Resist.
The appointment of Breitbart’s Steve Bannon, the Farrakkan of the far right, in a role once held by Karl Rove has landed with as much approval as wearing a Klan hat would at Confederate flag rally. People who were pissed off are bound to be more pissed off. Others who wanted distance from unquestionably racist symbolism are left sputtering.
Locally, calls to the offices of U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson and David Perdue objecting to a man the Washington Post is openly comparing to Joseph Goebbels has been overwhelming, staffers handling the phone load say.
And, reflecting the tone of things to come from the left, Congressman Hank Johnson released a strongly-worded statement in opposition.
“After running a vicious, racist and xenophobic campaign, President-elect Donald Trump is now putting a white nationalist anti-Semite as his chief strategist in the White House. It’s a troubling sign that the 45th president intends to further sow the seeds of hatred and bigotry than bring the American people together. There can be no accommodation, no collaboration – only resistance. I’m calling on all my fellow Georgia congressional colleagues to stand with me in condemning this appointment and demand that it be withdrawn.”
Personally, I think this makes up for Johnson’s “termites” comment from earlier this year, which was interpreted to be anti-Semitic. It’s hard to put up a stronger rhetorical marker than to frame cooperation with the Bannon appointment as an act of “collaboration.”
Writers are likening Bannon’s appointment to a political Milgram test of sorts. Bannon’s appointment is one more act in a series of escalating acts of horror. Our ability to recognize and react strongly against it diminishes with each successive act. The prior horrors become more acceptable as newer ones emerge. Eventually, we’ll push the button that shocks people to death, because we’ve been progressively inured against defiance.
Resist. Now. While there’s time.
About Author
George Chidi
Former staff writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other publications. Former Pine Lake city councilman, Former corporate spy. Occasional contributor to The Guardian.
Add a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
OTOH, you could hold your water, and try not to look like you’re scoring cheap partisan points with assumptions.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/alan-dershowitz-defends-bannon-no-evidence-to-support-that-hes-an-anti-semite/
I reserve judgement until I see Bannon’s birth certificate.
Alan Dershowitz is best buddies with Giuliani. He ain’t gonna against his bestie, who is towing the Trump line so he can get the Sec of State job.
let’s also not forget the Dershowitz is a highly talented criminal defense lawyer.
Long form only, please. Accept no substitutes.
Resist. Yes resist joining the angered flock unable to accept losing. Resist the urge to cast any Trump supporter or proposed appointee as racist, xenophobic, etc. Resist being part of the problem. Resist defending the failed status quo. Resist posting irrational downright offensive comments from a congressman who has done absolutely nothing of significance during his time in office. Resist the ill informed resistance of which only a few exercised their basic right to vote. Yes, resist being just another talking head spewing inane dem soundbites. Resist.
Bart, I know we are in the Post-Truth Era but, please, Bannon’s words and actions condemn him. It is not a matter of interpretation. Only whether you scrape the dog poop off your shoe or pretend to enjoy the smell.
You keep saying that only a few protesters voted— can you support that claim with evidence?
Here you go – http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/11/15/election-records-more-than-half-arrested-anti-trump-protesters-didnt-vote-ore/93877132/ – over half of the arrested protestors in Portland didn’t vote. While not scientific, it can be reasonably assumed that the same applies across the country.
Steve Bannon is not any proposed appointee. He is a specific person, with a specific record.
That record includes creating the platform for the alt-right, which is overtly and deliberately white supremacist. It holds that the ideals of Western civilization cannot be separated from European ancestry, and that it is appropriate for a white hereditary elite to maintain control even when a minority of the population in order to protect that civilization from destruction at the hands of nonwhites.
It is racist to its core, and he is their tribune and publisher. It’s not an “if” or “maybe” thing that can be laughed away or denied for the purposes of giving someone the benefit of the doubt. There is no doubt. The man is a white supremacist.
None of this should be acceptable. None of it will be accepted.
If memory serves, haven’t you referred to the majority if not all of Trump’s supporters as racists and Nazis in the past?
Bannon is not just “any” supporter or appointee. And- ppl have a right to express themselves- why do all the protests offend so?
The appointment of Bannon is a huge f/u to Obama. A dog whistle to Trump’s racist buddies.
Trump may not be a racist but he likes to keep a tame one near at all times.
Power will magnify everything. Even if Bannon only panders to racists, that pandering will be magnified, leading to more empowered racists. That said, Bannon looks like a Harvard Wall Street elitist to me, manipulating minds to enrich and empower himself.
I’ve seen his photos. His “look” is more disheveled, LL Bean, street person.
I’m curious, George. Should the little boy in this video in this story also “resist” his obviously abusive mother? This is sickening.
http://www.wlox.com/story/33689627/video-mom-throws-son-out-of-the-house-for-voting-for-donald-trump-in-school-election
What is more sickening, is this non sequitur “point” you just pulled from your nether regions. For no reason other than obstuficate.
Grow up. Talk about the subject of the post, and stop throwing toothpicks at OP.
George, I’m truly astonished that you would not remain the least bit skeptical of a political statement by a Democrat Congressman and a piece of “humor” journalism in the WaPo. You leap from there to “Bannon is racist/anti-semitic, blah, blah, blah…” with only those flimsy assertions. I know you and respect you and you’re better than that. Here’s NPR’s take:
“In an interview with Morning Edition’s Steve Inskeep, Breitbart Senior Editor-at-large Josh Pollack defended Bannon and pushed back against the idea that the news website he ran and significantly expanded promoted racist or sexist views.”
http://www.npr.org/2016/11/16/502304157/breitbart-editor-steve-bannon-has-no-prejudices
If Trump’s surrounding himself with racists, prove it. But please stop making me sound like I’m defending these assholes because your side is too upset to do its homework.
