The Case of Steve Bannon

I’ve never paid much attention to Steve Bannon. I’ve tended to dismiss him as a hate-mongering proto-fascist, which he is. But he’s also a very smart guy, and genuinely sincere in his outrage at the obscene levels of economic inequality that have developed under the stewardship of both of our political parties over the past 40-odd years. His recent interview with the NY Times’s Ross Douthat was very revealing to me—I found myself agreeing with Bannon more than I ever would have expected. Since it was revealing to me, I thought you might find it similarly valuable, so I’m passing it on. (You can also find it on You-tube and podcasts, if you prefer watching and/or listening.) And, Bannon’s feud with the techno-billionaires Trump has embraced is fun to observe. Douthat does an excellent job at probing Bannon’s sometimes imperfectly coherent views. If he’s not always successful at pinning him down, it’s because Bannon is such a cleverly slippery character.