“If you look at these Cabinet appointees, they were selected for a reason and that is the deconstruction, the way the progressive left runs, is if they can’t get it passed, they’re just gonna put in some sort of regulation in — in an agency. That’s all gonna be deconstructed”.
In these few words, at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference, Steve Bannon revealed the essence of the Trump Administration’s agenda for America – one of the most alarming internal threats to democracy in American history .If that seems like an overstatement, let’s review the key excerpts of the rest of Bannon’s remarks – and turn to the explanation of them provided to the New York Times by University of North Carolina Professor Daniel Kreiss, an expert in political language..
“I think if you look at the lines of work, I kind of break it up into three verticals of three buckets.The first is kind of national security and sovereignty and that’s your intelligence, the Defense Department, Homeland Security”
The word “Sovereignty” here asserts the idea of what America should be. It defines the symbolic core of the nation as being white and Christian. American sovereignty is seen as being under threat by cosmopolitanism and globalism.
“The second line of work is what I refer to as economic nationalism and that is Wilbur Ross at Commerce, Steven Mnuchin at Treasury, Lighthizer at — at Trade, Peter Navarro, Stephen Miller, these people that are rethinking how we’re gonna reconstruct the — our trade arrangements around the world”
“Economic Nationalism” is in opposition to the long-held bipartisan consensus that favors trade and immigration. In Bannon’s view, American interests are at odds with those of the rest of the world – and immigration is seen as undercutting American national identity.
“The third, broadly, line of work is what deconstruction of the administrative state is”
Bannon is deconstructing what he sees as a shadowy “administrative state’, engineered by the left, which is innately hostile to the people.
“But I think we — the center core of what we believe, that we’re a nation with an economy, not an economy just in some global marketplace with open borders, but we are a nation with a culture and a — and a reason for being. And I think that is what unites us and I think that is what is going to unite this movement going forward.”
Countries are in a natural state of permanent competition. Immigration threatens America’s culture and reason for being.
“They’re corporatist, globalist media that are adamantly opposed — adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda.”
The elite US globalist corporatist media is the opposition party and the enemy of the American people because it embraces immigration and serves business. Therefore it deserves neither trust nor transparency.
These are not words spoken by just some administration official. They describe the program that Bannon says he is currently putting in place: deliberately deconstructing the methods of government that have made America the greatest country the world has ever known; radically changing our global relationship as leader of the free world; abandoning our multi-racial, multicultural heritage, and diminishing the vital role of the free press in our democracy.Yet, every day the media ignores it and obsesses over something else. Currently it’s Trump’s allegation that Obama tapped his phone. Last week it was how his speech before Congress was very “Presidential” which would not have even been news in the pre-Trump era.
But now we are in a different world, with so many must-cover news events rushing in that the media are overlooking the forest for the trees, covering each event separately, but missing the main point, which is that so many of these individual stories – the partial Muslim ban;. creation of VOICE (Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement); increasing the defense budget by fifty four billion dollars; slashing State Department funding by a third; sidelining Secretary of State Tillerson; eliminating environmental controls; arresting and deporting long-time tax-paying undocumented immigrants; failing to staff up cabinet departments; centralizing decision making in the White House – are connected by the common thread of Bannon’s agenda. And it does not seem to be a coincidental that, by “Letting Trump be Trump” – encouraging him to keep creating “Yuge” news through his impetuous tweets and unexecutable directives – Bannon is able to draw media attention away from his real agenda and enact it under the radar.
Democracy is a fragile thing. It is not to be taken for granted and, unless some sanity prevails, America will become a very different place. We will move away from diversity towards a white Christian culture. We will no longer be the leader of the free world, instead, becoming a very strong self-centered, nation – more resented than respected by our peers. Individual states will assume whatever responsibility they choose for the welfare of the people. Government regulations will diminish and survival of the fittest will be the rule.
Will sanity prevail? While Republicans, at least publicly, have fallen in line behind Trump and appear to be giving full support to the new administration, some must recognize the threat to American democracy, while understanding that they cannot act until something happens to discredit it. Several such things are on the horizon. The Russian connection could reveal serious malfeasance, both in relationship to the campaign and to the ongoing relationship between Trump and Putin. If they are subpoenaed, Trump’s tax returns could well contain harmful information regarding his sources of income. There could be congressional fallout from the debt ceiling, which the US will reach late this month – and which the administration seems unprepared to deal with. It is difficult to see how the upcoming proposed budget will not result either in the abandonment of many of Trump’s campaign-promised programs (e.g.: the Wall, tax cuts) or in an enormous deficit, which will never be approved. There are other issues pending which could also be troublesome, including some Trump Organization dealings just revealed in Azerbaijan
As long as the Trump agenda is just words, he will likely retain full support. But when reality hits, and the truth of its impossibility is revealed, this will erode. Then we will find out if some responsible Republicans come forward to remove the cancer before it spreads throughout our fragile democracy. So far the Trump presidency has seemed immune from the consequences of his ignorance, petulance, lying, vengeance, egomania and malignant narcissism. Maybe he’ll continue to confound. I’m betting he won’t – but we’ll see.
Gerry Meandering 