iran does not have nuclear weapons, that would be a likely target. We need to be ready with massive protest marches on Washington next year in order to counteract any sympathies for a “wartime” president – we need to physically manifest our outrage.
Then we need to do all we can to help Mueller bring about a flip of the U.S. House in 2018, which will lead to impeachment proceedings. It’s a stretch seeking a flip of the U.S. Senate, with 25 Democrat seats being defended to only nine for the GOP, but that’s what it would take to get a trial and conviction for Trump. (That would be a fantasy come true, not only in eliminating Trump, but perhaps also recent Republican legislation …) Whatever happens, we will trudge along hoping there will (at least) be sufficient Republican turmoil and gridlock to flip the presidency in 2020. That’s a lot of “ifs” for the work we must do to avert catastrophe, assuming Trump really “plans to reduce the village to ashes before he exits.” But we need to persevere in continuing to fight the good fight – to mitigate the damage.
So add these to your holiday “To Do” list and then gear up for a fight.
Protest. Vote. And encourage and help others to do the same – rationally and nonviolently. These are the best and most proactive things we can do as individuals to support and foster our tribal unit – America *and* the world as a whole.
34
“Bannon tells confidants he sees himself as ‘the president’s wingman,” tending to his base and taking on his enemies.”
And most frighteningly, “wingman Bannon” seems determined to encourage his boy Trump to keep moving the “nuclear football” ever closer to the goalposts. If the clearly delusional and deeply paranoid Donald Trump does push this country into committing the irreparable, Bannon will be the first to shout “Touchdown” from his no doubt we’ll-stocked bunker.
9
I don't fault Trump for being what he is; that would be like faulting a rat for being a rat. But I do fault the supposed "grown-ups" who accept that it is their job to try to control Trump, as though her were some out-of-control adolescent.
The cynicism of his handlers and the Congressional Republicans has reached the heights of the grotesque. If it was just a matter of getting some clown with an R behind his name to sign legislation, why not impeach the fool? Oh, right, his base, which apparently terrifies the GOP establishment.
If this were a movie, sooner or later a mob with torches and pitchforks would go after them all. They certainly deserve it.
23
Bannon makes it clear that he wants a revolution, to tear down the establishment. All interviewers and analysts need to press Bannon heavily on what his replacement plan looks like. This means specifics about how his government would accomplish the tasks of government, not vague generalities, like eliminating the 'deep state.' How will you accomplish specific tasks, like support the infrastructure, provide for national defense? Guaranteed he has no answers; this is an overgrown video gamer and blogger who believes he has the power to change the world with a few keystrokes -and plenty of beer and Red Bull for the 'bros.
324
I don't think he is smart enough to predict the end result of his revolution. Just look at how well the revolution in Iraq has turned out.
3
Donald Trump was elected to “Tear ‘The System’ down.” Nothing more. The people who elected him wanted a sledgehammer taken to the Establishment of BOTH parties that has failed them so miserably over the past 37 years. Other developed countries, including Canada, have not seen the decreased social mobility, decreased life expectancy, increased infant mortality, wage stagnation, and general misery that the United States has seen. NY Times readers may have done well during this time, but the rest of the country hasn’t and is greatly resentful about this. HRC proffered the same anemic Establishment bromides that have been repeatedly tried and repeatedly failed. The voters wanted change, even if that meant destruction without any definite plan for reconstruction. Until those underlying concerns are addressed, Populism whether by Trump or another demagogue, will continue. Going apoplectic about Trump’s antics accomplishes NOTHING.
2
Why would you assume that Bannon ever had a replacement "plan" for tearing down the present establishment?
Not only does Bannon have no plan for "replacement," he does not believe he needs such a plan.
In fact his "replacement" plan is simply tearing down the establishment. That is Bannon's end game. He wants chaos, at best guessing that the most brutal and amoral among us will rise to power. He doesn't want some alternative "effective government." He doesn't believe in such a thing.
Bannon wants the video war game in real life flesh and blood 3D.
2
One can see Bannon's three pillars playing out daily. It is so sad to see America falling further and further away from the democracy that used to be the beacon to the world. The damage being done to the country is outrageous. Please America WAKE UP!
13
It’s not just Bannon. The entire Republican contingent of the Senate—with one exception, Senator Corker—seems to have gone mad, voting for a tax “reform” bill that will turn the U.S. into a plutocracy and that will practically guarantee French Revolution 2.0.
The one silver lining of the past four days: Trump has just made an enemy of the FBI. We’ve always known that one day, Trump would make one enemy too many. Maybe this is it.
25
Constance, our country became a plutocracy LONG before Trump. He is just doing what he can to keep it that way. Trump is not the cause, but a symptom of a deeper cultural sickness so pervasive in this country...
I just saw you on TV today Charles for the first time - you looked amazing.
5
Although I agree completely about the danger posed by Steve Bannon, I believe you give too much credit to Donald Trump having an ideology. He is driven only by what he thinks will make him look good and ensure his "narcissistic supplies". In that way, he is actually suseptible to manipulation, whether by Bannon, Putin, Mike Pence, Steven Miller or any of numerous others who do have a soli, if hateful, ideology.
9
I see Trump as purely an opportunist who serves meat to his base with his anti-immigrant, anti-government, anti-minority rants. He wants to keep his 35% as happy as possible as a hedge against traditional Republicans who go rogue. I just don't think he operates on principles as much on instincts of what is good for him and his. Bannon, on the other hand, may actually believe this nonsense and feel like he is the medium if not the source of all this. He is far smarter than Trump but nearly not as savvy in exploiting the base. In their own ways, both are undeniably dangerous to this country.
7
Destroying the ability of government to function is the logical extension of Reagan's infamous "government is the problem" speech, and putting dull tools like Mulvaney in charge of important federal agencies is a pretty effective way to do that. Withdrawing from international commitments creates isolation, and makes the white nationalists happy. And ensuring that money flows freely to the Defense Department will keep us ready for the wars Trump wants to start.
Funny, but the disgruntled Obama voters and the angry white folks who flocked to Trump thought they were going to get better health care for less money, the return of manufacturing jobs, protection for Medicare and Social Security, rebuilding the nation's crumbling infrastructure, and independence from Wall Street from a guy too rich to care about big donor money.
It would seem that those voters cast ballots for Trump, but elected Bannon.
11
The very idea that the absolute worst society has to offer could manage their way to the top in America is nauseating. This has been building for a long time now but was kept in check by the fact that most Americans were not gullible enough to allow the manipulation of fear and hatred to compromise their principles.
The alt right and modern day GOP have fused into one giant nuclear rot reaction. Bannon and Trump are leading the war on decency and the GOP is now for all intent and purpose their faithful soldiers. They have for reasons of power, greed, selfishness and carelessness become one and the same.
