Mr. Nasty
The Neo-Fascism of Steve Bannon
The Republican Party does have an agenda: usurp the impulse to govern and mandate. And the House Republican Caucus does have a Speaker-in-Residence: Steve Bannon.
We have a bevy of Supreme Court cases regarding the use of the wires, the air waves, the mail, in short the public domains for transmission of services for common benefit.
Going back to arguments by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, the boy who cries “Fire,” in a crowded movie theater thereby inciting a panic signifies the presence of a line that cannot be crossed: posing the “greater threat,” where there is none.
Consider Steve Bannon, the Trump pardoned neo-fascist/insurrectionist, a latter day boy crying ‘Fire’ in a crowded movie theater. Emboldened by ‘freedom of speech,’ Bannon cultivates an audience which congeals around a cauldron of lies, innuendos, threats of violence, conspiracies, intimidations and self-debasement. Bannon stokes an American rapture: he feeds his fascisti an end of days scenario to hasten the takeover of the government by authoritarians. (1)
He revels in his role as the jester in the court of demagoguery. He entertains the baser, darker side of frustration and disaffection. And folks are listening. Whereas he eschews governing agendas; his daily remonstrations have a purpose: cultivate hate and sow doubt.
And he pulls it off spectacularly.
Fleet of foot in the takedown of normalcy, Bannon cannot be triangulated. His rhetoric will triangulate yours:
He is free; you’re not.
Like his progenitor, Adolph Hitler, Bannon knows a thing or two about the failure to convince through the channels of the imagination. Hollywood ‘failed’ Steve Bannon; the Art Academy ‘failed’ Hitler. Both know well the frustration of failure and have channeled it not into consequence but have channeled the ambiguity of consequence into the clarity of violence.
It’s not only in the end the plight of humanity brings violence upon itself, but violence was always there to begin with. As well the fear of violence, which has consequence: in the end, isn’t it always about violence and it’s attributes?
The eloquence of violence?
Consider Bannon’s latest troll, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida.
During the floor debate on the motion to vacate, Gaetz reached out to Rep. Rho Khanna to partner on several amendments to remove or at least slow the influence of money in House affairs. Cagily, Gaetz assessed the downsides — he needed Democrats’ votes but at what cost? Partnering with Rho Khanna turned out to be a low bar for Gaetz: simply a transfer of donor dollars from big corporate types to smaller donors. By comparison, Rho Khanna is attending to something Democrats have shied from: money in politics. (2)
Gaetz is attending opportunistically to his base. Herein lies why Bannon and Gaetz cannot be triangulated: they cannily pick what Democrats have failed to pull off. And Bannon is at the ready, to proclaim to the world that we need Matt Gaetz, that House Democrats cannot achieve limiting money in politics without Matt Gaetz.
As one political activist/writer recently posted, Bannon/Gaetz may know Democrats better than Democrats know themselves or bother to know about their voters.
“Speaking of the movements I know something about, I can say this: On the democratic socialist left, we favor social policies that are inclusive and caring — universal public health care, well-funded public schools, decarceration, and rights for migrants. But left movements often behave in ways that are neither inclusive nor caring. And in contrast to Bannon’s courting of disaffected Democrats, we also don’t put enough thought into how to build alliances with people who aren’t already in our movements. Sure we pay lip service to reaching out, but in practice most of us (even many who claim to be staunchly anti-police) spend a lot of time policing our movements borders, turning on people who see themselves as on our side, making our ranks smaller, not larger.” (3)
Hispanics, African Americans, white suburban Moms, are reduced to their common denominator: disaffection with Washington, populated by liberals and their agendas. Former Democrats and independents are targeted, repackaged as sympathizers to the trouble with America and specifically where liberalism has brought us. These groups, conveniently formed from demographic research are positioned by Bannonites; ‘we know you better and what you want better than they do. We are you.’
Furthermore, Bannon retreads anomie and exhaustion with political struggle by touting the inroads he has made with these groups: he pitches their disaffection, going where liberals have feared — a country whose common appeal for common achievement is tanking. (4)
Democrats are left to pitch what America has taken for granted, a government in form only. Lost in the shuffle is a government that requires sustaining. The prospect of rebirth is so muddled that one loses sight of an aging and unsustainable infrastructure: a government devoid of content.
Liberals are divided by anger over a suspended agenda and an agenda which is and has worked for America but which voters and citizens reject as a grand disappointment. As the recent voting to discard McCarthy demonstrates, Republican House members need Democrats to help them “tear down the House.” And Pelosi’s achievements in governing pretty much the same partisan divide as McCarthy.
All the while Mr. Nasty is cheering Republicans on from his bunker.
What is left for America to ponder is a major portion of the American population are disgusted with Washington’s lack of will.
“In a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, only 16 percent of people said they trusted the government — close to the lowest levels in seven decades of polling. Nearly 30 percent said they disliked both the Democratic and Republican parties, a record high.” (5)
What is left is an unseen number reluctant to protest, because… well, isn’t this what Bannon and company can unravel as what “we (they) have been advocating all along?”
What is disturbing is the amount of nasty populist oxygen Bannon-Gaetz-McCarthy can consume. And for this those forces within the post-Trump zeitgeist who preach to America’s lofty ideals must take a pause, look in the mirror and check our (their) enabling.
Or the suffering will continue.
October 10
Notes
1-”Roger Griffin describes fascism as “a genus of political ideology whose mythic core in its various permutations is a palingenetic form of populist ultranationalism. Griffin describes the ideology as having three core components ‘(i) the rebirth myth, (ii) populist ultra-nationalism, and (iii) the myth of decadence.”
“Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigrant sentiment, as well as opposition to liberal democracy, parliamentarianism, liberalism, Marxism, neoliberalism, communism, and socialism. Wkipedia
2- “On Wednesday, taking Gaetz’s grievances about the way the House is run seriously, Democratic Rep. Rho Khanna proposed a series of reforms that would reduce the power of big money in politics, ban stock trading by members of Congress, and democratize the functioning of the House.
“On Thursday, Gaetz responded: ‘Ok. Let’s negotiate.’”
Ryan Grim, “Matt Gaetz Says He Wants to Negotiate. Democrats Should Take Him Up on It,” The Intercept, October 5 (originally published as an online newsletter, copyright Ryan Grim)
3- Naomi Klein, “Doppelganger: A Trip Into The Mirror World,” (2023)
4- Jack Healey, J. David Goodman, Jenna Russell and Alan Blinder, “How Do Americans Feel About Politics? ‘Disgust Isn’t a Strong Enough Word,’ October 6, New York Times
See also, Annie Karni, “From A Capitol Hill Basement Bannon Stokes The Republican Party Meltdown,” October 4, New York Times
5- Cited by Robert Reich, Newsletter, October 8.
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