The nightmare reality of a Donald Trump presidency is getting off to a horrifying start. While Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are urging everyone, not least of all disaffected Democrats, to “give the President-elect a chance”, the cold hard truth of what his election means is setting in with Trump’s naming of white nationalist Stephen Bannon – CEO of Breitbart “News” – as his chief White House strategist and senior counselor to the POTUS. What Bannon’s selection demonstrates above all is what many in the corporate media failed to properly understand during the course of the 2016 presidential campaign cycle. What they so often chalked up to being major campaign “gaffes” on the part of Trump – his retweeting of “white genocide” memes, slandering of a judge’s Mexican ancestry, etc. – were not actually gaffes at all but were implicit, bordering on the explicit, appeals to the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who make up the so-called “Alt-right.” Somehow Trump understood that there is still potency in indirectly aligning oneself with the long-discredited champions of white identity politics, defying the narrative that these ugly characters are mere remnants of a dark and ugly past. Trump embraced them by retweeting their words of support and approval, their fake and debunked ‘crime’ statistics, and their anti-Semitic imagery without ever having to truly be associated with their most abhorrent views the way most candidates presumably would. When Trump first hired Bannon to be his campaign chief back in August, it was Trump’s biggest symbol yet to the alt-right crowd that yes, in fact, he is their guy. It was his way of telling them that he shares their worldview and all that it entails, though he cannot say so explicitly. According to the Washington Post, Bannon symbolized an electoral strategy that “resembles the alt-right dream of maximizing the white vote.” Trump has been sending dog-whistles to white supremacists all year on Twitter, and now that he has the keys to the White House he’s letting them know, with the hiring of Bannon and nomination of Jeff Sessions for Attorney General, that they will not only have a seat at the table in his administration, but one of the most prominent seats available.
So what exactly is the “alt-right”, and what are its ties to Donald Trump? According to Media Matters for America, the alt-right is essentially “a rebranding of classic white nationalism for the 21st century.” The term was created by the avowed white nationalist Richard Spencer who runs the extreme right-wing websites Alternative Right and Radix Journal. Spencer describes his alt-right ideology as “an ideology around identity, European identity.” His websites carry absurdly racist claims like “low-IQ Mexican immigration is the greatest threat to America”, “black people are genetically predisposed to lower IQs” and are “sexually promiscuous because of hyperactive sex drives”, and plenty of other pseudo-scientific beliefs that were left for dead by all serious scientists and academics in the previous century. David French, a columnist for the neoconservative National Review, describes the alt-right as being “unapologetically white nationalists” who “hate interracial adoption and other ‘race mixing’ practices, and think about the issue of immigration primarily, if not exclusively, in racial terms.” Those who are attempting to now whitewash the alt-right and paint its followers as being just extremely conservative with some racist tendencies are intentionally ignoring the statements of the founders and leaders of the alt-right movement in the first place. When the Washington Post wrote an account of the rising group of white nationalists earlier this year, it declared their “goal is often offensiveness for the sake of offensiveness in the way that many young white men embrace.” Andrew Anglin, an alt-right figurehead who runs the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer, quickly shot back, rebuking the Post for getting the movement wrong. The goal of the alt-right, said Anglin, is not “offensiveness for the sake of offensiveness” at all. Instead, their “goal is to ethnically cleanse White nations of non-Whites and establish an authoritarian government. Many people believe that the Jews should be exterminated.” They’ve also got their own terminology. Conservatives they deem not sufficiently right-wing enough are derided as “cucks” or “cuckservatives”, while liberals and leftists are snidely referred to as “SJWs” (social justice warriors) or “cultural Marxists.” As for Steph Bannon and Breitbart’s connection to the alt-right, this connection came straight from the horse’s mouth. “We’re the platform for the alt-right,” said Bannon to Sarah Poshner of Mother Jones at the Republican National Convention in July. This proves Bannon’s ties to white nationalism, despite what Newt Gingrich, Reince Preibus and Kelly Anne Conway are all now trying to insist, are anything but tenuous.