Imo they are the result of voter laziness and apathy. They are what happens when decent people become complacent and too easily influenced. The cancer is alive and well. The cure is available. The real question is how much damage will be done before we decide to kill the cancer.
11
Boy, I think we are giving Bannon too much credit, and contributing to his influence.
Bannon is a footnote to history, a terrible man who could not make it in the White House, could not perform on the national and international scene.
He's lightweight - a pretender to the throne - with no staying power and not enough savvy to defeat his administration opponents - they got him thrown out.
Now with nothing but hubris, he goes back to his prior job and tries to make out as though this was a victory - that he gained some prestige from his brief moment next to the President.
He couldn't cut it - clear and simple - now back to the base that are oh, so hard to impress.
7
The GOP nominee never did have an ideology of his own, save a hatred and bigotry directed at minorities, women and foreigners. It is worth noting that his campaign was floundering in the summer of 2016, after having seized the Republican nomination. Exit Paul Manafort and enter Stephen Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, and the businessman’s campaign momentum gathered strength and direction and purpose. Bannon was the driving force behind the future president’s successful sprint in late August that propelled him to victory, in spite of his many missteps and the sleazy Hollywood Access tape, a video that surely would have torpedoed the candidacy of any conventional politician public office. It was Bannon who made people like David Duke and Richard Spencer important and viable as political entities in this president’s White House, and by association and planning, made possible what happened in Charlottesville this past summer. Bannon might be gone from the West Wing, but he is not forgotten. He is as present in the Oval Office as is the portrait of Andrew Jackson, who is the president’s patron saint.
3
Equating tax cuts, the appointment of a conservative to head the CFPB, and Trump’s childish feuds with certain media outlets that are subsidiaries of large, powerful corporations (e.g., Amazon, Time Warner) to the horrors of Nazism and fascism is an insult to the millions of innocent lives lost at the hands of those ideologies. Such alarmism only serves to undermine otherwise legitimate criticism of Trump and the GOP, and raises the political temperature to such a degree that reasonable debate becomes impossible.
2
Steve Bannon envisions America as it would be had there never been an FDR. If you ever doubt the efficacy of FDR's presidential stewardship, then look at what Bannon, DJT, and the GOP have done to our nation over the past year and compare that to the accomplishments of the New Deal. Today's forces that foam at the mouth in support of DJT foamed at the mouth in opposition to FDR and his presidential leadership. They seek to deconstruct our America. Read 'em and weep.
11
The only thing that will derail Bannon in the short term is if he gets sideways with the big GOP contributors--the Kochs, Ricketts, Mercers, DeVos', Adelsons and their ilk. And he knows it. For example, despite the populist crown he so proudly wears you heard nothing from him about the tax reform bill, which even he must recognize will inflict long term harm on the "people" he claims to represent by taking money from their pockets to make the rich even richer, and by wildly inflating the deficit, which will lead to even more cuts to programs they rely upon. But he said little or nothing.
5
Sure, racists are here and in the White House again. We can limit some of the damage done, but the larger damage was done with the tax law. When the races, at least the poor and working-classes, come together and think logically, we will re-write our tax code, our political commitments and the future of our very civilization.
No 'white privilege'; think 'green privilege'. I'm less afraid of a few ignorant racists than I am of tens of millions suffering through poverty every day. End poverty and the ignorance of racism and hatred will dissipate. Embrace poverty, like we do, then all is hopeless.
3
Charles M. Blow urges us to "recall the three pillars of the Bannonite `America First' philosophy ... national security and sovereignty; economic nationalism; and deconstruction of the administrative state."
The third and last "pillar" represents such an egregious political scam that I'm astonished no one seems to be calling out Bannon and his ilk on it.
Make no mistake: the Alt-Right is only interested in deconstructing those those specific laws and government functions that put even a modicum of restraint on their greedy or repressive activities. Otherwise -- when it comes to abortion, immigration, so-called "law and order" issues, etc. etc. -- they are delighted to have as much government regulation and administration as possible.
For example, does the authorized hiring of an extra 10,000 (yes, ten thousand!) agents and enforcement officers by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- as mandated by President Trump's executive order and applauded by Steve Bannon and his cohorts -- sound anything remotely like a "deconstruction of the administrative state" to you?
Why isn't anyone loudly and insistently pointing out this glaring example of Bannonite and Trumpian hypocrisy?
17
You are right. They are more than happy to regulate women’s bodies and non-white people.
Bannon's atrocious but let's not forget John Kelly's despicable treatment of Rep. Frederica Wilson. He's no protector of our rights. That was a naive hope and anyone who still believes it is fooling themselves.
17
Throughout history, the achievement of dominant super power status has been the kiss of death for EVERY nation that has ever achieved it. We're no different. Trump, Bannon et al are just symptoms of that process. Of course, we're probably going to bring the whole planet down with us when we hit rock bottom.
2
Trump is the effective environment vector that now allows the GOP disease entrance into areas that magnify and accelerate its pernicious effects.
The GOP disease has been incubating in us since the early 70s. Long before Trump's ascent.
Evolving - morphing and hiding, becoming more resilient and resistant to the antidotes of reason, broad perceptive, righteousness, courage, and truth.
Clever this deleterious disease - it double cuts. Weakening our resolve, clouding our vision, narrowing our reason and aims. Making us mad like a dog with rabies - all our enemy to be attacked - afraid of even the water of our life giving liberty within a collective humanity.
Then taking over our nature and our systems. Death will come - painfully. We'll probably end up taking ourselves out as we shoot at the shadows this disease's delusions generate in our mind.
Perhaps if we would have nourished ourselves better with logic and knowledge - and commitment to the values and truth - we would have strengthened our defense systems - our armor, our phagocytes - called at one time real Democrats.
But no - we didn't respect our bodies - we weakened our defenses - we ingested things that carried the disease.
Oh well - species do go extinct - so do noble Countries.
1
When Steve Bannon was fired from his post at the White House, it was not clear whether he was really fired. perhaps this was all on paper.
Otherwise, if Bannon was fired for something he did wrong, Bannon would behave just like all others - Priebus, Spicer - who were asked to leave.
The reality and the possibility is that between Mr. Trump and Mr. Bannon, they set up a mutual agreement. A preference to have Bannon on the outside than on the inside, and still be the "Chief Strategist".
Bannon on the outside, is an effective strategist. He has the advantage of not being in one place. He is better able to promote the nationalist and populist agenda. Not forgetting the destructive policies which we now see in progress.
With all this happening, the question asked is whether this is what the Republican Party stands for? The truth is that the party has already been hijacked. No one in the party is saying anything or asking questions. Perhaps, those in Office, prefer it this way. Or, they have all been hypnotized.
1
Corporatism is in ascendance. Soon, instead of a compulsory oath to the Nation State at sporting events one will be required to pledge allegiance to CVS-Aetna or whichever international entity controls the arena.
