Bannon: US Government with a Difference
Written by Alfonso Elizondo
On January 28 this year, presidential advisor for strategic affairs, Steve Bannon, became the head of the National Security Council which functions as a council of ministers for crisis management, foreign policy and national security. This came at the same time as the removal of Dan Coats, Director of the National Intelligence Community, the body that coordinates all intelligence agencies including the CIA, NSA, DIA, and FBI. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the army’s governing body and the Pentagon’s highest-ranking military officer, was also removed on that same day.
As a result, both the Army and the Intelligence Services lost their leaders in the most important decision-making government agency having to do with US imperial policy. This has been the biggest blow to the Army in its entire history and the second biggest for the CIA since George W. Bush changed its independent character during his presidential term. But the most important thing that has happened to that model of the state controlled by the military and spies is that they always got rid of governments that were not to their liking, as were the cases of Nixon and Kennedy, to mention only the most famous.
Bannon’s entry into the National Security Council allows him to know the most important state secrets of American politics, and it also opens up the possibility of him influencing critical situations in the presidency in real time. This is a situation that did not exist before, since no one who did not belong to the National Security Council or who had not been invited by the President was allowed to even enter the East Room of the White House where Security National operations are conducted. With Bannon in that position, the ideology of white supremacists is being enforced with the kind of vigour they have not had since President Woodrow Wilson dismissed African American federal workers in 1912.
All this unusual situation, in addition to the rise of the extreme right in Europe which could possibly gain power in key countries like France, plus the prevalence of xenophobic discourse in broad sectors disadvantaged by the problems of globalization, suggests that a new extreme right political ideology could emerge and that it could be a threat to democracy and pluralistic society.
As we know, the Alternative Right (Alt-Right) is a youth movement in the West that is seeking to reform the extreme right using the models created by the left, from a xenophobic and sexist perspective. It has two factions: Rodex, focussed on rationalism and Breitbart which is hostile to feminism, Islam and traditional political correctness.
At the moment no one knows if Donald Trump and the Alt-Right are fascists, neo-fascists or a new still unnamed extreme right phenomenon. In fact, no one knows so far what is happening now in the political world globally and many think that things are returning to the era of fascism. But according to current geopolitical scholars we must think that a major change is in fact already occurring, which only creates panic, since the new political scientists know very well that history never repeats itself, although there are still those who believe it does.
Although this youth movement contributed a great deal to Trump’s election victory, that does not mean that Trump’s political ideology – if he has one – is similar to that of the Alt-Right, for the simple reason that he is totally lacking in political culture, and moreover his narcissism and a messianism prevent him from embracing an ideology that already exists, so he will have to create one of his own. However, Trump’s unexpected victory has allowed him to move away from marginality to the Alt Right, while providing him with a real social base that he has always lacked.
Addendum: The possibility that the dismantled political system and the meager economy will allow the United States to once again become the undisputed world leader, as it was until the end of the twentieth century, is very remote. And it is very difficult for the deteriorating American economy to find a new way to restore the growth that it experienced for over almost 50 years in the last century.
As has always been the case in the history of the great empires, their period of decline has always been fairly prolonged, but none of them has ever been able to return to their golden years. Similarly, the cause of the decline of all empires has always been internal conflicts between those who used to have power.
It is also very difficult for an empire to be aware of the myths that motivated its development and generally they never understand them. This is why they look to divine stories, supernatural events or miracles for an explanation, even though science has been proving day after day that all developments in human civilization have always had a clear scientific explanation.