In March 2012 when Stephen Bannon became the CEO of Breitbart “News”, which has trafficked in racist conspiracy theories since its inception, he shifted the far-right website even further to the right (something which at the time didn’t even seem possible). The new CEO “plunged” the site “into the fever swamps of conservatism, cheering white nationalist groups as an ‘eclectic mix of renegades.’” Ben Shapiro, a conservative right-wing ideologue who resigned from the staff of the website, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that the site is now “pushing white ethno-nationalism as a legitimate response to political correctness, and the comment section [is] turning into a cesspool for white supremacist mememakers.” Bannon himself outrageously pushes the narrative that Black Lives Matter is part of some leftist plot to “take down America”, instead of a genuine response to horrific police brutality and state-sanctioned murder. “Here’s a thought,” he once opined. “What if the people getting shot by cops did things to deserve it?” Yeah, like being pulled over for no reason and kindly informing the officer that you are a licensed gun owner? Or picking up a toy gun to buy inside of Wal-Mart? Or being a young child that’s asleep on a couch when a police officer’s bullet ends your life? In what world could these victims have possibly “deserved” to get shot? It appears that in Bannon’s view, their blackness alone was enough to mark them unworthy of life, as he once suggested that “some people” are just “naturally aggressive and violent” by birth. Unfortunately Bannon’s racist demagoguery doesn’t stop there. He once cited a white supremacist fantasy novel called Camp of Saints to demonize refugees from Asia and Africa. And he’s hosted guests on his radio show that trafficked in Islamophobic conspiracy theories, falsely accusing various Muslim civil rights organizations of being ‘sharia law’ front groups. Then there’s the time he praised the work of Jason Richwine, whose bogus studies attempted to prove Hispanics are intellectually inferior to “Anglo-Saxon” born whites. Another one of the Breitbart site’s “gems” was an article written in response to the horrific massacre of nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina by an avowed white supremacist and neo-confederate Dylann Roof. It was called, “Hoist it High and Proud: the confederate flag proclaims a glorious heritage”. In yet another Breitbart piece, this one titled “An Establishment Conservative’s Guide to the Alt-Right”, it was stated that the alt-right opposes “full ‘integration’ of racial groups.” Is it any wonder why Richard Spencer describes Breitbart as the “gateway” to his more barefaced brand of neo-nazism?
No recounting of the burgeoning love affair between Donald Trump and the alt-right is complete without examining the place where it was given life: Donald Trump’s Twitter account. That the president-elect is a close follower of far-right white supremacist accounts became painfully obvious late last year when his account kept on tweeting and retweeting various memes and graphics sourced to far right-wing extremist accounts like @WhiteGenocideTM, “whose user had previously tweeted out his or her admiration for Hitler.” In October 2015 Trump tweeted an image of himself as Pepe the frog, a character that has been adopted as the unofficial symbol of the alt-right. He followed this by posting an incredibly misleading graphic containing completely bogus ‘crime’ statistics which falsely asserted that 81% of white homicidal deaths came at the hands of Black people (in reality the Department of Justice statistics hold that 84% of whites are murdered by other whites). He got this blatant piece of anti-black propaganda from “a white supremacist Twitter feed whose logo is a modified swastika.” Even after it was pointed out to him that it was factually inaccurate, Trump did what he always does. He doubled down and, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, insisted that his source was “very credible.”
Even after tweeting out such harmful disinformation traced back to the most deplorable of sources, supporters and even many of his detractors seemed willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. He couldn’t possibly be knowingly sharing memes and images created to promote white supremacist ideology, could he? Finally, an image posted to his Twitter account over the summer of 2016 of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton (‘Crooked Hillary’ as he called her) erased all doubts. The image, which showed Clinton’s face in front of a pile of money, was condemned as being blatantly anti-Semitic for superimposing a huge Star of David next to the candidate’s face with the words “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!”
The meme itself was directly lifted from a neo-Nazi message board of the alt-right, though the Trump team made sure not to leave any trace of where they obtained it. Ultimately, Donald Trump’s dog-whistle reached exactly who it was supposed to. As Andrew Anglin approvingly wrote on his neo-nazi Stormtrooper website, “Our Glorious Leader and ULTIMATE SAVIOR [Trump] has gone full wink-wink-wink to his most aggressive supporters. Whereas the odd White genocide tweet could be a random occurrence, it isn’t statistically possible that two of them back to back could be a random occurrence. It could only be deliberate.” Inadvertently, Twitter also revealed that a whole host of Trump’s campaign staffers followed and/or interacted with five or more white nationalist accounts on the social media platform, as revealed in a lengthy investigation by Mother Jones.