4
Here's an up-to-date example of Bannonite ideology. Just this morning, I read in my local (Finnish) daily a report that the US is withdrawing from the United Nations agreement to establish international rights for migrants, on the grounds that the declaration is inconsistent with its state sovereignty. This is from the Independent: "In discussing the American withdrawal, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said that her country is proud of its leadership on human rights issues, but framed an international agreement as a breach in US sovereignty. " And here's Tillerson: "While we will continue to engage on a number of fronts at the United Nations, in this case, we simply cannot in good faith support a process that could undermine the sovereign right of the United States to enforce our immigration laws and secure our borders."
I haven't seen much mention of this in the American media. The NYT reports it under World news, as the third item under The Americas; not in Politics, where it's presumably been drowned out by other events in this nightmare of a news cycle.
20
At some point don't the good people of the United States have to hit the streets in protest? Is the majority going to just sit around a watch as our government is dismantled from the inside for the benefit of the rich?
36
Many are protesting. Join Indivisible and you’ll hear about it.
Few are all right as are few all left; most people are in the middle. And as Pelosi and the others continually spew and show hate, it will haunt them. Americans are smart and see exactly what is going on and the obstruction from day 1. Once they get that tax refund money into their hands we will see how they vote and it will not be democrat.
I work for a living, and have worked hard, and according to what I see I will pay MORE in taxes. And as for spewing hate, few could spew better than Donald Trump. So you posting sounds either insincere, or ridiculously uninformed.
Even with a tax cut, my beliefs could not be bought, and the damage that Trump and the GOP is doing to my country will not, ever, be forgotten by the majority of the people in the United States. That would include all of the people who voted against Donald Trump, who lost the popular vote.
3
It all just gets worse, daily. What I find difficult to comprehend is the total lack of empathy the GOP has for the 99%. How do they keep getting elected? Are so many people that stupid? I can only hope that enough of us get off our duffs in the next mid-term elections to stop this evil train in its tracks, cause even if the guy currently in charge either leaves or is removed, we'll end up with someone just as bad, just as determined, behind that big desk.
11
When it comes to shaping our politics, it is not clear to me that Bannon is anything more than an opportunist (with the funding of the billionaire Mercer family).
Most of his supposed power and influence is the result of self promotion, a nose for publicity, and his willingness to "ride the tiger" of anger.
As for influence, the only person who provides glowing, on-the-record quotes that describe Steve Bannon as a power broker is Steve Bannon.
Making him out to be like the Emperor from Star Wars does his job for him. We, and the media, should stop doing that. And that includes Mr. Blow.
4
It is not just Trump and Bannon. It is the Republican Party. As during the election, this is a new game that few can play. Trump is not a crazy, demented, old man. I has an ideology and he has people helping him. For example, the tweets are not coming from him while he sits on the john hiding from his staff. He has a staff, including Bannon and John Kelly, writing them. It is a team effort. We do ourselves a serious disservice in thinking and acting otherwise.
2
A party that depends on hate to maintain its power over the masses will be a magnet for those consumed in hate. Within hate freedom and the will of the people whither. We must find and support a party dedicated to peace and freedom and the will of the people if we want our freedoms to survive.
4
Every time I imagine the soul and the eating and drinking habits it would take to produce the good health radiating from that face, I think that the end of one small part of this national disaster can't be too far away.
2
As I hear talk of devastation that Trump is wreaking on Government structure and infrastructure, I ponder Mr. Blow's reference. Should we expect, figuratively at least, damage like that in Fallujah or Mosul -- utter demolition of major portions of these cities was caused by both sides. These are cities that Donald Trump has claimed "we" have "captured" to send ISIS running. No one could want them any more. Is that going to be what is left of Washington DC when Trump is done too?
2
Of course trump still communicates with Bannon and promotes his agenda. Trump is a hollow vessel of self doubt and loathing, devoid of principle, conviction or understanding of the world with no meaningful agenda of his own, other than being the focus of attention and adulation, even if only by a minority.
His presidential campaign was a joke until along came Bannon to resurrect his campaign with an injection of neofascism to stir up the self pitying masses looking for radical change. His strong beliefs and convictions, however misguided and inappropriate, represented a beacon for the uninformed and easily influenced who readily bought in. Tragically, trump was, and is, one of them. Without any compass of his own, trump has co-opted much of Bannon’s agenda as his own.
8
I can understand General Flynn wanting to have an important position in the Trump Administration as a way of restoring his reputation and self-esteem after being fired by Obama.
I can understand him trying to impress Trump by cozying up to Putin.
I can understand him entering into some shady deals with Erdogan as a way of making a fast buck.
What doesn’t go into my head is how he could go around the country campaigning with Trump yelling “lock her up” at the top of his voice, with his face all twisted up with hate.
I dislike ascribing everything bad that is currently happening in this country under Trump to problems in people’s heads, but a lot times there simply is no better way of explaining things.
4
... but a lot of times there simply is no better way of explaining things.
1
Trump definitely did some huge mistakes the last few weeks but accusing him of being a shadow of Bannon is over the top. Trump is going to ruin the United States in some way or another but then only because he was and never will be able to Held Office as the President of the United States. If Bannon then has something to do with that ruin or not is secondary because then it'll be too late to change something. Republicans should focus now on getting Trump out of their way as soon as possible because otherwise it is going to be too late. And not focusing on Bannon or anyone else in that definitely incompetent Administration. And Trump should get back to TVshows and selling his buildings.
1
Like most people who have lived within bellowing lies and boasts distance from the once tedious, now dangerous, Mr. Trump, I never thought I would see the day when his particular form of con artistry would become legitimized.
While his tendency to poison everything and everyone he touched, from skylines to coastlines with a victim list of investors, contractors and even banks, his potential to spread his brand of virulence appeared limited to attracting like minded crooks to engage in business farther and farther afield from the rows of burning bridges left in in his wake.
Who better to see the opportunity in occupying an empty, venal, amoral and vacuous vessel than manipulative crackpots, extremists and anarchist bigots in "freedom" drag, like Steve Bannon and those of his ilk?
Perfectly set up by the increasingly ruthless and far right GOP, stirred to a frenzy by media agitators with billions to waste on propaganda supporting moribund ideas revived to new levels of absurdity, fake voting dangers and gerrymandering, a fertile field for contagion was created resulting not only in the election of the worst president in history with collectively the worst cabinet, but a congress drunk on power fueled on a wave of irrational and counterfactual nonsense passing the single worst piece of legislation since Prohibition with far worse consequences on the horizon.
3
This is going to seem of-topic, but it is not.
I'm curious about something. One of the things that the pundits (including many former special prosecutors, U.S. Attorneys, etc.) agree about with respect to why Flynn's guilty plea and agreement to cooperate is significant is because he was part of Der Furor's inner circle, and particularly that he participated in almost every meeting of the campaign team, the transition team, and during his short term in the new Administration. And I get that.
