Steve Bannon's Nationalism Is a Click-Scam Disguised as a Movement - by Rick Wilson

[DonViejo]

Nationalists and populists rise from moments where the temptations to abandon principle, policy, and that harder work of ethical governance is too strong.

RICK WILSON
08.21.17 11:20 PM ET

Steve Bannon’s departure from the White House was marked by a sense of relief on the part official Washington for about 10 blissful seconds.

Then the realization that Bannon’s liver-spotted hands were back on the controls of Robert Mercer’s pet alt-right propaganda organ hit them, and that bliss turned to despair. Before the White House door could hit Bannon on the backside, he was gleefully capering like a crusty leprechaun that he “had his hands on his weapons” again, and that he’d soon turn his fire on the real enemies of nationalist populism—Republicans and the broadly defined Establishment.

In Bannonism, fights matter more than ideas or accomplishments. The Bannonites aren’t really looking to do anything. They’re looking to be something, and that something is the political equivalent of a surly resident of the local monkey cage, screeching, baring its teeth, and throwing its feces at passersby. The promises of nationalist populism that helped Trump win over disaffected voters are well-known—the swift construction of the wall, mass deportations, torn-up trade deals, and the re-emergence of the economy of the 1950s.

Those promises are increasingly remote, and it’s largely Trump’s fault, but it won’t stop Steve Bannon and his allies from waging a furious blamestorming war against the GOP.
The two dirty secrets of nationalist populism are increasingly obvious. First, it’s not conservative; not even a little. All the fantasies of Trump-Bannon nationalism require a vastly expanded state, with greater powers over the economy and society. Free-market capitalism doesn’t pick economic winners and losers based on the president’s economic nostalgia, and limited-government conservatism isn’t marked a top-down ideological conformity strictly enforced by state media organs.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-s-nationalism-is-a-click-scam-disguised-as-a-movement

[dalton99a]

1. Kick.

[SunSeeker]

2. I don't think Bannon ever gave up his influence at Breitbart, so I don't expect much change. nt

[Beartracks]

3. The right wing finds ethical governance too hard...

... and that's why they veer further and further to the right: because it's easy. They have no stomach or capacity for the hard road, the tough decisions, or the long view. Or, for that matter, public service. They are simply not up to the task.

==============