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Bannon’s plan for America is far more treacherous than taking down Republicans who don’t support the Trump agenda, as this quote demonstrates.
Former White House chief strategist, Steve Bannon, launched a scathing assault on former President George W. Bush and called for a Republican “revolt” during an October 2017 speech at the California Republican party convention, as reported by The Guardian.
Bannon’s remarks in Anaheim came during an address thick with attacks on the Washington status quo, echoing his call for an “open revolt” against establishment Republicans before next year’s midterm elections. He called the “permanent political class” one of the great dangers faced by the country.
To that end, “Bannon is promoting a field of primary challengers to take on incumbent Republicans in Congress.”
However, CNN’s Van Jones warned both Democrats and Republicans in January 2017 that Bannon’s aim was American democracy itself.
This is no longer “left v right.” The #Resistance is now a pro-democracy movement against a would-be authoritarian regime. Dems & GOP unite!
This is no longer "left v right." The #Resistance is now a pro-democracy movement against a would-be authoritarian regime. Dems & GOP unite!
— Van Jones (@VanJones68) January 30, 2017
The Daily Beast contributor Ronald Radosh said as much last year, reporting in August 2016 that he met Steve Bannon, Trump’s Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor, “at a book party held in his Capitol Hill townhouse on Nov. 12, 2013.”
We were standing next to a picture of his daughter, a West Point graduate, who at the time was a lieutenant in the 101 Airborne Division serving in Iraq. The picture was notable because she was sitting on what was once Saddam Hussein’s gold throne with a machine gun on her lap. “I’m very proud of her,” Bannon said.
Then we had a long talk about his approach to politics. He never called himself a “populist” or an “American nationalist,” as so many think of him today. “I’m a Leninist,” Bannon proudly proclaimed.
Shocked, I asked him what he meant.
“Lenin,” he answered, “wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.” Bannon was employing Lenin’s strategy for Tea Party populist goals. He included in that group the Republican and Democratic Parties, as well as the traditional conservative press.
Good Magazine elaborated on Radosh’s article, reporting that:
Bannon’s fondness for the Russian revolutionary is telling in light of the the recent scrutiny over Russia’s pro-Trump interference in the 2016 election. Vladimir Lenin was the leader of Russia’s Bolshevik Party whose 1917 October Revolution threw a provisional government out of power, leading to the creation of the USSR.
Business Insider reported on Radosh’s article in February 2017:
Whether speaking to supporters of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or to listeners on his former radio show, Bannon has long employed the revolutionary language of a political insurgent. And like political insurgents through history, including Lenin, Bannon and other like-minded ideologues … view disruption and polarization as means of pressing ahead with their agenda and rallying their core supporters.
Continuing, Business Insider reported that:
Eliot Cohen, a conservative and an outspoken critic of Trump, said Bannon falls short of being a true revolutionary because he has never outlined a coherent vision for the way ahead.
…
“This is actually a little bit closer to nihilism. It’s simply a desire to destroy things,” said Cohen, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who served in the Bush administration.
The Daily Beast contributor Matt Lewis reported in September 2017 that:
To understand why this is happening, it’s important to understand that Bannon views himself as a revolutionary, not as a conservative. The French Revolution did not seek to reform monarchists or priests, but to behead them. … In Bannon’s world, chaos isn’t the enemy. It is, in fact, a necessary ingredient.
Time will tell just how far Bannon might try to push matters, but for now – he seems to have conservatives on edge. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-KY) tried to dismiss Bannon’s significance during an October 22, 2017 appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” but conceded that Bannon’s meddling in the 2018 mid-term elections would “cost” Republicans seats in the Senate.
“This element has been out there for a while. They cost us five Senate seats in 2010 and 2012, by nominating people who couldn’t win in November,” he stated.
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