But if that is the case, why has NO mention been made of Steve Bannon? Why has he never even been mentioned as someone the Mueller investigation intends to question? After all, HE almost CERTAINLY participated in EVERY single meeting before and after Der Furor's regime began, and thus probably knows at least as much as, if not more than, Flynn.
Can anyone answer this?
Charles, I totally agree, but NO!!!! I look to you for inspiration. Stay strong. Keep up the fight.
We can keep this democracy alive.
1
Mr. Blow is right that Trump and his “wingman” Bannon are leading us to ruin. But what kind of ruin? And will this ruin affect all Americans equally?
America itself, as a nation, has been irreparably damaged by Trump’s actions, as he trashes our national interests, our relations with other countries, and our international standing in the world. All are gone, now, in one short year.
But what of us, individual Americans? White Christian Americans who continue with their rabid support of Trump will never face the type of ruin facing the rest of us. They could lose their employment, their health insurance, and the very futures of their children in this country, but one thing they will never lose, as long as Trump and Republicans are in power, is their dominance over the rest of us. And this is all they want. This is all they’ve ever wanted. They see the rest of us having no place in an America they view as solely their own.
So what of that ruin for the rest of us? Ethnic minorities and brown-skinned people will continue to be the victims of escalating hate crimes which this “Justice Department” will continue to ignore. Our children will be second-class citizens in their native land. Our families will never feel safe, as long as Trump and his toadying Congress remain in power. We cannot assume this tyrant will simply leave office either in 2020 or 2024. We can no longer assume that at some point our nightmare will be over. And this is the real ruin many of us face.
3
Bill Moyers has said that it was President Johnson's hope to recreate Viet Nam out of war. Bannon seems to hope to recreate the U.S. out of chaos. What is remarkable about Bannon's influence is that he has attracted a loyal following by his chaotic antics. It's puzzling. He offers nothing positive to anyone and yet many people, including the President, seem to believe he is their voice in the way, perhaps, Rasputin was the voice for the Romanovs.
3
Bannon is not to be ignored. An evil genius with all the energy and drive of a guerrilla general, you see a very frightening pattern: a scorched-earth campaign. The consequences to the country are unimportant to him and his minions. Playing nice with them including Trump is a big mistake as Senate and House Democrats are just beginning to realize. Where are the opposition street fighters? Who is the effective voice and face of opposition? To quote Hunter Thompson, it's time for hand-to-hand combat. Bannon and Co. view efforts to compromise as weakness. Suggestion: wrap Roy Moore around them relentlessly until you hear them squeal.
1
It's said that in North Korea houses have devices like radios that can't be turned off that spew propaganda, the sacred words of the Leader and martial music for several hours every day, and the government manages to prevent most other news and information from getting to the people. I don't know how much of that 1984-like horror is true. But I do think that here in the World's Greatest Democracy millions of people who take great pride in the notion that they think for themselves choose the horror voluntarily by getting all their "news" and "information" from Fox, Breitbart and the sacred words of the Leader. Who needs totalitarianism? War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH!
When a man as evil-spirited as Trump gains great reward, you don't have a true society.
America is dead on it's feet, but simply hasn't fallen over yet.
A Zombie democracy so to speak.
What we are seeing bit by bit is the growing irrelevance of a stalemated Washington to most Americans' daily lives.
I expect this trend will increase in the coming years as the individual states more and more do their own things, and your state's policies likely affect your prospects more than do Washington's (which helps explain so much internal migration).
Over time I anticipate this will yield more positive results than naught. Unfortunately, stalemates are noisy and would appear to involve lots of clowns.
In the meantime the electoral college keeps everything in a two-party chokehold. The Republicans love the electoral college because it allows them to win elections while garnering fewer votes. The Dems love the electoral college because they have a 'bigger tent' and the electoral college forces Greens, Socialists, Marxists, Communists, Liberals to stay inside and vote for neoliberals to stop even greater maniacs.
Until the electoral college is blown up this charade will continue.
"Trump the con man has a wingman and together, in the shadows, they are leading us to ruin."
Trump and Bannon aren't the problem, they are symptoms of a broken system.
Time to dig deeper, Charles, than just blaming all the ills of America on Trump, Bannon, and - of course - the Russians.
The SYSTEM is rigged.
2
The notion that Trump adheres to a coherent ideology, even one borrowed from the likes of Steve Bannon, strikes me as improbable. This is the man who endorsed several incompatible versions of the healthcare bill, in the desperate hope of winning a legislative victory. His support of the GOP tax bill, moreover, reportedly violates Bannon's populist ideas.
Trump lacks the mental discipline to pursue a consistent agenda. He appoints incompetents and nonentities to high positions because of their loyalty to him and their commitment to destroy Obama's legacy. To the extent that their actions weaken the independence of various agencies within the executive branch, furthermore, his appointees help satisfy his hunger for more power.
Trump certainly qualifies as an instinctive autocrat, but his disdain for hard work and his narrow focus on attacking his critics makes him a poor candidate to play the role of an effective dictator. His mindless assault on institutions and customs that inhibit his freedom of action will do considerable damage to our constitutional system and public ethics. Even if Mueller doesn't nail him, however, Trump's intellectual incoherence and short attention span will hobble any effort to convert our political system into a more authoritarian alternative.
1
It would be helpful to remember that Steve Bannon has framed national security and sovereignty in terms of a religious and ethnic war against Islam and brown people from less industrialized nations. He and Trump see Putin as a great role model and natural ally from that perspective. We learn more about that connection with each passing week. Understanding the basis for that dynamic makes it easier to recognize how difficult it will be to reverse the risky place in the world America is being ushered into by Trump, the ends-justify-the-means Republicans, and the loyal identity politics followers of the Trumpian GOP.
Putin's Russia is finding comfortable connections with Iran, North Korea, India, and even China in many instances. Meanwhile, Trump continues to burn bridges with NATO and North and South American countries while tilting toward Putin, even as Russia remains hostile to most interests of the United States and its citizens. Having a government and sizeable demographic with a common hatred of Muslims is not likely to parlay into valuable support from Russia, which, frankly, has little of value that we can or should depend on.
We are not just being set up for destruction of institutions and values from within. America is being debased and disempowered to make the world safer for Russian kleptocrats, with whom Trump and Bannon identity.
3
Actually President Trump in his actions, as opposed to his rhetoric, has proved to be more of a conventional Republican conservative than a Bannon style populist.
His tax plan is a give away to the big international corporations, not salaried employees. Meanwhile, his oft-proposed massive infrastructure program, that was going to rebuild the US and employ so many workers, has been quite forgotten by both Trump and the Democrats.
