Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:32 pm
Today, People For the American Way President Michael Keegan released the following statement condemning Trump’s selection of white supremacist and anti-Semite for a White House post:
“By choosing Steve Bannon as chief strategist, Trump has made clear that he intends to carry the racism and anti-Semitism of his campaign straight into the White House. The website Bannon ran is a home for the White Nationalist Right that elevates racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic tirades and conspiracy theories.
“Congressional Republicans need to stand up and call out Trump for choosing Bannon as a senior adviser and ‘equal partner’ to Trump’s Chief of Staff. This isn’t about partisan politics; no one with Bannon’s record should be anywhere near the White House.â€
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has called on Trump to rescind his hiring of Bannon:
Trump should rescind this hire. In his victory speech, Trump said he intended to be president for “all Americans.†Bannon should go.
— Hatewatch (@Hatewatch) November 14, 2016
Both of these calls are forlorn cries, of course. The GOP powered Trump’s campaign of hate, laying the groundwork over the two terms of President Barack Obama’s administration. Trump did not invent the hate: he simply harnessed it successfully and rode it into the White House.
Republicans made clear during the election that they would not withdraw their endorsements of Donald Trump. They are not, at the moment of their victory, about to denounce Trump’s selection of Steve Bannon now.
After all, Trump has only done what they themselves have so longed to do, especially with the mainstream media now so eager to normalize Trump’s hate speech.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
