Ya know, my mind kicks over at the strangest things. Last night I watched “Under Siege 2”, a classic two star time killer. For those of you unfamiliar, it stars Steven Seagal as an ex navy seal trying to save a train hijacked by terrorists wanting to blow up Washington by satellite. They took all of the hostages to the last two cars and held them there. Midway through the movie I thought to myself, “Life really does imitate art”. I realized, that;s us! All 260 million of us, being held hostage in the last two cars of the speeding train, while up in fht front a 70 year old maniac with hair the same color of road crew vests tries to blow up Washington. The only difference was that Eric Bogosian had a sense of humor as the bad guy.
There is a reason why they refer to zealots of any stripe, whether religious, political, or whatever as “true believers”. It’s because they truly believe, their devotion is absolute. You cannot reason with them, because the core of their belief is something that can’t be argued against, they believe Trump is fulfilling some inner hole in their lives, whether he really is or not. For instance, you can bring up any of Trump’s obvious and plentiful shortcomings you want, but they won’t pay attention simply because Trump is fucking up Washington and the world. This is what they elected him for, to “shake things up”. If you bring up his pathetic lack of accomplishments, you’ll hear, “Shit man, he’s only been in there for 7 months, give him some time”. If you bring up the early accomplishments of previous Presidents, you’ll hear; “But Trump has all of the Democrats obstructing him!” This from a party where Mitch McConnell spent Inauguration Night plotting to make Obama a one term President.
There’s just one problem for Trump in this. In order to be a true believer, you must be that, you must remain puritanically true to the cause, and your savior. There was a popular ditty about catholics back when I was growing up, a kind of offhand sarcasm about devotion; “In order to keep your faith intact, make sure it stays unsullied by fact”. It only works if it is total and true. Once the first crack of devotion appears, like a crack in the basement wall, you can cover it with plaster, but the crack will still be there, and it will grow. And eventually, the entire wall will crumble.
Trump’s self centered arrogance will be his downfall. He has forgotten Chris Matthews favorite old saw, “You leave with the one who brung ya”. Steve Bannon was there for a reason. Trump desperately needed every neo Nazi and pointy hood losers he could scrape up. Steve Bannon, with his ass wipe online rag Breitbart gave Trump a wider recognition and acceptance than Trump could manage for himself, even with his Sam’s Club bulk size dog whistle. And when you’re the winning campaign “CEO”, you ain’t gonna be unemployed on November 9th.
You can say whatever you want about Steve Bannon, call him any name you want, hell, you can even make up some really kewl nasty sounding ones for him, but the man is no moron. He knew his time would be limited in the White House, he himself understood he was outside the accepted mainstream. But for as long as he was the chief strategist, he was going to put as many of his beliefs and goals into the wet cement that he could. Believe it or not, his reign was not as long as it could have been, nor was it as disastrous. Circumstances worked against him. Mike Flynn was a kindred spirit. He held some of the same wacky views that Bannon did, and brought as many “Flynnstones” as he could into the NSC. But Flynn had to go quickly, and McMaster started trying to clean house. It was Trump himself that actually hastened Bannon’s departure with his petulant, vengeful firing of Reince Priebus as Chief of Staff. Steve Bannon was a fool that John Kelly would not suffer gladly, and he made it a top priority to get Bannon out of there, And out Bannon went.
Many analysts at the time said that Bannon’s ouster was a very dangerous move for Trump, and I believe them. Bannon issued his first threat before he was even back in his car, talking about having his hands back on his weapons, and setting conditions for his continued support of the Trump administration. It is clear that in his political ignorance Trump has no idea of just how dangerous Bannon can be to him, and he has no one in the west wing politically savvy enough to tell him, and even if he did, he wouldn’t listen to them anyway.
Here is what makes Bannon so dangerous to His Lowness. Hair Furor didn’t bring any new members to breitbart, it was Bannon, through Breitbart who put Trump on the map with a bunch of social and political misanthropes that normally paid no attention to politics. Bannon turned them on to Trump, and he can turn them right back off again. Bannon vouched for Trump in the first place, and if Bannon turns around and starts to trumpet from the front page what a two faced traitor to the cause Trump is, Trjump’s mental midget thug supporters will scatter faster than a pack of roaches when the kitchen light goes on. And when you think about it in social context, that analogy is spot on perfect.
It’s already started. Bannon could put his best brave jilted lover party face on all he wanted, Trump took a bruising in the comments section at Breitbart. And the howling reached a wolf pack level when that sniveling, cowardly little Hungarian goosestepper Sebastian Gorka followed Bannon to the street. Ivanka and Kushner got hammered in the comments, and even the Inglorious basterd himself was dodging shit balls from furious fascists. If Stephen Miller is the next head to roll from the John Kelly guillotine, their fury will be unmatched, and the crack will be obvious.
And even if Trump keeps Miller around, he is still in the hurt locker. Bannon, and his idiot readers have very specific goals they want to achieve. But there is no longer anyone from their particular coven next to Trump’s ear in the White House. And Trump is no true believer. Without someone in the west wing in a snowy bedsheet to tell him what they want, Trump will pay no more ideological attention to them than he would if the Dali Lama tried to teach him how to meditate. And when Bannon decides that the Orange Jusius has completely abandoned the cause, the long knives will come out for Trump at Breitbart. And once that happens, not only is Trump screwed, so is every GOP incumbent who so studiously tried to pander to Trump to avoid alienating his rabid base. Let’s just see how long it takes for Bannon to get bored with being patient with Trump and decide to take his revenge. Don’t touch that dial.