His drive for new wars with Korea or Iran or both is the opposite of the disengagement from foreign adventures that he promised his war weary supporters. The rich on the other hand are delighted with his roll back of public protecting regulations on industry and his filling the judiciary with anti-labor, anti-consumer judges.
Though his crude personal style, based on imitating Talk Radio hosts, may repel them, the ruling class is not threatened but served by Trump.
The ignorance and denial of all that is at play here continues to amaze. The Handmaid's Tale is already in full swing and we remain oblivious.
1
While I believe some of your perspectives on Steve are accurate, I don’t believe Bannon is in Trump’s heart or consistently in his ear. 1) I’m sure Steve told Donald that firing Comey would be a huge mistake, but did he listen? NO. In his 60 min interview Bannon said firing Comey was a huge political mistake. 2) Bannon supported Roy Moore while Trump wanted Strange. Bottom line I believe Trump is keeping his enemies close Charles. With Bannon’s short stay on the National Security Council he knows a lot of information that is not public knowledge. Bannon’s displeasure with JarVanka and the swamp that has not been drained can hurt Trump Bigly and he knows this so of course he is going to speak with Bannon often. Trump’s worst enemy is himself as their is zero humility in the man. I read Breitbart often and to my surprise with some issues I’ve seen some balanced reporting and a disgruntled former base. Bannon and Trump is not a major threat because of our president’s ego, pride and love of money, but Bannon and a cunning, inclusive wolf in sheep’s clothing would be a dangerous combination.
1
We focus on the Bannons, Breibarts, and Fox News, but what I truly don't understand, is why do people drink it up so readily? Yes, I know it feeds an us versus them tribalism, and feeds deeply ensconced yet typically thinly masked over racism, sexism, and xenophobia, but again, why do these things work so well? Why do people so willingly look to scapegoats as their own economic security dwindles? I live in a state where a governor who proclaims himself to be "a Trump before Trump" has pursued the same tactics, only to win re-election by a much greater margin. What in the US's psyche makes this type of slash and burn governance, alignment against class interests, and distrust of any extended discourse so popular? We will not be in any position for positive change until we understand why this politics of distrust and hatred works so well. Saying that the Democrats are out of touch with the electorate is not enough: rather we need address the issues in our national character that makes these self-destructive choices so effective. Sue, a more educated population seems the solution, but why is there such a nativist distrust of education in the first place? The Koch brothers et al. can only be effective if an audience is there to embrace their call, so how do we get to the desire for this destructiveness, this will to end a certainly imperfect experiment in democracy, but one that for almost two centuries and a half has been by far the most promising.
2
It's exhausting and disturbing to watch the lies and distortions from the White House. I'm pretty sure Bannon was the idea man in Trump's continued attacks on the Judiciary, the Intelligence Community the Department of Justice and Free Press early on and Trump has embraced these policies and is now attacking the FBI as revelations about his transition team's involvement with directing Mr. Flynn's interactions with the Russians. And this is just the tip of the iceberg as the violations of the emoluments clause, the Logan Act and even matters of National Security begin to stack up. Even more disturbing is the Republican silence and in most cases the support they continue to give the President in the face of this perfidy. Watching the destruction of the country's experiment in Democracy is painful.
What happened to Trump surrounding himself with the best the nation has to offer? He drained the swamp and put them into the cabinet. In Bannon's efforts to "destroy the administrative state" we're watching the collapse of the institutions that actually did make America great. All at the hands of an unbalanced, mercurial and frenetic President who has close ties with Vladimir Putin who clearly is delighted at the chaos the nation now finds itself in under this criminal administration.
The entire matter is sickening. Yet Trump's supporters will continue to applaud this mess as the country crumbles before their very blind eyes. Welcome to the new world order. Madness.
2
Stupidity shades over into evil when ill effects of one thing are intended to provide excuses for greater ill. When people complain that the GOP tax "reform" will explode the deficit, they're missing the point that it is intended to explode the deficit so that they will have stronger reason at last to roll back entitlement programs. The GOP's previous opposition to increasing the deficit was of course stupid economically, but crafty politically, as an excuse not to increase social benefit funding. That didn't work, so now they are working indirectly, with a one-two punch—to pump up the deficit in order to be compelled to actually reduce social benefit funding. The first strategy was stupid and didn't work, so now they're trying evil, to see if that works toward the same self-serving goal.
4
"Trump may one day have to abandon the post he inhabits but he plans to reduce the village to ashes before he exists" The ghosts of Mordor are setting America in doomsday's fire. It is an apocalyptic vision indeed and I vouch that a few of my acquaintances have already turned themselves into orcs.
In desperation, when there is nothing there, one clutches whatever is there. A zero clutches another integer no matter how less than zero the other integer happens to be. They bond and become an entity...no matter how less than zero the entity happens to be.
1
The great danger in focusing on Trump and Bannon is that we will overlook the real powers behind the nation's slide into fascism. Trump's policies are directly in line with Ayn Ranidan economics going back to the Reagan era and beyond. Trump is merely the latest and most transparent salesman for the same ruthless capitalism that brought on the Great Depression. The Republican Party, acting on behalf of its donors and owners, is gleefully abolishing the last remnants of the New Deal so that we can usher in an era of extravagance that will make the Gilded Age look chintzy. If Trump falters, he'll be replaced by Mike Pence and we'll all get yet another round of family values featuring God, motherhood, and church, all in the name of liberty and justice for all.
4
It is not Trump and Bannon, or rather, not only them. We must remember, and repeat endlessly, the following three true things about modern Republicanism:
(1) It is not patriotic. It places self-interest above country, always.
(2) It is weak and fearful. It needs everyone else to be afraid, too.
(3) It is incompetent at anything useful.
If we are to save ourselves, we must make these synonymous with "Republican" in the public mind, until the party disappears or comes to its senses.
2
@Mike Roddy. I agree that none of us who voted for Hillary should EVER blame ourselves. She won. Democracy lost.
3
"He plans to reduce the village to ashes".
My first thought was of the way the former Burma is treating the Rohinga.
People of color, the disabled, the disadvantaged, religious minorities, women, and even many of the middle class will be reduced to ashes if they haven't already been reduced to ashes.
Welcome, United States citizens to the land of all "developing" nations.
Blow, thank you for your article. Truth be told, after the tax bill passed, I really didn't need more bad news to remind me the the scary state of the country.
