Steven Bannon and his wealthy father-daughter sidekicks the Mercers have reportedly been plotting the development of a "shadow party" to push Donald Trump's “America First” agenda—an agenda loosely centered around destroying all Washington norms. Per usual, Bannon has grand plans that include developing donor networks and identifying disrupter candidates, and it's unclear how much of it he'll be able to actualize. But any way you slice it, he and his billionaire benefactors are bound to cause headaches for the GOP establishment, ranging from major donors to preferred candidates. The New York Times writes:
But the Bannon-Mercer alliance is likely to be a potent factor in widening the divisions laid bare by the Alabama race and the intraparty battles that have crippled the Republican agenda in Congress. It could put Mr. Bannon and the Mercers on a collision course with not just the Republican establishment but with other donor-driven political organizations, including the one built by the billionaire brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch — and potentially with Mr. Trump.
At Mr. Moore’s victory party, Mr. Bannon promised that “you’re going to see in state after state after state, people that follow the model of Judge [Roy] Moore, that do not need to raise money from the elites, from the crony capitalists, from the fat cats in Washington, D.C., New York City, Silicon Valley.”
Perhaps most worrisome for the GOP is the fact that Bannon has no real political ideology other than to destroy the system as it currently exists. That means he'll get behind an evangelical wack job just as quickly as a pussy-grabbing philanderer as long as they threaten the status quo. As a former chief of staff to Sen. Mitch McConnell noted Friday, Bannon's work in Alabama has already laid the groundwork for Democrats to potentially be competitive in places where they normally wouldn't have a shot, with a Friday poll showing Moore leading Democrat Doug Jones by just five points in the race for the Alabama Senate seat.
Bannon’s scheme doesn’t have to be a whopping success to help Democrats. Even if he helped create even one or two more opening for Democrats in the Senate, that could go a long way toward giving them leverage for pickups they never would have had in 2018.
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2fXWOUv
0 التعليقات:
Post a Comment