"Strategy is to f**k Hillary up so she can't govern" - Steve Bannon
Our backup strategy, he said of Clinton, is to fuck her up so bad that she cant govern.
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http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/steve-bannon-is-out-of-trump-doghouse-leading-charge-against-robert-mueller.html
This is an excellent article on Bannon and how conservative media controls US politics and public debate. Worth reading the whole thing.
A few key points/quotes below
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- If Hillary had won in November, she would have gotten nothing done with these attacks, with so many Americans hating her for false reasons amplified by Breitbart, Fox and the GOP media, and with a GOP congress. That was the Bannon/Trump/GOP strategy.
- Fox News (and mainstream media) are focused on ratings and dollars over everything:
"The intensity of Republican anger stunned Fox News executives. The debate had drawn a record 24 million viewers. Now many of them were apoplectic at the networks top talent. In a panic, Ailes called Bannon and begged him to call off the attacks. "
- Access to Fox News is enormously important (because they control debate). Fox News execs use access for political purposes:
"When he arrived, Johnson got straight to the point: If Bannon didnt stop immediately, he would never again appear on Fox News. Bannon was incensed at the threat."
- What is striking to me is the depth of lying, and the total disregard of truth, that is exposed in the Trump campaign. It is a team of Lee Atwaters, a team of Plumbers and Watergate Burglars and Tricky Dick Nixons. This type of politics is destroying America. What can be done about it?
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Bannon became a vital figure in Trumps orbit during the early days of his political rise. The two met late in 2010, when David Bossie, the veteran conservative activist, brought Bannon along on a trip to Trump Tower to offer advice about how Trump might prepare for a presidential run. Like Trump, Bannon was a businessman and born deal-maker. With experience on Wall Street and in Hollywood, he was nothing if not high energy, a mile-a-minute talker with a volcanic temper who rarely slept and possessed a media metabolism to rival Trumps own. And Bannon, too, had a healthy self-regard. On his office wall hung an oil painting of Bannon dressed as Napoleon in his study at the Tuileries, done in the style of Jacques-Louis Davids famous neoclassical painting a gift from Nigel Farage.
Perhaps because of this background, Trump, whose habit was to surround himself with obsequious lackeys, took Bannons counsel more seriously than he did that of other advisers. Steve was the only alpha male in his universe,
underthematrix
(5,811 posts)sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)This is the strategy - politics of personal destruction.
How many Americans hate Obama? 30%? That hate led to voters hating Obamacare, which led both to Hillary's loss and our current healthcare/tax cut bill battle.
DJT won because many democrats disliked Hillary due to these smears and false attacks.
IF America doesn't figure out a way to stop GOP-media-driven lying, I fear for our republic.
gordianot
(15,226 posts)Republicans are nihilistic and are no longer capable of participating in governing even when they control all 3 branches. We are in the clutches of anarchy for profit hard core authoritarians are just around the corner when the pendulum swings.
CanonRay
(14,037 posts)If they can't be in charge, destroy it all.
MosheFeingold
(3,051 posts)Remember the specific hacks:
1. Hillary email somewhere along the chain to Anthony Weiner -- this was probably several people, including Russians, as this was very sloppy
2. Podesta's email (where his password was "password" -- I think this was a kid as reported;
3. The sophisticated copying of (not alteration of) voter registration data in key Hillary districts -- almost certainly a foreign power, probably Russians
4. Whatever happened in the DNC and DNC House server --- my bet is on the Pakistani contractors who skipped town amid the chaos -- working for who knows who.
All of these --- #3 in particular -- were ways to spread dirt and doubt about Hillary. #3, in particular, could have been made to show she had fake voters. Perfect for Bannon's plan.
So when thinking about Russia, remember, Russia though Hillary was going to win. It is in Russia's best interest that the USA not be unified. They got what they wanted, but backwards.
StevieM
(10,499 posts)eom