2
So, what do we do? The answer is not money. The answer is not counter protests. The answer is not PACs. The answer is not great writing by people like Charles Blow. What we have is a president (among others) who are using the 35% in a very strategic and calculated way to wipe out the influence of the 65%. The absolutely ONLY way to turn this around will be for as many of those 65% to go to the polls and vote. Not to sit at home. Not to shrug their shoulders and say "My vote doesn't matter" . Not to say that "They are making it hard to register". No the answer is for all able bodied citizens to register and vote. And the Democrats should use grass roots efforts not to raise money to run attack ads and pay campaign staff and pollsters. The money raised should be to help Americans register to vote. To pay for their ID, if necessary. To provide Uber and Lyft and buses and cabs to help people register and vote. Raising money, that's easy. Getting millions to the polls is the hard part. But can you imagine the look on the Republicans' faces if there was a massive voter turnout? How hard can it be to convince people of the need for voting? These people in power want to take away your money, health care, food stamps, retirement, ability to pay for college, safe drinking water and breathable air, consumer protections, and on and on. Use Trump's own words for the #1 reason to go vote:"What have you got to lose?" Turns out a lot. Your vote DOES matter.
2
I predict that Trump fails to sign off on the tax bill. Bannon will be thrilled to cast this win for McConnell into defeat. And, by the time the ink is finally dry on this bill, the approval ratings will be even lower, and a 2/3 vote to override the veto may not be available. Bannon know this President in on the ropes, and is making sure the Republican Party will do down with Trump.
2
By the way, I liked the way you shut down the execrable Trump “friend” Chris Reddy on ABC yesterday.
64
Not convinced that Bannon's oeuvre of racism, nationalism, and destruction of democratic government has much to do with ideology. If you actually read his words, it's difficult to find anything more original or profound than what came out of the mouths of the jabbering Nazis in Munich 90 years ago. Like his late buddy Andrew Breitbart, it's about free floating hatred but, even more importantly, money.
Few know that Steve is actually joined at the hip with David Koch and Robert Mercer, who begrudge any starving person in the country from getting a free meal or doctor visit.
I learned this fact when Gail and I held up a giant bloody "Koch Kills" sign at the donor enclave at Rancho Mirage about seven years ago. Breitbart tried to distract the dumbfounded reporters present by gliding around on roller skates. Next, Bannon emerged from the hotel so he could come up to me and asked my name, in a threatening manner. He somehow thought that an overweight white guy who looked like he was on the tail end of a three day drunk could intimidate me by impersonating a cop, or maybe a Brownshirt.
There is no there there with men like Bannon, Koch, and the whole Trump crew. We can blame ourselves for allowing them to take power, but I prefer to blame corporate media, scared schools, and our whorish Congress. Where we go from here is the hard part. Hello, Zuckenberg, Bezos, Schmidt, and Bren? Your half a trill won't spend well when our ecosystem collapses.
599
Thank you for verbalizing what I think. I would also say a school system that allows ignorance to grow. We need to fight back on every corner that we can, give all that we can (could be 1$) to a candidate that speaks TRUTH. Again thank you so much for speaking my mind eloquently and professionally!
3
@Mike Roddy. Actually, sir, there is a "there" there. It's anger and grievance and it's written all over Bannon and a coterie of past and present White House servants — Priebus, Spicer, Conway, and the boss himself. Grievance and anger at a world telling them every day that they are not of the elites and never can be of the elites they hate so furiously. But they don't hate them for what they stand for. They hate them because they can't get into the clubhouse. The club to which they most want to belong is closed to them. A pitiable irony is that they wouldn't be happy inside anyway. They would still be insecure, would still curse themselves as outsiders, would still be angry. For their personal pathology the rest of us are paying the price: the end of the American republic.
3
Certainly a doomsday scenario Mike and unfortunately, has a good chance of coming true.
4
Today Chuck Grassley said that people who aren't millionaires spent all their money on "booze and women." Do you see what the Republican party is doing? Throughout history people in power have used lies and name-calling to make their enemy less than human. Trump, Grassley, and the whole Republican party are making anyone who isn't a millionaire into the enemy. We're not millionaires because we spend our money on medical bills, rent, food, and our families. In the Republican world we're not millionaires because we're drunken womanizers.
You see, it isn't America first in Trump and Bannon's world. It's billionaires first in their world. They're making the US into an oligarchy, just like their friend, Putin's country. It will be a country owned, ruled, and controlled by the wealthy.
936
The full Grassley quote and context is even better, Linda.
“I think not having (i.e., eliminating) the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies,” the Greedy Grassley told the Des Moines Register.
GOP Translation:
The few rich are holy....and deserve to be worshiped, idolized and rewarded.
The many poor and middle class are low-life dirtballs, and deserved to be punished, taxed and humiliated.
Nice Grand Oligarch Party...always relieving their gilded bladders on the masses below them.
774
Grassley's quote and Hatch's of a few days ago about "people who won't help themselves - won't lift a finger..." should be plastered on billboards in every rural and rust belt area that support Trump and the GOP. FOX news certainly won't tell them what the people they elect really think of them.
316
Calvinism once again . . .
The real philosophy, if it can be called that, behind these oligarchs is a Calvinistic/Social Darwinistic ethos that basically sees anyone not rich as not deserving of anything good in life--as not part of the Elect--by virtue of not being rich, as the accumulation of wealth is a sign of divine favor and heavenly worthiness.
Of course, I don't think the Koch/Adelson axis is particularly ideological, but they share with Trump the idea of "if you're so smart, why aren't you rich"? So though Trumpian dogma may be directly Breitbartian on the oppression of the unworthy poor, they see pretty much eye to eye. Bannon and his ilk might just be more explicit in how they propose to get rid of the poor (and the non-white, and the immigrant). But one cannot underestimate the degree to which Calvinism informs the ideology and behavior of the alt-right and the oligarchs.
15
Scary stuff indeed. The Savior Trump is in reality the Destroyer Trump. Guess who his closest co-conspirators are? The Republicans of the US Congress.
What? How can I say that? Because they need his signature for the horrible bills they want to pass to gut the safety net and install a permanent wealth aristocracy. So they turn a blind eye to everything Trump does. They will not oppose him. They can and they should, but will not. Power is all that matters and they want to keep their hands on the reins. If appeasement maintains their hold, then so be it. Who was that British guy that pulled the same stunt with that German fellow? How did that work out?
Oh, but it's worse. Mr. Blow is rightly concerned about the evil Bannon pulling Trump's strings. Guess who else listens to Breitbart? Trump supporters. What else? They only watch Fox News. They have Hannity and Limbaugh pouring out of their radios. About 1/3 of the nation has been brainwashed by a nonstop avalanche of Savior Trump propaganda 24/7, and they believe all of it.
As the exit comes closer for the Savior Trump, the speed of horrible legislation and appointments quickens. There can be other reason for such a reckless pace except a pending exit.
Trump never allow himself to be impeached. He will resign first. Then Bannon and the rest will mount campaign claiming that the media pushed him out. The Trump supporters will believe that too. And integrity died in the process.
406
The chance of Trump actually being impeached in this day and age is 10% tops. This isn’t the 70s, when people (including politicians) still had some sense of right and wrong. The fact Trump was even elected proves the point. And no, Trump won’t leave quietly if threatened. He loves being in the spotlight, for better or worse.