Bannon’s influence on Trump and the oncoming administration can be most notably detected in the controversial nomination of Alabama Senator Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions III to serve as the next Attorney General of the United States. Earlier this year Bannon praised Sessions for having laid the groundwork for what he described as his “populist nationalist movement.” Considering the history of Jeff Sessions, it’s easy to see why that would be the case. When President Ronald Reagan nominated Sessions, who at the time was a federal U.S. Attorney for Alabama’s Southern District, for a federal judgeship in 1986, his nomination was rejected – by a Republican-controlled Senate at that – due to revelations made by a Justice Department attorney among others that convinced them that Sessions was an unreconstructed bigot. These include accusations that Sessions derisively referred to civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and ACLU as “un-American” and “Communist-inspired” groups intent on trying to force “civil rights down the throats of people.” Sessions also referred to a white civil rights attorney and advocate for voting rights as a traitor to his race. The late African American assistant U.S. Attorney under Sessions, Thomas Figures, once testified that Sessions had warned him to “be careful what you say to white folks.” He also said that Sessions and two other colleagues in their Alabama law office regularly referred to him, the only Black assistant attorney in the office, as “boy.” After two Democrats, Don Wiley and Douglas Wicks, were elected to 2 of 3 county commission seats in Mobile, Alabama in 1980, Sessions led an unsuccessful GOP effort to have the election result in Wiley’s case overturned. According to Wiley, a white Democrat, Sessions remarked to him that the sole Republican county commissioner, Jon Archer, “will be watching you and the n****r.” This was Sessions’ way of referring to Douglas Wicks, the first Black person elected to a county commission seat in Mobile. When this was brought to his attention during his 1986 Senate confirmation hearings, Sessions’ gave an inaccurate denial in which he falsely insisted that there was no Black county commissioner in Mobile at that time, something he obviously knew to be untrue. “The black was only elected later,” said Sessions. Perhaps most telling of all his remarks was the one he made in relation to a case in which a Ku Klux Klan member was accused of having lynched a Black man. In the words of Sessions, as far as he was concerned the Klan was just fine by him. That is, until he “learned that they smoked marijuana.” Notably, after these accusations of past statements came to light and sunk Sessions’ federal judgeship, Thomas Figures and Douglas Wicks were retaliated against. Some argue that people change a lot in 30 years and so Sessions should be given the benefit of the doubt. But as recently as 2010, the Senator from Alabama was up to his old antics, using the occasion of President Barack Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court as an opportunity to call her judgement into question due to her having once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Justice to serve on the Supreme Court.
It is difficult to overstate the severity of the situation we currently find ourselves in. While it’s not time to panic, it is certainly time to organize and be vigilant, as thousands of Americans currently out on the streets declaring Donald Trump is #NotMyPresident are doing at this very hour. Those whose values are progressive have stated time and again their determination to never again let their country slide back into the days of legalized discrimination based on sex, race, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. Donald Trump, Stephen Bannon, Jeff Sessions and the rest of the fascist right-wing ideologues are more than willing to put that determination to the test. In order to prevent the worst from happening, the Trump administration and the right-wing vigilantes it will inspire will have to be resisted and stifled at every turn. The Left will have to be up to the challenge, because the lives of millions of people are counting on it.
Further reading:
- Trump Selects a White Nationalist Leader as a Delegate in California
- Trump Professes Ignorance of the “Alt-Right” – Despite Hiring One of Its Leaders
United States Hypocrisy 
Reblogged this on shelbycourtland and commented:
The facts as noted here sicken me beyond all reason and I had to take the longest shower in history to try and rid myself of its stench, but I feel I must share it. So expect to read complete and utter vileness, but there is most definitely nothing of ‘supremacy’ about it.
Great description! I think it is best described as the FALSE BELIEF in white supremacy.
I need at least, a 24 hour long shower after reading this! But to say that I am surprised, would be a lie! That someone could breathe life into these devils is beyond me and in my opinion, they weren’t even innocent when they were babies! For the love of !!!!! Caleb, I don’t know whether to thank you or be upset with you for bringing this to my attention. Sometimes, me thinks ignorance truly is bliss!
