Rick Wilson
@TheRickWilson
1/ Super excited today for the "conservative" media excuses for "Why Bannon isn't a great guy but the MSM is so much worse for pointing out that Bannon isn't a great guy and the New Yorker was wrong not to destroy their conference by throwing him over the cliff."
2/ Bannon is, as I've written here, in the Beast, and in my #1 NYT best-selling book (ha!), is an actively evil player who seeks to use the rules-based society and "everyone deserves to have their truth heard" philosophy extant today in order to hack and destroy that same system.
3/ Bannon is a cancer in this republic, and every electoral system he attempts to subvert into his dark, totalitarian vision. His "populism" is a thin veneer over authoritarian statism and outright, no-exaggeration fascism.
No, he doesn't "deserve a place to tell his truth"...
4/ ...in any private space, or event. He is protected by the 1st Admt for which he has a hearty disdain.
As a capitalist, I like how the New Yorker made a financial decision based on market forces. They're not a public entity.
5/ Bannon's game is to play to established institutions with a much milder version of what he says behind closed doors, a shaved and civilized backslapper who just happens to have a few edgy ideas.
"No, we'd never put kids in cages! Even if they deserve it haw haw haw."
6/ Don't be fooled for one second that Bannon wasn't directly trying to grow, foster, and deploy the alt-right for his purposes until it became embarrassing.
In Europe, he's in bed with people who make the Pepe boys look like the League of Women Voters.
7/ Bannon's ideas, record, and actions deserve scrutiny, exposure, and shaming.
Many DC journos liked that he'd blast his fellow Trump team members and looked away from the overtly fascist and racial nature of his "revolution" claptrap. They let him frame the terms of coverage.
8/ It's not that David Remnick couldn't ask him tough questions. It's that Bannon's audience and Bannon's movement get to hear their precious codewords from mainstream stages and infecting the discourse.
"We win even if we're losing."
9/ If you want to end Bannon, defeat his candidates. Expose and crush his donors. Reveal his ties to the seamiest, most grotesque racial arsonists. Infiltrate his alt-right boys club, esp in Europe.
10/ Steve Bannon is many things, but he's not a conservative.
So endeth.