The chances of Trump and Pence both being ejected are zero. Pence would do more damage in a month than Trump could do in a year.
Strap in boys and girls, this ride has just started.
2
Democrats believe all government agencies are important - the bigger, the better. Currently these agencies are run by Obama holdovers who are out to obstruct everything.
Trump, the sick fool, isn't aware enough to understand that once he signs the tax bill, themnail in the coffin of American democracy, he will no longer be of value to the donor class. In relatively short order after the 2018 midterms, he'll be discarded for the more reliably radical Pence (who has been understudying all along, actively courting his base). That removal will be positioned in someway that shifts the blame onto the Democrats.
1
The first time I saw the results of a face-scraping (burns off a few layers of facial dermis to get rid of pocks and blemishes) it was a little scary – all red and raw for a couple of weeks, but pretty good when normal again ... it was on the SoHo gay friend of one of my wife’s friends. A fashionista who was a very funny guy. Bannon desperately needs to look for great skin on an aging gay guy and ask directions to the nearest burn-parlor. Or drink (a lot) less scotch. Or both.
Charles should remember that Ebenezer was redeemed, entirely by the good effects of those hauntings.
The reason that so many of the 43.6 million Twits (over one-third of all the people who VOTED on 8 November of last year) who “follow” Trump so avidly support him is that he DOES ascribe to the three legs of Bannon’s ideological stool (of the wooden kind intended to hold up bums in seats): national security and sovereignty, economic nationalism and deconstruction of the administrative state. Most of us, though, prefer those legs to be less muscular than Bannon does. Most of us don’t favor irresponsible bomb-throwing, either, but realize that some is inevitable to get even a medium-sized bonfire going.
And note that none of that is “racist” or “Nazi”.
But also note that the cheering audience for SOME version of that ideology is so vast that Charles’s persistent ickification of Trump isn’t likely to have an enormous effect. Either repair the broken record (if you can) or buy a new one.
10
Why does it matter that your wife’s pock-marked friend is gay? No need to reply--it’s a rhetorical question.
I think I speak for many here when I say that your effort to paint Trump, et al, as just regular republicans with possibly a bit of an edge is laughable--if it weren’t so frightening.
85
You might as well recommend dermaplaning to the Cheshire cat. Bannon's overly stout milking stool is meant to be a heavy lift, to provide certainty and balance for those who cling to it in what they perceive to be a hostile and confusing world. It help focus the resentments, nurturing them as they grow into hate. It distracts from their pockets being picked as they watch their new sacred cow milking the national cow. And once you justify bomb throwing, expect everyone to do it.
Richard then mistakes volume for numbers, assuming Trump's support is "vast". Must we go over the inauguration again? We should have finished verifying and recounting, but somehow that got stopped.
So Richard, the old adage remains true: 2 wrongs don't make a right. But 3 lefts do.
10
I have news for you, Richard. There is racism in at least two of the three legs of your idealogical stool. "National security and sovereignty" has become a dog whistle for anti-immigration, which these days only applies to immigrants of Hispanic descent. "Deconstruction of the administrative state" is code for doing away with welfare, food stamps, health care, or anything that helps fellow Americans who need help, especially minorities. The third leg, economic nationalism, is a mystery to me, since those rich Americans who can more greatly contribute to America economically choose instead to spend their money paying dishonest politicians to make them richer and to help them shield their money from taxes, mostly stashing it overseas. Not sure what nation this helps.
20
“I’m a Leninist. Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment," said Steve Bannon in 2013, according to writer Ronald Radosh.
The Trump election and Administration have already destroyed the fabric of America and the idea of representative government.
Trump and Bannon have gaslighted reality from day one - denying Trump's record vote deficit for a President, denying his paltry inauguration crowds, denying any Russian assistance, and proclaiming non-stop victory while creating a new enemy each day for his idiotic arsenal of Trump victimology while he enriches the rich and himself like no other President has since the Robber Baron glory days of the 1870's and 1880's.
Trump has spent his entire political life trashing the truth, Birther Liar par excellence that he is.
Trump has already trashed the media that tries to do honest reporting, calling them the 'enemy of the people', a favorite expression of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin....and apparently of Donald Trump and Steven Bannon.
On Sunday, Trump trashed the nation's chief investigators, the FBI, a dedicated national agency that works hard finding out the truth about the nation's criminals and mafia characters and keeping citizens safe from rogues.
Trump would rather destroy every American institution - including the Presidency - than admit his serial lies.
And now it's time Donald Trump's Presidential self-destruction.
664
Trump an Bannon have gaslighted reality but remember it was Karl Rove who mocked liberals for living in the reality based world and bragged about conservatives creating their own reality.
6
You must be able to see how biased the FBI has been. The investigations are run by pro Clinton, Trump hating agents.
And now he has Nunes joining in the attack on the FBI. Such an obvious joining with Trump. Was he called upon or is this just a way to ingratiate himself with Trump.
3
"Trump may one day have to abandon the post he inhabits, but he plans to reduce the village to ashes before he exits."
And he's doing an excellent job at it, of one can put the word "excellent" in any sentence that refers to Donald Trump.
I find it ironic that the most blustery, outspoken, and arrogant man in the White House is actually afraid of John Kelly, sneaking around him like a defiant teenager thumbing his nose at curfew.
But in terms of Bannon, while I get the "deconstruction of the deep state" (only a nut-job like Bannon could come up with that phrase), and the security and sovereignty buckets, but what's with the "economic nationalism"?
That sort of sounds like Trump-Bannon care about the little guys while it's eminently clear all they care about is making a buck off the taxpayers' dime.
It's instructive to watch all those "roll the videotapes" segments on major pundit talk shows and realize just how quickly and completely Trump has abandoned every campaign pledge, from changing the tax code to benefit the common man to screams of "Only I can fix it" and "I will be your voice.
Of all the lies Trump spouts daily, I think the above promises were accurate, but not in the way Trump's supporters heard them.
Only Trump could manage to set himself and his family up so nicely (yours be damned). And nobody is better than Trump at voicing the anger and resentment of his supporters.
Hope it tastes good, because it's all you're going to get.
263
"And he's doing an excellent job at it, of one can put the word "excellent" in any sentence that refers to Donald Trump."
In the way of malignant narcissists, we have not begun to see the mass destruction enacted by Trump when he realizes he's going down. The possibilities are frightening.
5
That Trump needs to be treated as a defiant teenager speaks volumes.
2
"Trump the conman has a wingman and together, in the shadows, they are leading us to ruin."
According to the exit polls Trump did not win the Electoral College. That's why Jill Stein requested recounts in suspect swing states. Unfortunately, they were never completed. Lawyers for Trump and the Secretaries of State went to court to shut them down, and they succeeded. So what citizens are being told is that despite the public nature of elections we have no right to verify suspect election results.
