In her own inimitable way last night Rachel Maddow produced a detailed profile on freshly minted White House Advisor Steve Bannon starting with his history in Hollywood producing films which portray fictional global warming scientist as mad terrorists, portray Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson as a new Christian Prophet, and former Alaskan ½ term Governor Sarah Palin as “Undefeated”.
A man who admitted in court that he insulted and threatened female members of Biosphere 2 project while it was under his management, who assaulted and threatened his wife and was charged with domestic violence and witness intimidation which ultimately resulted in her not appear in court for his trial and all charges being dropped. His ex-wife also later testified under oath that she had battled Bannon over which schools to send their daughters too because many of the Los Angeles area private schools they toured had “Jews” in them, and he “didn’t like” jews because they grow up to be “winey brats”.
Then there are his ties to the alt-right movement via his management of Brietbart.com where he has advocated their ideas and ideology which includes the advocation of an all-white homeland which would be free of all immigrants and non-white persons.
So that’s a problem.
Here’s now Mother Jones describes Bannon’s connection to the alt-Right.
In July, Bannon, who soon would leave Breitbart to become a top campaign aide to Trump, was interviewed by journalist Sarah Posner. He proudly declared of Breitbart, "We're the platform for the alt-right." The alt-right is an extreme but not well-defined wing of the conservative movement that rants against immigrants, Muslims, the globalist agenda, and multiculturalism and that generally advocates white nationalism (if not white supremacism—in this world, there is a difference). The alt-right also generates a hefty amount of anti-Semitism. (For more on the alt-right, see here and here.)
So when we hear loads of Trumpologist from Jack Kingston to Kayleigh McEneny argue that Bannon and Brietbart have no connection the xenophobic anti-immigrant and anti-Semitics sentiments — that argument that is totally false since the view is based on Bannon’s own words.
And he went on.
In that interview, Bannon did claim that not all alt-righters were racists and anti-Semites. "Look, are there some people that are white nationalists that are attracted to some of the philosophies of the alt-right?" he said. "Maybe. Are there some people that are anti-Semitic that are attracted? Maybe. Right? Maybe some people are attracted to the alt-right that are homophobes, right? But that's just like, there are certain elements of the progressive left and the hard left that attract certain elements." But that was whitewashing. How do we know? Because of Breitbart's own coverage.
In March, the website published an article headlined "An Establishment Conservative's Guide to the Alt-Right," which was co-written by Milo Yiannopoulos, a prominent figure in the movement. It noted that the alt-right opposed "full 'integration'" of racial groups: "The alt-right believe that some degree of separation between peoples is necessary for a culture to be preserved." This piece cited Richard Spencer, a 30-something Duke Ph.D. dropout, and his AlternativeRight.com website as "a center of alt-right thought."
Racial segregation. The return of Jim Crow in short. And now the prime advocate of this movement is in a key position in the White House with the President-Elect’s greatest attention.
And frankly you still have people like Anderson “Clueless” Cooper who has to be set straight by Glenn Beck on the fact that Bannon does have ties to the alt-right, and the alt-Right has admitted to being White Nationalists.
Via Rawstory.
“Here’s a guy who is taking his platform and saying, ‘I’m going to give the alt-right a voice in this country,'” Beck said, using a term used to describe the loosely organized grouping of white nationalists, misogynists and anti-Semites who congregate on Breitbart News. “Anderson, I would never do that, you would never do that, CNN would never do that — we would never do that, ever. No responsible person would.”
Cooper brushed off Beck’s concerns, saying Trump had insisted he couldn’t support anti-Semitism because his own daughter had converted to Judaism when she got married.
“What (Bannon) believes, I don’t know,” Beck said, suggesting that he whipped the alt-right crowd into a frenzy for Trump simply for profit motives. “Yeah, he could be that kind of guy. People have done that before in history. I think that’s just as dangerous.”
And i definitely agree with Beck on this point.
“Most people don’t even think this exists, so when they hear somebody on CNN or a Harry Reid say this, their immediate response is, ‘Oh, jeez, we’re all racist again,'” Beck said. “So it’s really critical that we don’t paint everybody with that brush, including Steve Bannon or Donald Trump, unless you have real evidence. I know we have evidence that he’s giving those people (a) voice, he has empowered those people through Breitbart, but that’s all we know.”
There is a difference, an important difference, between being a racist or bigot and being someone who is inclined to pander too and promote the ideas and ideology of racism and bigotry for their own gain. People like Beck would likely call them “Race Hustlers.”
I would argue that the right wing has been too often accused of the former, when in fact the latter is actually taking place. Lots of people on the right aren’t racist, but they do have common cause with the methods, tools and objectives of racists — from Voter Suppression to School Re-segregation — and yes we do have to make a distinction because being the latter option IS. FRANKLY. FAR. WORSE.
There really are a great many people who voted for Trump who themselves aren’t racist, and don’t believe that Trump is racist, but they have — as a result of that vote — promoted and endorsed racism into the highest levels of our government. They may not yet believe it, they are likely to deny it and argue otherwise, but that is in fact the case.
The thing is with Bannon considering his personal history and what’s he’s admitted himself in court, and what others including his ex have stated under oath, he is very likely both a bigoted racist, as well as an avid promoter and exploiter of racism.
And also for the same reasons, from his involvement in the 70’s discrimination suit to his comments about Jews and African-Americans being “genetically lazy” and how he hates them “handling his money” in his New Jersey Casinos, as well as they way that he conducted his entire campaign from day one: Donald Trump is very likely both a bigot and a bigotry exploiter as well.
And with Trump’s latest addition of reviled Islamophobe Frank Gaffney to his White House team, the consequences of this may not be very long in coming to fruition.
It also has to be clarified that bigotry isn’t an all or nothing proposition. It’s not 0 to 100 in a 2.2 seconds flat, there are degrees, variations, and shades to it. It can be about just one specific issue (“whiney brats”, “inherent laziness”) that might not really apply to every one within the ethnicity but is a tendency or trait that someone believes is prevalent. It doesn’t have to be overpowering or even the presumption of only negatives traits, it can be the presumption of positive traits for certain groups also. It can be combinations of presumptions of all types. The issue is whether you’re first instinct is to you treat people based on their group, or on their own individuality? Bigots can have good friends and even family members who they consider “exceptions” to the rule once they been lucky enough to “prove” themselves. They can believe someone is “one of the good ones”, but that doesn’t change their basic opinion about most of the rest of that demographic one iota. The fact that anyone has to “prove themselves” to these people is exactly the problem, not evidence that the problem doesn’t exist.
So Trump can be perfectly fine with his son-in-law Jared Kushner, or his own daughter converting to judaism while employing Steve Bannon who wouldn’t let his own children go to schools that had Jews in them. And Bannon can hold those views and still work with Milo — who is gay and jewish — when Milo advocates for the same White Nationalism that Bannon apparently supports. It’s not simple, it’s not black or white. It’s not an on or off switch.
Having one “black or jewish friends/family members” unfortunately isn’t proof of someone not be a bigot. That’s simply insufficient. Once you believe any particular trait is “more likely” you’re already headed down bigoted path, what then matters is what you do — or you don’t do — about it.
Clearly, Trump and Bannon have already done quite a bit — and there’s no indication they’re just going to suddenly “Stop It”, now.