I thought the WaPo piece was satirical, but the humor was just a method to approach the very unfunny substance. Which actually captures a lot of the problem well imo. Which is that there are multiple levels to this issue- those that are apparent and those that are latent. In the CNN video, for example, a Breitbart article was quoted which stated that some alt-right personalities shared antisemitic and racist memes, but that they were just joking and had no real problem with Jews, gays, or individuals of color. So, apparent racism but latent non-discrimination? Not likely; there is more likely a more latent layer of true hate and bigotry underneath at all. Nazi-Americans have been totally OK with Jewish lawyers defending their right to hold a parade, but that’s a selfish form of tolerance. Similarly, anybody, incl. Bannon, can tolerate or embrace the kind of Jews or homosexuals or other minority they are comfortable with, for expediency or ideological alignment, but condemn those, and use the mechanisms of media to do so, for those they do not align themselves with. This means for these folk there is latent discrimination, but that it is only used- or given a media platform- when it advances personal financial or ideological goals. One fear of Bannon is that the platform he gives to racists and antisemites (a platform he acknowledges he gave) will be used when expedient for political or personal purposes. And he will have a lot more power to empower those voices.
I’m not leaping to “Steve Bannon is a racist” because of the Washington Post and Hank Johnson. I’ve held that view for quite a while. You see, I’ve had a couple of run-ins with their reporters and editorial staff over the years. It started with my reporting on the quiet Obama administration plans to round up known provocateurs in advance of the verdict in the Trayvon Martin shooting.
One thing led to another, and my work was being misquoted by Breitbart. That led to a long, hard look at their editorial practices, along the lines of what I did when I started diving into Liberal America’s idiocy.
This describes what the alt-right is:
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/alternative-right
(If you’re of a mind to dismiss the SPLC as a credible source on this stuff, then we have little to discuss.)
The alt-right movement, put simply, believes that a white elite needs to control American politics in order to defend Western civilization and its ideals from the nonwhite hordes … even if white people are a political minority. The culture must be preserved, by any means necessary. A pseudo-monarchy? Fascist repression of nonwhites? Whatever it takes. That’s the alt-right.
Steve Bannon’s Breitbart is, in his own words, “the platform for the alt-right.”
Trying to describe this, and him, as anything other than a white supremacist is sophistry. There’s no doubt to give him the benefit of.
That’s not NPR’s take. That’s an interview with a Bannon supporter who is defending him.
Having been subjected to the conspiracy theory stories that get posted on Facebook from Breitbart multiple times by oblivious friends and family, I can’t imagine how anyone comes to the conclusion that the man isn’t, at the very least, pushing white supremacist propaganda. Their “stories” are only loosely based on fact if at all. That propaganda most definitely fed Trump’s movement and may be what led to his victory. His supporters felt left behind… because Breitbart and fake news outlets like it have been telling them how “others” are benefiting at their expense for years.
Breitbart headline: Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew.
The fact that Kristol is a Jew was so important to the story that I don’t think the word Jew appeared other than in the headline.
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/05/15/bill-kristol-republican-spoiler-renegade-jew/
Breitbart headline: “Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew”
The fact that Kristol is a Jew was so central to the story that I don’t think the word Jew appears anywhere other than the headline.
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/05/15/bill-kristol-republican-spoiler-renegade-jew/
So we can type the word assholes now?
Cool!
From Kathleen Parker:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-steve-bannon-really-as-bad-as-all-that/2016/11/15/3c74af12-ab81-11e6-8b45-f8e493f06fcd_story.html?utm_term=.726aaab49850
Parker writes: “But Trump has also promised to clamp down on the media, which would have to include Breitbart, which invites the worst sorts of expression.”
That’s a terrible misreading of Trump. His comments where he’s promised to “clamp down on the media” make it very clear that he’s not interested in pursuing some sort of neutral-viewpoint restriction of offensive speech. He wants to clamp down on media that offend and criticize HIM.
And since Breitbart.com practically worships at Trump’s altar, they don’t really have anything to worry about.
” Well why in the heck did Bannon employ him and publish him?”
because….he draws an audience, which is the purpose of the platform, to draw eyes for advertising dollars?
“why is the candidate that promised to “drain the swamp” handing out a senior advisory position to a former Goldman Sachs banker?”
because….he has experience in the banking sector and might be a decent fit under a stern Trump eye?
” would repeat my assertion that one who is willing to provide a platform for bigots and encourage their bigotry for personal gain is just as disgusting as the bigots themselves. ”
Will this assertion address the bigotry that has existed in America and government for 300 years? Or is it just pearl clutching on your part?
Giuliani said Trump is a genius.
Bannon may indeed be a genius appointment. There’s nothing in the discredited trickle down theory, or hardly anything else the GOP may do that’s going to help the rubes. Bannon will be good at communicating the message that that is due to interference by the establishment, immigrants, and anyone else that’s not a real American.
I really wish my friends on the left would stop pouting.
I also wish my friends on the right would quit gloating.
Grow up, all of you.
The fact is that after eight years of the GOP generally complicit in the de-legitimation of the first African American President and refusing to cooperate in any substantive way, nearly half of my fellow citizens voted for a misogynist demagogue that blatantly appealed to racism. This election has done lasting damage even if a Trump presidency is not all bad.
Killing and torture will show foreigners just how great America is again. The cheers for xenophobia, revelry in a fascist “Law and Order” acceptance speech, and “Lock the bitch up” shirts worn with pride aren’t going to be soon forgotten, give the silence or excuse after excuse from most of the GOP establishment that didn’t embrace, but is not drooling to cash in on it.
It’s new rules, Rick.