Once again the media follows Donald Trump’s foolish path while minorities’ civil liberties are in jeopardy because they refuse to admit White Nationalists are taking over the Whitehouse.
Voter suppression is the fact. Voter fraud is the fiction. Steve Bannon, Trump’s top advisor, counselor and major leader in the Alt-Right movement has the media going in circles as the US agenda begins to reflect the views, tones and racist agenda of the Alt-Right movement.
Donald Trump tweeted:
To Trump, strengthening the procedures means appointing John Gore as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s civil rights division. Gore is not a civil rights lawyer but primary relevant experience involves defending clients accused of racial voter discrimination with a detour into a high profile case seeking to limit LGBT rights.
Until recently, he was a partner at Jones Day, a large law firm employing many prominent Republican lawyers. Gore has defended a number of state legislative maps against lawsuits alleging that they violate the remaining portions of the Voting Rights Act. He has worked on some civil rights-related issues on the side of people who were accused of violating civil rights laws including several cases alleging illegal racial gerrymanders.
Ah ha! Interesting enough, gerrymandering is a topic former President Obama is passionate about (he mentioned this would be one of his priorities when he left office). Obama teamed up with Attorney General Eric Holder to create the National Democratic Redistricting Committee with the aim of taking on the gerrymandering that’s left the party behind in statehouses and made winning a House majority far more difficult.
This voter fraud is actually a deflection to further voter suppression for upcoming elections and civil rights denial. The Alt-Right agenda is not to be underestimated as Steve Bannon is able to inject the Alt Right’s white nationalist agenda into the Whitehouse.
Steve Bannon took credit for mobilizing this populist nationalist movement long before Trump’s run for office. “He credited Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)—a Trump endorser and confidant who has suggested that civil rights advocacy groups were “un-American” and “Communist-inspired”—with laying the movement’s groundwork.” This excerpt was taken from a Mothers Jones article dated August 22, 2016. Jeff Sessions is now Attorney General nominee.
What is also highly alarming is Trump’s two new hires Julia Hahn, a former reporter for Breitbart, known for her anti-immigration stance and contempt for Paul Ryan, and Sebastian Gorka, Breitbart’s national security editor. Both worked closely with Bannon during his tenure at Breitbart.
Hahn will act as an assistant to Bannon and Trump, while Gorka is expected to have a place on the National Security Council. Gorka has worked as a Fox News contributor and served as a paid policy consultant during Trump’s campaign.
The Alt Right agenda
In a past NPR interview with alt-right leader Richard Spencer, that Bannon referred to as a white nationalist in nature. Richard stated, “What I would ultimately want is this ideal of a safe space for Europeans,” Spencer told NPR host Kelly McIver’s. Spencer is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “one of the country’s most successful young white nationalist leaders , a suit-and-tie version of the white supremacists of old, a kind of professional racist in khakis.”
“This is a big empire that would accept all Europeans. It would be a place for Germans, it would be a place for Slavs, it would be a place for Celts, it would be a place for white Americans and so on,” Spencer continued. (Recently Press Secretary Spice gave a random message at the top of his press briefing, that the Irish Prime Minister had be invited to the U.S. for St. Patty’s Day claiming reporters had been asking, only problem is, no one asked that question.)
“What I’m saying is that Europeans defined America, they defined what it is,” Spencer continued. “European people were the indispensable people who defined this nation socially and politically and culturally and demographically, obviously. I care about us more. This is the first time we’ve really entered the mainstream,” Spencer told NPR, “and we’re not going away.”
Under Bannon’s watch, Breitbart attracted large numbers of white nationalist readers like Spencer and became a platform for racist, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, homophobic and misogynist rhetoric. In the weeks following a self-proclaimed white supremacist’s mass killing of African-Americans at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Breitbart published an article celebrating the Confederate flag and calling on Americans to “hoist it high and proud.” Remember during that time the Confederate flag was a flag of contention in South Carolina where the mass killings took place.
A White House official told the Wall Street Journal that Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon and senior advisor Stephen Miller wrote Trump’s inauguration address. Bannon going as far as saying “I don’t think we’ve had a speech like that since Andrew Jackson came to the White House,” Bannon told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s got a deep, deep root of patriotism.” Trump recently hung a portrait of Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office.
Alt-Right leaders around America claim that Bannon is their man in the White House: “Bannon is our man in the White House” said Andrew Anglin from the Neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer.
The Alt-Rights are huge fans of Putin. They also found themselves believing that their values were more in line with Putin’s. They agreed with Putin’s crack down on gays and his anti-Western liberalism stances. They found that they shared “Traditionalist Nationalist”” views with Putin.
This voter fraud is the start to further suppress Civil Rights and Voting Rights and an attempt to infringe a racist white nationalist agenda on America!
President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holders aggressive attempt to tackle gerrymandering and voter suppression will be critical in maintaining and further progressing Voting Rights. America’s strong resistance and civic participation will be extremely important in the battle of Civil Rights. Democracy is at risk.