President-elect Trump got his transition off to a rocky start with his ill-advised appointment of Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist.
This will place within a few paces of the Oval Office a man with a reprehensible track record of promoting racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism and seditious sentiment. Bannon not long ago called himself a “Leninist” whose goal was to “destroy the state.” We should believe him.
His news website, Breitbart.com, branded conservative pundit William Kristol a “renegade Jew.” It called former House member and gun violence survivor Gabby Giffords “the gun control movement’s human shield.” It claimed birth control makes women “unattractive and crazy,” and declared the Confederate flag represented “a glorious heritage.”
More recently, as head of Donald Trump’s campaign, Bannon oversaw an ad that suggested billionaire George Soros, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankenfein — all Jews connected to banking or finance — represented the source of the world’s problems.
Can you say “Elders of Zion”?
Bannon has his defenders, Jews among them. The Zionist Organization of America, the Republican Jewish Coalition and Alan Dershowitz released statements dismissing charges that Bannon is anti-Semitic.
It doesn’t matter. If someone carries water for bigotry, hatred and anti-Semitism, or provides a platform for such views, that person is disqualified from any government post, let alone chief strategist to the president.
This appointment casts grave doubts on Trump’s judgment in his new capacity as president-elect. Fortunately, Americans are not sitting still. Efforts to stop Bannon have caught fire online and among a growing number of elected officials. They just might succeed.
Beyond Bannon, citizens upset over the election results are responding in positive ways. Our story this week notes that Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay has been flooded with people eager to volunteer, especially to assist Middle East refugees terrified by Trump’s anti-immigrant proposals. Donations to organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood also have spiked, showing that Americans will not let their fellow citizens down should Trump make good on his promise to crack down on immigrants, Muslims and our First Amendment rights.
Echoing President Obama’s words to Trump last week: We wish him success, because if he succeeds, America succeeds. But first, Bannon has to go.