The justifiable angst over Stephen Bannon’s hiring as soon-to-be President Trump’s chief strategist stems from the former’s time as executive editor of Breitbart News. He quit the job and joined the Trump campaign in August. Known for its incendiary headlines and stories that diss just about everyone who is not a white, male, U.S.-born Christian, Breitbart News is a comfortable home for the alt-right movement, better described as white nationalism.
Bannon is proud of his association with the alt-right.
The alt-right is led by young men like Richard Spencer, who runs a one-man think tank in Washington, D.C. Well-spoken, good-looking, and calm, if intense, Spencer was recently interviewed on NPR and the public radio investigative program Reveal. His main goal is creation of a white “ethno-state” within the borders of the United States, populated exclusively with—you guessed it—white people.
Earlier this week, Spencer and many of his ilk were banned from Twitter for violating its rules on hate speech. Many have fled to another social media site known for attracting the alt-right.
Bannon and Breitbart News are intimately intertwined with white nationalism. However, Bannon’s apologists claim he is not racist himself, and he really is a teddy bear once you get to know him. He denies that he is a white nationalist. His embrace of the alt-right comes from shared views on immigration (stop it) and globalist economics (stop that, too), not racism.
Stephen Bannon should immediately and unconditionally repudiate and condemn Breitbart News and all white nationalists in the alt-right and elsewhere.
Fine. As someone willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt, let him prove his tolerance and love of diversity.
Stephen Bannon should immediately and unconditionally repudiate and condemn Breitbart News and all white nationalists in the alt-right and elsewhere. That might ease the fears of religious groups, supporters of immigration rights, and feminists.
But I doubt it.
What do you think? Should Bannon disassociate himself with Breitbart News?
J.G. Follansbee 