Why Steve Bannon's white nationalism should scare America
Anyone who is surprised at the appointment of right-wing guru Steve Bannon as the Donald Trump administration's chief strategist and counselor has been living in an alternate universe, the universe in which President-elect Trump would "pivot" into something resembling a mainline GOP conservative.
And anyone who is amazed at Trump's temerity in putting a white nationalist into the White House has gravely misunderstood the power of racism in fueling his campaign, and the desire to "turn back the clock" to a time when white men supposedly ruled supreme.
Above all, they've forgotten the cardinal rule of Trumpworld: attachment to profit and the Trump brand is a means of increasing influence and power over others. As CEO of Breitbart News, Bannon is key to that strategy, in America and beyond.
Anti-Defamation League: Bannon hire 'troubling'
Bannon is most famous for his stewardship of Breitbart, the right-wing media outlet that many liberal Americans first became aware of when its reporter, Michelle Fields, was manhandled by Trump's then-campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. Fields then resigned when her employer tried to discredit her.
This episode served as an introduction to one of Breitbart's, and Bannon's, central platforms: the denigration of women. Breitbart News uses misogyny as clickbait, blaring headlines like "There's No Hiring Bias Against Women in Tech: They Just Suck at Interviews."
The blaming and intimidation of women who have been sexually harassed is a favorite theme. As the world knows, this has been an ongoing issue for Trump. Indeed, he's our first President-elect to have inspired an episode of Law & Order, Special Victims Unit, about a presidential candidate who faces accusations from women (scheduled for November 2016, it's now to be aired sometime in 2017).
Bannon's appointment signals that racism will be a lever of the actions taken by the Trump administration. As a historian of fascism, I can tell you that Breitbart has been serving up a textbook-worthy campaign of racist indoctrination. Don't buy into it further. Otherwise, you're going to develop nearsightedness and a crick in your neck from looking away from things you'd rather not see.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/14/opinions/trump-bannon-ben-ghiat/index.html
Another nail in Trump's faithless elector coffin...
News like this will make it easier to be a faithless elector when December 19th comes around...
we chose the right guy.
