Thanks Bannon
There is a “new” term favored by the media: tribalism. This is the catchall for what has happened to the United States; for the inability of Americans to speak and hear each other. We can’t accept that others’ views might have merit, and we aren’t willing to bend our own.
Tribalism: we hear it on Fox News (and I suppose others would say I hear it on MSNBC.) There are two completely different worlds of facts: as I focus on the next “move” by Mueller; they focus on the “biased texts” of FBI investigators. But it goes even farther than that.
Steve Bannon has corrupted the Republican Party. He brought his alt-right nationalism to a party bereft of a principled core: they have lost their soul to money, and Bannon’s extremism has filled the void. Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King is the latest example of Bannon’s ideology, tweeting:
Diversity is not our strength. Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, “Mixing cultures will not lead to a higher quality of life but a lower one.”
Presidential aide Stephen Miller made the same point in his infamous discussion of the Statue of Liberty with CNN’s Jim Acosta. Miller discounted Emma Lazarus’s Colossus, “…the huddled masses yearning to be free…” saying the United States was only a monumental example, not a promise to the people of the world. In his rant from the press podium came an undercurrent of anti-Semitism (a trend in Bannon’s “tribe” seen again in Kayla Moore’s statement for “… the fake news: one of her lawyer’s is a Jew.”)
The American tradition of the “melting pot;” the idea that we are all immigrants brought together to work together for a common good, is not a part of Bannon’s racist tribe. He believes that we should close our borders and ally ourselves with the other members of the “Northern European Tribes.” That helps explain his affinity for the Russians.
It is this tribalism that has changed the nature of political defeat. In the last year, losing hasn’t just meant the loss of a vote or a seat: it has felt like the loss of the American creed. Last night tribalism took a hit when, by a slim margin, the next Senator from Alabama will be Democrat Doug Jones.
Doug Jones ran against the concept of “the tribe.” He campaigned by being willing to work together with Republicans (as he had to given Alabama’s voting profile.) He will enter the Senate as the first Democrat from Alabama in twenty years. Democrats need to give him the flexibility to represent that state. Alabama has made a small step, and a giant leap, away from extremism. Jones, like Joe Manchin of West Virginia, must represent his constituents, not be forced into some Democratic version of “the tribe.” The Democrats who suffered the calamity of 2016 must be willing to maintain a “big tent” and not force some tribal litmus test.
My Republican friends will say that of course Roy Moore would be defeated. His political views, much less his deviant acts, should have assured his defeat. But the Alabama Republicans chose him to run for the Senate, and the Republican Party came back to support him despite his history. They picked him, over others.
The real danger for the Republicans is that Bannon will continue his corruption of the Republican soul. His “tribe” is not done; Bannon promises primaries across the country to further his capture. And while I suspect he will have some victories, Alabama has shown the way to his defeat.
Democrats have extremists as well. If they cannot accept the good faith differences of those who share similar overall goals, then they will fall into the same trap the Republicans have found. But, if the Republicans allow themselves to be “primaried” into extremist candidates, and if the Democrats can remain the home of Elizabeth Warren AND Joe Manchin (and Doug Jones) then Democrats won’t have to depend on Special Counsel Mueller to change our nation.
One of the very few clear polling results is that Jones (and America, in my opinion) owes this win to Alabama’s Black population (96% for Jones and a higher than average voter turn out at 30%).
A few of the polling results that I find especially frustrating; these are some of the claims made by those who voted FOR Moore*:
16% Very Liberal
30% Sexual Misconduct Allegations Were A Factor In Their Vote
15% Consider Sexual Misconduct Allegations Against Moore as A Very Important Factor
8% Believe Allegations of Sexual Misconduct Are True
4% Have a Favorable Opinion of The Democratic Party
12% Have an Unfavorable Opinion of Moore
4% Share Values with Jones (Moore’s OPPONENT)
6% Do NOT Share Values with Moore
13% Believe Abortion Should Be Legal In ALL Cases
*Please note that the smallest percentage I included was 4% and that all of these numbers have to be weighed along side the allegations against Moore and with consideration for the pulled support from the GOP (even though it was reinstated), Moore’s racist statements, disregard for Federal law, religious fanaticism, homophobia, and the partial condemnation from many prominent Republicans. Given all of that…. I can’t find any way to interpret these results other than to say that there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with Alabama voters who cast their ballot for Moore. Considering that the group that did vote for Moore was overwhelmingly White, this also lends a lot of credence to the argument that Republican led voter suppression laws target a specific (minority) population and are, therefore, correctly labeled as “racist.”
http://www.cnn.com/election/2017/results/alabama-senate
wow, great input to an already great post by Marty, Ben McNabb. Thank you.
Who the hell is Steve Bannon anyway? If Republicans are 35% of the electorate (+/- 5%), he speaks for maybe 10% of that 35%, or 3.5% of the population. And he sways absolutely noone: he just provides red meat for both his small but rabid followers, AND for the far greater # of those who are not in his “tribe”. He desires the end of the Republican party maybe more than he desires advancing a conservative agenda. He is the best thing that has happened to the Democratic party in a while, b/c he provides such an easy whipping boy. And he makes thoughtful people who identify as Republicans question, “do I really want to be part of this mess?”