Steve Bannon: Post-Charlottesville racial strife is a political winner for Trump
By Greg Sargent August 17 at 10:17 AM
THE MORNING PLUM:
It had already been widely reported that President Trumps chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, was among the very few top officials around Trump who quietly cheered as he resisted pressure to unequivocally lay the blame for the deadly violence in Charlottesville on Nazis and white supremacists.
But now Bannon has gone public with this view, in a pair of new interviews. Indeed, he has gone even further: In a striking admission, Bannon confirmed that he views the racial strife and turmoil unleashed by Charlottesville as a political winner for Trump.
In the first interview, with the New York Times], Bannon explicitly defended the portion of Trumps comments in which he seemed to defend the rallying white supremacists opposition to the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Trump asked rhetorically whether this would ultimately lead to the removal of statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Heres Bannon:
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/08/17/steve-bannon-post-charlottesville-racial-strife-is-a-political-winner-for-trump/?utm_term=.1df6441bfd71&wpisrc=nl_popns&wpmm=1
BootinUp
(47,209 posts)Or something. Cause that's just nuts.
Squinch
(51,075 posts)uniting to proclaim their solidarity against racist symbols.
I'm seeing Nazis losing their jobs and crying on YouTube and generally cowering from the publicity they sought.
I'm not seeing racial strife.
BigmanPigman
(51,649 posts)off the record whish is total BS. He is running the White House and he is getting everything he wanted...to divide and destroy the government (particularly the GOP) and country. He is an anarchist.
Quanta
(195 posts)BUT, the good news is we can walk and chew gum at the same time. His lack of empathy and open derision of "the other" should never leave the news cycle, but a bit of the incompetence and failure to deliver promises to his base should ALSO be talked about every single day. He has more than one weak spot that can be exploited.
Solly Mack
(90,798 posts)- support for his economic nationalism will come from the racists angry that people are pushing back against their hate.
The "take my country back" people will feel all the more bitter from the push back against racism.
Bannon blames immigration for all the woes of American workers - so that plays into the racism as well.
Make some white people angry by telling them that non-whites and non-Christians are taking their jobs and taking over (white) America.
Bannon is a strong voice in the ban against Muslims.
Give them scapegoats to blame instead of those actually to blame.
Then claim people against racism are trying to take everything else away from them.
Angry racists and ignorant people who won't look at the facts will support Trump/Bannon and economic nationalism.
So he sees an attack on things haters cherish as a way to keep them angry, driving them to support Trump.
He is, in short, and to repeat myself, using racism to advance his cause.
He also wants America to become isolationists and not active participants in areas such as NATO, the UN, climate agreements, and other treaties that make us part of the larger world.
There are several great articles floating about talking about Bannon and his nationalism.
Unfortunately, because of ignorance and racism, Bannon's ideas appeal to some. We have to combat both ignorance and racism to change that.