Keep fighting the good fight, man!
Yes, after learning of the way he reached out to these degenerates it makes you wonder how much he actually agrees with their views. I mean it’s obvious the man shared their views somewhat, but to go so far as to retweet these god-awful freaks again and again just shows that we now have a White House whose official policy is essentially white supremacy. Whereas during the Obama years it was subtle in the ways it functioned to protect white supremacy, now they are essentially out in the open.
True! Because Black people and other minorities and groups were targeted by this trash even during Obama’s reign of terror. He was no saint and we ALL know this except for the Nobel prize committee since they had no problem handing a ‘peace’ prize over to a warmongering rat.
Since your blog is all about US Hypocrisy, then you know without a shadow of a doubt, the history of this nation as it relates to Black people. We have never had it easy and we never will. How we manage to keep on keeping on is anybody’s guess. But if statistics are to be believed, we have the most depressed, poverty-stricken and diseased folks in our numbers and that is mostly thanks to pure and unadulterated racism.
It’s difficult to envision the oppression ever ending as long as the empire known as the United States of America continues, as it owes its very existence to the oppression of Black and Indegenous people everywhere. The one sign of hope one can cling to is the fact that no empire in the history of the world lasts forever. They all fall eventually, and one day there will be no more U.S. of A., though I know stating this truth will certainly ruffle a few feathers.
If only the fall of this ’empire’ could happen in our lifetime Caleb. I know, wishful thinking.
I have been saying the same for years now!
No one will ever state that too loudly, or too often. What the people who live under the dictatorship of Wall Street/Washington need to finally realize is that they are not what the world considers to be the United States of America. Did you ever stop to think why “the United States of America” has no actual country name? Because it isn’t and never was a real country. It’s a convenient, and until recently a very safe, center (or throne) for a world dominating power cabal. The people ensnared within this center have been used in various ways, primarily as consumers, but also to fight wars for this cabal and to give it a veneer of legitimacy vis-a-vis the rest of the world. That legitimacy is now completely gone, (or swiftly eroding, thanks in a large part to Trump) so the only thing upholding the empire is the enslaved will of the people, and its military power, a power they are soon going to have to use in a last-ditch (and futile) effort to hold on to their illegitimate, illegal, immoral control of the planet’s resources and peoples. My two-bits’ worth of observation.
There couldn’t possibly be a better description of the situation this “country”, better described as a desperate and declining empire, finds itself in right now.
It’s interesting to note how the legitimacy is swiftly eroding in the eyes of many with Trump in charge, though I suspect that whoever will replace him will be claiming to restore the legitimacy of the United States with their presidency. It will be one hell of a tough sale though after he is through wrecking havoc.
Reblogged this on O LADO ESCURO DA LUA.
Thank you for re-blogging this on your excellent blog.
This is very good article my Earthling friend, thanks for the details and sharing. When looking at the writing as generally, the main point is actually the annoyance from what represent of “Trump” has came to power of US. And I am confused because, is this what the fact of US in reality, isn’t it? Trump is not “malformation”, he is the result of the system of USA.
Until election, have the US’s capital class elites not responded to the working class, immigrants, anti-racist actions, Native American people with the police violance and the other tools? They did all time, and still they do. And the opposite side of this, there was the democrat party which has the liberal approach and tried the solve the issues by ignoring the class divisions and showing these issues such as failures not caused by the system.
While Obama adminstration has been, this aproach to the public hasn’t been corporate on government level, even if it was settled in all the management staff of government. Only it has no name. Right now, it is gaining corporate identity on government level. This is the only difference.
The other side this is only the tip of the iceberg. It has been too much support to Clinton by the mainstream media of EU, and Israel or Saudis. The interests of the capitalist-imperialist elites at Middle East are the paralel with Clinton as same as Obama adminstration. They will not accept Trump admistration easily.
They started to bare their teeth already. Yesterday, the European Parliament approved a draft resolution equating counteracting Sputnik news agency and RT of Russia. RT and Sputnik news agency are alleged to be among the most dangerous “tools” of “hostile propaganda.” They claimed that Russia is allegedly “aggressively employing a wide range of tools and instruments” to weaken the EU. Is this only related with EU? No chance! Who released more document about H. Clinton political relations secret or open, before election? Not EU mainstream media we know, most has came from RT and sputnik. This voting showed us again, how hypocrite EU where so-called freedom is always its priority.
