Steve Bannon and Populism’s Missed Opportunities

[EasyAce]

By Peter Spiliakos
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/455337/steve-bannon-populism-conservatism-republican%20party-missed-opportunities-mike-lee-tom-cotton-paul-nehlen-roy-moore

One of Steve Bannon’s problems is that he learned some wrong lessons from 2016. He thought that Trump’s election proved that the political establishment was so unpopular that there was no such thing as a populist candidate too repugnant for the voters. It turned out that the election of a candidate as vicious as Trump was more the exception than the rule. Tying the populist cause to Paul Nehlen’s antisemitism and to Roy Moore’s combination of bigotry, senility, and hebephilia turned out to be a tactical error (to say nothing of a moral error.)

Bannon also misjudged the constituency for center-right populism. Trump didn’t win because of the social-media posts of half-ass Internet Nazis. He won because millions of mostly working-class, white, economically moderate Obama voters shifted toward the Republican column. They did this because Trump talked as if their problems were real and could not be solved by another round of tax cuts for the rich. But these voters can’t eat white-identity politics. Candidates ranting about Israeli influence or being nostalgic about slavery family values hurts as a matter of raw politics. And thank God for that.

Bannon had a chance to take on the Republican establishment, but it required discipline and some measure of decency. It required combining his talents for publicity and fundraising with candidates of character . . . Instead of doing that, Bannon decided it was easier to ally with grifters and lunatics who had preexisting brands. The result is that a “populism” of Paul Nehlen, Roy Moore, Joe Arpaio, and Steve Bannon looks worse than no populism at all.

[goatprairie]

Radicals like Bannon wanted to throw out the baby with the bath water.  People who backed Trump mostly did so to stop the flood of illegal immigration. Everything else was secondary.
I suppose there was/is a percentage who are concerned about that Deep State they think they can remove. Good luck with that. And good riddance to a creep like Bannon.