"I love Stephen K. Bannon. No, not amorous love, that’s a thought beyond repulsive in his case. I love him because he continues to terrorize GOP mainstream leaders. And with the 2018 mid-terms fast steamrolling toward us, my political love affair with him will only grow. The aftermath of the Judge Roy Moore Alabama Senate race cinched things for me with Bannon.
At a meeting of conservative big wigs at the Trump International Hotel in D.C. a few days after the Alabama election, Bannon was unrepentant and defiant. He defended his long and loud tout of Moore’s candidacy. He poked an accusing finger at the GOP establishment for cutting bait on Moore, and leaving him dangling almost alone in supporting him. But ominously, he vowed to do everything he could to rip the GOP establishment apart. To Bannon, GOP mainstream leaders, not the Democrats, are Political Enemy Number One. It’s his declared war on them that is the cause of terror and some panic within the GOP. Bannon has even fine tuned his GOP target even sharper. He is going full throttle after the man who symbolizes all in his world that’s wrong with the GOP top dogs. That’s Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He got it right. McConnell is the glue hat holds the GOP establishment together. The Senate is the name of the game in getting anything legislatively done. And almost nothing gets done there without McConnell.
Bannon’s strength is to play on and to stoke popular rage and frustration with tin ear politicians who’ve turned voters into invisible men and women. That translates to millions of disgruntled, frustrated voters who will be sorely tempted to push, prod and hector the GOP to give the Moore’s of the GOP their due. Many will be just as sorely tempted to vote for them as maverick candidates, or if their name is not on any ballot, stay at home. This would be tantamount to a vote for the Democrat foe. This would be an even bigger disaster for the GOP.
Bannon, then, is the GOP’s textbook Catch-22. If they pound him too hard this will only push the hard right and populist right even into a bigger frenzy against the GOP anointed office seekers or holders. That’s tantamount to a vote for the Democrats. In fact, 20,000 plus GOP voters in Alabama that did not cross over and vote for Democrat Doug Jones. Instead they wrote in “any Republican other than Moore.” This in effect was a vote for Jones. This was enough to tip the race to him. It can happen again in 2018, That’s my hope. And that’s why I love Bannon for helping make that happen."
[link:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/i-love-steve-bannon_us_5a36c386e4b0e1b4472ae77a?section=us_contributor|
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is, The Trump Challenge to Black America (Middle Passage Press). He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One.
