Rise Of The Alt-Right: Trump’s Bannon “Most Dangerous Political Operative in America”

This headline came from a 2015 article in Bloomberg News that featured an expose on Steve Bannon, the new CEO for the Trump campaign. Bannon has been the Executive Chairman of Breitbart News, one of the far-right’s most vicious media tabloids. Bannon’s choice to run the Trump campaign should scare both Republicans and Democrats since Bloomberg names Bannon as the leader of the “new vast right-wing conspiracy.”

Brietbart targets both Democrats and establishment Republicans with similar hate and anger. Bannon has made it his mission to take down both Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush. Recall, Jeb Bush was the presumed Republican choice for the nomination. Bannon and his pirates played a significant role in promoting Trump and killing Bush’s campaign.

Bannon has been closely linked to the alt-right movement. The alt-right movement is defined as the right-wing movement in the Republican Party that portrays itself as the alternative to traditional mainstream conservatives. The alt-right movement is closely associated with white supremacy, anti-immigration, anti-Semitism, right-wing populism and nativism. In just the last few days, it was revealed Bannon has been accused of making anti-Semitic remarks in the past.

In a speech last week in Reno, Nevada, Hillary Clinton described the Trump campaign’s link to the alt-right movement as, “Taking hate groups mainstream.” Clinton went after Trump, “for fanning the flames of racism embraced by alt-right and the community of activists that tends to lurk anonymously in the internet’s dark corners.”

The New York Times reported on Friday that, “Stephen Bannon, the head of Breitbart News, to be Trump’s campaign was cheered by alt-right members who are avid readers of the Breitbart website.”

Perhaps Bannon’s greatest achievement has been the promotion of the unfounded tabloid book by Peter Schweizer on the Clintons, Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich. This book is filled with unsubstantiated and malicious attacks on the Clintons and the Clinton Foundation. Bannon and Schweizer are equal opportunity attack dogs producing a similar hatchet attack on Jeb Bush with the book, Bush Bucks: How Public Service and Corporations Helped Make Jeb Rich. It’s clear Bannon and Schwiezer see any establishment candidates of either Party as fair game for their unsubstantiated vitriol.

The former campaign manager for Mitt Romney, Stuart Stevens, was interviewed by Reliable Sources over the weekend and said Bannon and Breitbart News are in the “hate business” and are “a bunch of nuts.” Stevens says there is a civil war raging for control of the Republican Party and Bannon represents the darkest elements within the Party. Stevens described Bannon and Breitbart with this description: “There’s this whole alt-right thing, which I think is just repackaged racism, trying to put a better name on it, and xenophobia.”

Former editor of Bannon’s Breitbart News, Ben Shapiro (he resigned this year), described Bannon as a “legitimately sinister figure.” The conservative Shapiro added: “He (Bannon) is a vindictive, nasty figure, infamous for verbally abusing supposed friends and threatening enemies. He says,”Bannon is a smarter version of Trump … Bannon’s Breitbart News has become the alt-right go-to website, pushing white ethno-nationalism as a legitimate response to political correctness, and the comment section turning into a cesspool for white supremacists.”

The fact that so many Republicans are speaking out so forcefully against Steve Bannon suggests Trump is continuing to thumb his nose at the establishment Republican Party. Trump is turning the Republican Party into a friendly home for the most vile forces of hate, racism and white supremacy.

Shapiro predicts Bannon will succeed regardless of whether Trump wins in November. If Trump wins, Bannon will have a much larger national stage for his ugly and populist racist rhetoric. If Trump loses, Bannon and Trump will create a new alt-right media empire based on replacing FOX News as the leading voice of the Republican Party.

Trump has taken a sharp right turn by choosing Bannon to oversee his campaign. Democrats and the Clintons are accustomed to unfounded attacks from the vast right wing conspiracy. The Clintons have been attacked by the Bannons of the right for years and they know how to respond.

The Republicans must be regretting the day they allied themselves with the crazies of talk radio and the Steve Bannons and Ann Coulters of the right. It appears the far-right has now turned on them with a similar fury they have used against the Clintons for years.

by Rick Smith
Posted 8/30/16