An important post-election question is whether or not Democrats intend to treat their defeat as a lesson in the limits of ad hominem attacks. The early indications are not promising. Vis-a-vis the meltdown regarding Steve Bannon, who has been appointed as President-elect Trump’s “chief strategist,” liberals have proceeded to accuse him of being a racist and anti-Semite, in their predictable and tiresome style.
Bannon, a former chairman for Breitbart News, Navy veteran, and “Seinfeld” investor, stayed under the radar at Donald Trump’s side during the final stretch. But according to Elizabeth Warren, “This is a man who, by his very presence, says this administration will embrace bigotry.”
Warren didn’t make any assertions as to how she believes she can know such a thing about Bannon, but it is clearly imprudent to presume to know so much about his character.
Perhaps one important lesson we can take from the events of 2016 is that supposing Americans who disagree with you are prejudiced is not a winning strategy. The political climate would be much healthier if such accusations, in a nation that elected the first black President twice, were reserved for more meaningful use.
Before Trump’s rise to political prominence- Breitbart, led by Bannon, served as a forum for arguments against the policies of President Obama as well as assaults on what would become the “Never Trump” Republican establishment over such issues as immigration, trade, and globalist agendas.
Mr. Bannon was quoted as saying, “I’m a Leninist,” by a profiler at the Daily Beast as early as 2014. “Lenin wanted to tear down the state, and that’s my goal as well. I want to bring it crashing down, and destroy all of today’s political establishment.”
Breitbart continues to run a campaign against Chobani yogurt company founder Hamdi Ulukaya for employing refugees while so many Americans remain out of work.
However, the obligation of the media is to adhere to the standards of journalistic integrity. The fact that so many media outlets treat Trump supporters like mentally defective criminals hasn’t helped. But the important thing is that Trump’s opponents have an expressed interest in overstating the alt-right’s venom and influence for the purposes of generating guilt-by-association.
Breitbart publishes controversial items, but it’s doubtful the site will influence a State of the Union address. Internet bullies want their targets to respond emotionally so they can feel influential, but it’s best not to take the bait- and this is the lesson that Trump and the movement that backs him has delivered regarding the personal attacks that the main stream media have traded in for so long.
Hence comes the saying; “You can’t stump the Trump.”
Carrying over the media’s habit of scraping the bottom for neo-Nazis, and other untouchables as an approach to stories on Trump’s staff is an obvious mistake. No credible people were reporting on the Daily Stormer until leftist media found it politically expedient.
Trump’s obligation is to avoid sullying the White House by nodding to this kind of muckraking. The worst thing for our country would be to legitimize the left’s grievance politics by mirroring how they have polarized the population using racial and sexual tensions to aggravate any existing tensions, however slight. The President is expected to represent all Americans, just President-elect Trump has committed himself to doing.
The political tendency Bannon represents may deserve a watchful eye, indulging the lowest common denominator of any movement would damage the nation’s hopes for the Trump administration, as we might hope the incoming cabinet understands.
As Trump’s chief strategist, Bannon must decide how he relates to his ideological brethren in the Alt-Right. Will he direct Breitbart from afar, and attempt to sow division in the GOP? Bannon will need the support of Congress to forward Trump’s agenda, to influence the public, and to successfully govern.
Partisan propaganda has always been unreliable as a political barometer, whether it comes from the right or the left. Democrats are now licking their wounds after months of the main stream media telling them that Donald Trump could never take the White House. We should hope that Bannon does not turn his efforts to establishing a conservative version of their mistaken strategies.
~Conservative Zone
