WILL DONALD TRUMP BE THE FIRST US PRESIDENT WITH HIS OWN IN-HOUSE RACIST?

 

 

…This man Bannon says his group is not racist…is he correct?

 

Mr. Stephen Bannon has been called a racist, an anti-Semite and a white nationalist.

 

Since the surprise election results, I have been asked more than once why haven’t I gotten on the band wagon against the new key advisor to Donald Trump, Mr. Stephen Bannon, former head of the far-right website, Breitbart News?

 

Since this man joined the Trump team, Mr. Bannon has been called a racist, an anti-Semite and a white nationalist, and all of that was said even before he was made Trump’s key White House strategist.  Mr. Bannon was also to be on the same level as the new White House Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus.

 

Now, the truth be told, no strategist position would ever be on the same level as the White House Chief of Staff.  That position has no equal, as the CoS is in total control of the American president’s daily schedule.  If you need to meet with the president, you don’t decide whether you should call the CoS or the key strategist.  You obviously call the CoS.  The CoS is also the president’s direct connection the US Congress.

 

But, what is it about Bannon that has so many up in arms and calling Mr. Bannon such questionable names.

 

It’s true that Bannon has attracted legions of followers who describe themselves as white supremacists. It’s less clear whether Bannon’s own actions and words prove that he is one as well.  Bannon describes himself as a leader of the Alt-Right, which is a loose description of a far-right ideology that includes opposition to US immigration and “globalism.”

 

If you understand what the Alt-Right is, then you might really have some good reasons for wondering why Donald Trump has appointed this man to such an influential position.  But first, you need to understand just what the Alt-Right is….?

 

Alt-Right:

The Alt-Right stands for “alternative right wing ideology” and it is a loose group of people with far right ideologies who reject today’s mainstream conservatism in the United States.  Members of the Alt-Right use social media like Twitter and Breitbart News to convey their message.  It is difficult to tell how much of what Alt-Right people write is actually serious, or how much they use their writings to mainly provoke outrage.  Alt-Right people supported Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and they oppose immigration, multiculturalism and political correctness.

 

The Alt-Right movement has no formal ideology, although various internal sources have stated that their white nationalism is a fundamental point. The movement has also been associated with white supremacism, Islamophobia, antifeminism, homophobism, anti-semitism, ethno-nationalism, right-wing populism, nativism, and traditionalism.  Whether all of these associations are part of the Alt-Right is questionable, but their nationalism and opposition to immigration are definitely key parts of their beliefs.

 

According to Bannon, the Alt-Right is not racist. Yet some of the highest praise for Bannon’s appointment came from racists such as white nationalists and white supremacists. According to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors far-right and far-left activity on the Internet, a trove of comments celebrating the election news have posted on Stormfront, a website for the “White Nationalist Community,” including one from a reader called “Pheonix1993:”  “Stephen Bannon: racist, anti-homo, anti-immigrant, anti-jewish, anti-establishment. Declared war on Paul Ryan.  He sounds perfect. The man who will have Trump’s ear more than anyone else & being anti-jewish is not illegal.”

 

The white nationalist writer Richard Spencer posted this late Sunday on Twitter: “Bannon will answer directly to Trump and focus on the big picture, and not get lost in the weeds. Bannon is not a ‘chief of staff,’ which requires a ‘golden retriever’ personality. He’ll be freed up to chart Trump’s macro trajectory.”

 

Here are various other comments about Mr. Bannon or from other columnists on Mr. Bannon’s appointment:

 

From a Washington Post opinion writer: “Under Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart became an anti-“globalist” news site clearly aligned with the European far right. It attracts self-described white supremacists with such headlines as “Bill Kristol: Republican spoiler, renegade Jew.” It also offers a steady stream of questionable opinion essays.

 

“According to a 2007 court statement, Bannon’s ex-wife accused him of not wanting their twin daughters attending a California private school because its student body included too many Jews.”

 

“Bannon left Breitbart in August to become chief executive of Trump’s presidential campaign. Until then, he had never been part of any political campaign. Little of what he did made sense to political reporters looking for the normal tokens of a winning effort.  Neither the Trump Mississippi rally including the Brexit leader Nigel Farage, nor the surprise news conference with all the Bill Clinton accusers.”

 

“The rhetoric that Bannon is feeding Trump makes it increasingly likely that Trump will lose in a landslide,” This was mistakenly written by the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza in October.

 

“An FBI letter and tens of thousands of WikiLeaked emails later, Bannon is poised to be Trump’s chief strategist and senior counselor. Democrats have laced into him, but Republicans, taking the lead of House Speaker Paul Ryan, have not mentioned Bannon at all, not even to point out that many Breitbart staffers are Jewish.”

 

“And there is talk of more Breitbart reporters joining Bannon at the White House, in roles that do not require Senate confirmation.”

 

Bannon had joked a year before he was hired that he was effectively Trump’s campaign manager because the Republican front-runner was a “nationalist.” Bannon identified Breitbart as a home for the Alt-Right for the same reason.

 

Accusations of racism were constant at Breitbart and internal power struggles were seen as proof the whole project was falling apart.  But Breitbart, which launched a London branch in early 2014, had seen this before. The site’s editor, Raheem Kassam, later became Chief of Staff to the Brexit leader Farage, as his anti-Euro United Kingdom Independence Party surged.

 

The successful Brexit vote this summer in UK was seen at Breitbart as nationalism’s great validation. In an analysis by two of the site’s UK writers, the failure of the “Remain in the Union” campaign in Britain — one that united most of both of the country’s major parties and most of its experts — proved that the masses wanted a revolt against “globalism.” Warnings about what the wrong vote would do to markets, or that it would make people think of voters as racists, meant less than nothing to the anti-globalism working class.

 

In America, Breitbart was the place for news on the revolt against the “globalists.” European far-right politicians had earned regular Breitbart write-ups. A typical headline: "Either We Kill Islamism or It Kills Us.” Their politics were seen as necessary because of the migrant crimes screaming across Breitbart, such as this headline: “Previously-Deported Illegal Alien Caught on Camera Destroying Trump Signs.”

 

Coverage like that turned Breitbart into a powerhouse according to the New York Times.  It earned more Facebook impressions on election night than Fox News or CNN. More importantly, Bannon helped shape a Trump message that won the condemnation of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) — and helped him in swing states. Trump’s closing ad, a two-minute edit of a speech he had given attacking the “global financial powers,” struck the ADL as hitting “anti-Semitic themes.” In the wider media, it was seen as highly populist.

 

“I played the clip for like five different people and I asked, ‘Is that anti-Semitic?’” said MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough last week. “No. There are dog whistles, but . . . play that ad to 100 Americans in middle America, 99 of them will go, ‘That’s cool.’ ”

 

Further on the political fringe, both Bannon and Breitbart were credited with honing Trump’s message against “globalism”, and unleashing his say-anything approach to talking about terrorism and immigrant crime.

 

Finally, to put this all into perspective, Alex Jones, the Texas-based online extreme host who has attacked “globalists” and called the 9/11 attacks an inside job.  Jones told his followers that Trump had thanked him for his coverage of the election.

 

The sometime-Trump adviser, Roger Stone, did suggest to Trump that Bannon become Trump’s chief of staff to keep the momentum of the campaign going.

 

Apparently, that’s one of the reasons that Bannon was appointed as Trump’s key White House strategist.

 

It looks like Mr. Bannon will be with us, along with his Alt Right thinking for most of Trump’s time in the White House.

 

And the hits just keep on coming.......

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016