If we had transparent and verifiable vote counts – ballots counted at polling places on election night with observers of all interested parties present – Trump and the Republicans wouldn’t be pushing draconian legislation.
Exit Polls Indicate that Trump Did Not Win the Electoral College http://tdmsresearch.com/2016/11/10/2016-presidential-election-table/
Jonathan Simon: Donald Trump Warned of a 'Rigged' Election, Was He Right? http://www.mintpressnews.com/donald-trump-warned-of-a-rigged-election-wa...
Many want to dismiss election fraud as conspiracy theory without looking at the forensic evidence. However, there's a vast amount of exit poll data which indicates that some election results are "statistically impossible," and pattern evidence such as exit poll discrepancies appearing in competitive elections, but not in non-competitive races.
(cont'd below)
208
(2 of 2)
Why would computerized election fraud be out of the realm of possibility when we have overt manipulation: voter suppression, gerrymandering, big money, and a stolen Supreme Court seat?
Computer scientists have proven over and over that machines are easily hackable. It’s up to the citizenry to be engaged and demand that our democratic right to an observable vote counting process be restored. The Ossoff/Handel special election is the latest example of an election with red flags.
Jonathan Simon: Laughing Their Ossoff: Did Computer-Aided Fraud Play A Role In Georgia's Special Election Upset?
https://www.mintpressnews.com/laughing-their-ossoff-did-computer-aided-f...
Canada, Australia, Japan, and European countries count their votes by hand. An Austrian court ordered a re-do of their presidential election because some votes were counted without observers present. Germany, Ireland, and The Netherlands went back to hand counting after realizing the vulnerabilities with computerized voting.
The history of computerized voting:
https://harpers.org/archive/2012/11/how-to-rig-an-election/
“In 2009, [Germany's] constitutional court upheld the basic principle of the public nature of democratic elections. By ruling that the vote count must be something the public can authenticate—and without any specialized expertise—the decision directly challenged the use of computers in elections."
#SayNoToFaithBasedVoting
314
To RLS ~ Thank you, thank you for continuing to post about suspected election fraud in 2016. It does seem more than a bit incongruous that the winner of the popular vote, the largest by a loser, is not our President. I hope I live long enough for election fraud to be proven, although I think the levers of power in this country will never admit to this unless forced to.
172
And we all know - or should know - why electronic voting is so entrenched. There's money in it for the private companies, whose technology is propriety and therefore not open to the public. Even if the vote tallies are supposedly verifiable, there's no assurance that they are tallying real votes.
The Russians may indeed have swayed the election, but that's a drop in the bucket compared with likely home-grown, and almost untraceable, interference.
31
Bannon is a specter who looks as though he's been pre-embalmed. This puts him in touch with dark forces which he channels to the president, a simpleton whose hairy head is an empty vessel with no filter to keep out toxic ideas. Together, they’re like Timmy and Lassie. Sit. Stay. Attack. Good dog.
The government is reeling under the influence of defective leadership, bad ideas, destructive department heads, self-serving ideologues and a clueless class of deplorables who put them in office. All this, and the nuclear football is always within the president’s reach.
The criminal theft of the middle-class’ future is going unchallenged. If Democrats aren’t silent they’re told to sit down and shut up. The news does little more than report on the exciting devolution of American Democracy, while it takes insults and lies from Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Still we watch, as though we’re gawking at a traffic accident that we’re a part of.
The sensible part of the American population may be too diluted by the sizeable minority of the clueless and resentful to turn around the ship of state. We may be headed for the rocks, and there is nothing we can do to stop it.
When a spiteful idiot is put in the Oval Office, this is what happens. We’ve had good presidents and we've had bad presidents. But we’ve never had a population who couldn’t tell the difference.
841
Gemli, comparing Trump to Lassie is insulting to dogs. Lassie was intelligent, kind and willing to risk life and limb to help humanity. Furthermore, Lassie's hair was beautiful, natural and not combed over or dyed.
6
Pre-embalmed? I just laughed for the first time in forty eight hours, and, really, ten months. Thank you.
5
Actually, I've always thought Bannon looked like he was partially decomposed already.
6
It is hard to mount the energy to respond daily to rampant stupidity. That's what we are witnessing in the secession of twitter posts, remarks, and policies from Trump, nay, the entire Republican party. To the extent that Bannon is sympatico with Trump, it only frames and magnifies Trump's core: an irrationally rooted hate of women and people of color, expressed as an invective of blame, lies, and fights, embedded in policy and social values, well in place in his heart and thinking long before Bannon or his European equivalents were known to Trump. He loves being the leader of the global brotherhood of white nationalists/racists/Nazis who chant "blut und boden" ("blood and soil"). He only loves Putin and himself more.
363
Mr. Rhett, your posts help keep me sane, along with Jane Mayer from The New Yorker, who stated that the truth is a very powerful force and will prevail. I really hope so. In the meantime, thanks for everything you do to shine the light on the darkness.
180
Perhaps you are on the mark, Mr. Rhett, but then Putin despises Trump.
4
To all: humble thanks. Miss Ley, being from NY, with its sophistications, you are aware of the irony and attraction of unrequited love! Made more powerful and maddening by its rejection and denial. Why else, other than a massive hidden debt, would one embarrass oneself on the global stage, even giving the security of our embassy in Russia over to a former counter-intelligence who was once Putin's boss--whose work included bugging, spying, and gathering intelligence on embassies worldwide--with a no-bid contract. Trump risks state secrets and our national security for a woo. Then denies the "collusion" which has many forms. But it all seems to narrow to two unthinkable, but universal reasons at the heart of tragedies, money or love!
3
While Bannon was still in the White House, the press carried occasional glimpses of his white board, which outlined a host of actions in progress and yet to be taken. Bannon, no doubt, was an ardent supporter and possible instigator of some of Trump's more rightest actions, like the debacle of the first rollout of the immigration policy. Things have not really changed much with Bannon on the outside, primarily because he still has his core followers through Breitbart, and still influences Trump's policies. As much as I would like to see the end of his rhetoric, we live in a democracy where all voices can be heard. The appropriate action is to denounce the hate speech and to drown it out with contrary messages that stand for racial, religious, and gender non-discrimination. Trump's retweeting of anti-Muslim videos was quickly followed by British and American counter tweets. This is appropriate. Peaceful demonstrations are appropriate. The free press is essential to the process. Nevertheless, the alt-right has an influential ally in Trump whose power cannot be ignored. Neither Richard Spencer, personally, nor Breitbart News, as a news outlet, can reach the 40+ million that Trump reaches through his twitter account. His audience for the anti=Muslim video retweets was arguably one of the largest ever to see such propaganda.
117