Don’t get your hopes up
The news outlets are excited that Bannon may be on his way out. I can’t get all that excited about it, myself – he’s loathsome and he doesn’t belong there times a billion, but it’s not as if his departure will make anything better. It’s all too clear that nothing will make anything better, because Trump is Trump and isn’t going to morph into a reasonable adult devoted to the general welfare.
But anyway, Bannon may be on the We Don’t Like Him Any More list.
In an interview with the New York Post’s Michael Goodwin, Trump seems to push away Bannon.
“I like Steve, but you have to remember, he was not involved in my campaign until very late,” Trump said. “I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn’t know Steve. I’m my own strategist, and it wasn’t like I was going to change strategies because I was facing crooked Hillary.”
Forget the Bannon part for a second. This is what I mean. This is the president, and he still says things like “crooked Hillary” in public – indeed, to the press. He’s mentally a toddler, and nothing will make anything better.
Bannon has always been a controversial figure, having touted Breitbart as “the platform for the alt-right,” which is closely aligned with white nationalism.
The Trump campaign had difficulty balancing the fact that white nationalism, and white supremacists, were supportive of Trump and the need to push back against them publicly. Trump’s campaign team, even after the election, angrily denied that it had given a boost to racists. But Trump’s campaign and he himself repeatedly (his team says unwittingly) retweeted or used alt-right memes.
It’s interesting – and not in a good way – how the media always call him a white nationalist and almost never mention that he’s also a male nationalist. He hates women at least as much as he hates brown people. It’s interesting how that’s never seen as all that important.
But anyway – whatever. It’s going to go on being horrific with or without Bannon.
Bannon exiting would probably be a good thing overall, because it’s one fewer toxic voice whispering in Trump’s ear.
It will, however, feed a round of the inevitable “Trump is turning things around!” stories from the media, which is absolutely dying to write them, if only to have a chance to write something other than “Yep, Trump continues to be awful.”
The interesting thing will be whether or not it’s a nasty breakup. Does Bannon go right back to Breitbart and start publishing stories about Trump betraying the base? And if so, do other conservative media voices follow, or is Breitbart on its own, and if so, how much difference does that make?
This also struck me. It is a very childish statement. See, I’m so important, and so smart, and so good, that I beat all these people who are SENATORS and GOVERNORS – important people, and I showed them….He always emphasizes stuff like that because he thinks it makes him sound bigger, stronger, better, smarter…it just makes him sound like a swaggering bragging bully.
I think it’s relevant that Trump mentioned that Bannon came on late, after he had already beaten the “senators and governors”. He looks like he’s lining up a lot of excuses about why Bannon just wasn’t that loyal, which could indicate nasty.
But I could be reading that wrong.
As noted in other recent threads, there is (sadly) a depressingly large part of American culture that considers such empty and violent machismo a laudable thing. For the target market this is a feature, not a bug.
That said, this attitude is depressingly common world wide.
And with Trump-child gone we will get a semi-theocrat-vampire for President. And after that?…The GOP have made whatever might have been a swamp into a toxic ocean. Bannon might as well be a pebble.
Meanwhile, Sean Spicer still has a job. And may well go on having the same job. For those who live in reality-land, what more does one need to pass judgement on the entire enterprise we are witnessing?
Well, I’ll be glad if Bannon goes. Kushner is a bit more reasonable and is at least not a full-on white supremacist.
The alt-right’s fantasies will be disturbed. It will be fun watching their heads explode.
As I have seen suggested, if Bannon is ousted he has huge capacity for spite.