I don’t know what it says about Trump other than he values and rewards loyalty above all else but I do know some of the liberal reaction to his choices has been unreasoning and hysterical.
“Saying that kind of thing … says you’re free to express these things”? “These people who’ve been suppressed … are now feeling free to express themselves.”? Where the hell does she think she’s living? North Korea? Of course people should feel free to express themselves, whatever they believe. That’s what the US is about. This is so typical of the ‘progressive’ mindset that’s been trying to impose itself on the country during Obama’s Presidency. The only freedom of speech permissible is speech that concurs with their beliefs. All other speech must be suppressed, shouted down, and people should keep their mouths shut unless they adhere to the party line.
I applaud Trump for his bold appointments, including Bannon. It is so refreshing to see political correctness about to be turfed out of the White House on its ass.
Appointments are a sincere indication of intention. Many of us suspect, with good reason, the Jeff Sessions does not intend to be a champion of equal rights, especially as regards voting. His installment as AG does kinda suggest to us that those concerns are not his.
Exactly. His actions, his impact, and his appeal to the very worst of the Trump demographic is why Trump took him on board and is now rewarding him with what is turning out to be possibly the most influential position in his administration. The fact that Jeff Sessions is going to be the AG is just part and parcel of the same thing – some may recall that in saner times, Sessions was rejected by the Senate for a federal judgeship over allegations of racism, such as a bad habit in his lower-court days of referring to black prosecutors as “boy”. These are not mere anomalies in the Trump team – these are the core values that bind them.
It’s amazing watching the contortions that Trump supporters put themselves through to try to defend Bannon. I’m sure they’ll be out in force defending Confederate good ol’ boy Sessions, too. Defending the indefensible …
White supremacists understand the parallels between Goebbels and Bannon. That’s why the so-called alt-right is applauding Bannon’s key position in the Trump White House. That’s why former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke told CNN, “You have an individual, Mr. Bannon, who’s basically creating the ideological aspects of where we’re going.”
That’s why Americans of every stripe should be appalled.
Bannon, as chairman of Breitbart News, ran a website that trafficked in racist propaganda, targeted Muslims and immigrants with impunity and spread outright lies about those it considered enemies of the racist alt-right movement.
And indeed the similarities are not hard to find, and go beyond just Breitbart, the very incarnation of Goebbels’ dictum that “those who control news policies [must] endeavor to make every item of news serve a certain purpose” and “If you tell the same lie enough times, people will believe it; and the bigger the lie, the better”.
Furthermore:
“Let the grassroots turn on the hate because that’s the ONLY thing that will make them do their duty.” – Steve Bannon (in reference to Republican leadership), proving that he is Not At All Like Josef Goebbels™. Cite.
“Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.” – Josef Goebbels
“Fear is a good thing. Fear is going to lead you to take action.” – Steve Bannon, who is Not At All Like Josef Goebbels™. Cite.
The masses need something that will give them a thrill of horror. – Josef Goebbels
I doubt that any right-winger professing to believe that Trump won’t make a grab for power (of the post-democracy variety) is sincere. Don’t they all admire Putin and the Kim Dynasty and similar “strong men”?
The name of the game is to mock any suggestions that something untoward might be being planned, until it happens. We will see this again and again and again, not only from Trump surrogates, but from the online army of pro-authoritarian Useful Idiots.
It’s foolish to pretend otherwise. As Michael Moore said on the November 11th All In with Chris Hayes, about the period beginning at the Inauguration:
I get that you have political disagreements with Trump and probably will dislike and disagree with a lot of his appointments (my side felt the same way about Obama and his cabinet). You think he’s going to roll back some of the “progress” made during Obama’s administration, and in some areas, you’re probably right. The point I’m driving at, I guess, is that I don’t think this is some undue “power grab”. It’s just the President-Elect doing normal President-Elect stuff, like picking a cabinet. None of it seems to me to be improper or unconstitutional, or signal a dictatorship in its infancy.
I realize this is basically a ‘nyah nyah,’ but seriously: the ways Congress has found to try to keep power with one party and shut the other party out, have obvious ‘shot themselves in the foot’ implications. That’s been true of both parties in our two party system (whatever their names happened to be) for many decades.
I’m a Nixon survivor, been here a while. I’ve seen popular landslides and said, well, shit, that’s it, its the voice of the people loud and clear, by the millions.
Do you see any distinction, any at all, between those conditions and these? Take your time. Think it over.
He says he’s not a white nationalist, more like an economic nationalist, and would like to tear the current system down. He also pushing a trillion dollar infrastructure plan that he knows the conservatives won’t like. Now, I don’t mind some attention paid to infrastructure, but a trillion seems like a lot of tackle. It’s not clear in the interview, but if Bannon thinks that is what will be all the jobs for the working class, it doesn’t make sense as not everyone is cut out for jobs that have to do with infrastructure. Even FDR’s New Deal work programs didn’t have everyone doing the same thing
I have a feeling the Republicans are going to rue feeling so smug about winning the election. I’m sure they thought they could lead Trump around by the nose because of his inexperience and mushy beliefs, but Bannon is going to be a huge thorn in their side as long as Trump keeps him around (and I don’t think Bannon will go quietly)
This is a big reason why the Democrats lost the election (and the Republicans are in for an unwelcome surprise). The populist uprisings happening around the world surprised the UK and now they surprised America, and eventually they’ll probably surprise and consume the rest of Europe. The question will be (for America) if it will be able to focus on economics or devolve further into racism and xenophobia
The thing to keep in mind with a trillion dollar infrastructure plan… There will be a lot of scope (I mean a tremendous amount) for profit to be made by anyone who is a developer with limited ethical constraints who is in a good position in government.
To be clear since I didn’t say so after posting the article, Bannon scares me. If we thought the Tea Party types were true believers, we hadn’t seen nothing yet. This guy wants to tear things down and he doesn’t seem to care who it hurts. Now, I admit, the people in charge weren’t helping the working class as well as they should have or at least weren’t making clear what they were doing to help, and there has been a lot of gridlock with Congress the last few years, but I tend to prefer a little order over destruction and chaos.
Also, FDR had a brain trust of experts advising him and shaping policy. I’m not sure too many of the people surrounding Trump would qualify.
And it’s not just Bannon, but the influence of Trump’s own family. Apparently, Ivanka sat in on Trump’s meeting with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe. Ivanka’s husband is apparently angling for some unpaid advisor slot in an attempt to get around federal nepotism laws. Reince Prebus and Bannon are going to be the angel and devil on Trump’s shoulders with his children playing the wild card role.
Senator Sessions has not been a particularly powerful Senator, even as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, since he had no actual leadership role as Majority Whip, etc and did not seem to have that much influence there. But it is interesting to note that Sessions opposed the 2009 stimulus bill and the repeal of Don’t ask/don’t tell while supporting a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Looks like he won’t be in the Senate to oppose any $1 trillion Trump stimulus bill.
I also think Bannon is the king and voice behind Trump’s populism stance (as it stands now). If somehow he got pushed out of Trump’s orbit completely, Trump’s populist act would probably completely deflate in the sense Trump wouldn’t know what to do, as I think Bannon is totally pushing him in the directions he (Bannon) wants him (Trump) to go
I know, right. I almost regret voting for Obama in 2012, as I would be sleeping much better tonight if we had instead re-elected Mitt Romney last week.
I’d happily trade a one-time trillion dollar stimulus package for a strict-constructionalist SCOTUS justice. I’ll even do it three or four times over the next eight years, and smile the whole time.