If you look at the discussions about two party system in these days within this context, the reform callings are/will not related with the welfare of US ordinary people. This is related with the interests of elites on new world order. If we are talking about a huge military power, so US military power, if the fact is the 2/3 stuff of this huge military power is working at outside of borders of US like Middle East, the reform what they want cannot be named as reform, it would be only shaping of new benefit.
The very hard days are waiting for the awakened people like you, my Earthling friend. Neither Democrat nor Republican party would be answer for the situation. And if the new formation or the changings will come the system of the parties or election system, who will actually benefit from this? We also know the answer, don’t we?
Is there a point in here somewhere? The obfuscation certainly doesn’t work!
The obfuscation for what?
I believe they were sharing their thoughts on the different reasons why Trump was able to win, and that in many ways he is not an aberration and he is consistent with America’s racist character. At least that is what I took from it.
You’re analysis is spot on my friend. This whole system should be destroyed and rebuilt because things are only going to get uglier from here it’s safe to assume.
Thank you, my Earthling friend! And you’re right, it absolutely should be destroyed!
Caleb, for the further “Adventures of Der Fuhrer”, you should really check “Spiegel International”, in English, for free and they “love” Trumpet as much over there as we do.
Do you have a link to the English version?
Here’s the link, but “SpiegelInternational” should get you there. Its a popular mainstream German periodical.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/
I’ve heard of it. It’s been around for a very very long time. I just was unaware that it was available online in English format. Thanks.
However this comment is taken, and I’m not American, nor enamoured of American “values” – during the US presidential campaign I often commented that Trump should win, and probably would win simply because, bottom line, Trump IS America. But not just America. As a naturalized Canadian having originated in Europe I remain amazed at how popular Trump is in Canada. Trump represents all the old die-hard, or never-die WASP “values,” the penultimate reactionary. Still, many who voted for Trump did so out of frustration, anger and despair. They wanted change and they knew Killer Ray represented only more banksterism and kleptocratic corporatism. All that remains to be seen is where his presidency and popularity sit a year from now. Will anybody even claim they voted for him? I foresee a never-before experienced plunge from popular standing into an abyss deeper than the one the current French president is “enjoying.” I don’t think the support of the KKK and Ult-Right is going to be enough. But, if I go back to my initial statement about WASP “values” I could be very wrong. Some clever scapegoating; some fake terrorism, some reconciliation with MSM for a Bush/Obama type whitewash, Soros deciding he can use Trump, some patriotic BS hype and who knows? Dictator Trump is not a far fetched idea either.
Very interesting analysis. I have to say I’m not even sure another terror attack like 9/11 would be enough to save Trump, though you can never underestimate the gullibility of the American people. It’s just pretty insane that his first move in office is to select a white supremacist as his chief strategist. I mean could it be any clearer what his intentions are? I’m sure hoping this plunge in popularity comes sooner rather than later, though he’s already set to become the most polarizing president in history. I mean, he got 2 million LESS votes than the losing candidate after all. Only in America.
We’re already starting to find-out what Trump’s Infrastructure Plan is. ASCAM!
Exactly. http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/krugman/2016/11/19/infrastructure-build-or-privatization-scam/
Trump is a snake-oil salesman, pure and simple. There is a saying in Sales: Sell the Sizzle, not the Steak. Focus on what the audience wants to hear, and don’t bother them with the facts. As P.T. Barnum once Said: “There’s a sucker born every moment.” Those gullible ones are the folks who voted for Trump. But now, just like some of the Brits who voted for Brexit, want to have a re-vote as they start to see the ramification of “Leave” is turning out, in-time, some of the Trumpeters will have Voters’ Remorse too!
“Trump is a snake oil salesman, pure and simple.” I think that is the most accurate definition of Trump’s purpose in running for President one could make.
By the way, I hear that a Canadian M.P. also wants to take your native land to that higher level.
Surely, that’ll be some ‘distant galaxy”, beaucoup light years from here. One way tickets!
I certainly hope you’re correct!