The Left’s New Trump Red Herring: Stephen Bannon

Liberals across the country are throwing a hissy fit in response to the news that Donald Trump appointed former Breitbart News Chairman Stephen K. Bannon as his chief strategist.

Why, the unaware observer might ask? Well, according to the progressive punditry and their legions of easily triggered millennial supporters, Bannon is both an anti-Semite and a white supremacist.

“When they see someone as an ideological threat … there are the piranhas that will circle around.”

While The New York Times called Bannon’s selection an “ominous sign,” The Huffington Post was just a tad less subtle. “A White Nationalist Is the New White House Chief Strategist,” read its headline. Bannon is “known for having white nationalist views,” the article claimed.

Lena Dunham, progressive America’s radical darling, filmed herself leaving a voice message for House Speaker Paul Ryan, in which she expressed her disappointment in Bannon’s appointment.

“I want to let you know that as a woman, as a Jew, as a person who cares about other human beings, people of color, the idea of appointing an anti-Semitic white supremacist …” Dunham whimpered before being cut off by Ryan’s answering machine.

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“Late Night” host Seth Meyers was equally as hysterical. “A quick side note to everyone referring to Bannon as ‘controversial’: He’s not ‘controversial,’ he’s a white nationalist and an anti-Semite,” Meyers said.

It’s not just liberals either — self-proclaimed conservatives have also taken shots at Bannon. “Bannon has a clear tie to white nationalists — clear tie,” claimed Glenn Beck. What that clear tie is, however, Beck did not say.

The reason for this barrage of Bannon-bashing is painfully apparent. Trump’s victory having proved that the “racist” label no longer carries the power to shame their opponents into silence, the Left is seeing if they fare any better with the more specific “anti-Semitic” and “white nationalist.”

“When they see someone as an ideological threat or someone who could be very powerful advancing a conservative message close to a principle — or actually in a principal position — there are the piranhas that will circle around,” LifeZette Editor-in-Chief Laura Ingraham said on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday morning. “They hope to get a little blood in the water and then hope for the big fish to come in and kill them off.”

“This is what the media do, this is what the Establishment does — they throw out a bunch of innuendo to try to smear someone,” Breitbart Senior Editor Joel Pollak said on CNN Tuesday night. “The most offensive thing Steve Bannon ever did was win the White House with Donald Trump,” Pollak said. Pollak happens to be an Orthodox Jew, and his involvement with Breitbart and friendship with Bannon should be evidence enough to disprove the baseless smears of anti-Semitism or white supremacy.

Indeed, so should the fact that Ben Shapiro, another Orthodox Jew, was involved with Breitbart for so long, and also the fact that Bannon oversaw the establishment of a Breitbart Jerusalem bureau, the chief of which is Aaron Klein — another Jew of devout religious background.

Then of course there is the fact that Breitbart London’s editor is Raheem Kassam, a formerly practicing Muslim of Asian descent. Oh, and Breitbart’s co-founder and CEO is Larry Solov, also Jewish.

Clearly, the notion that Breitbart, under Bannon’s stewardship, became some sort of flagship publication for the white nationalist, anti-Semitic voices on the Alt-Right is patently absurd.

There are indeed white nationalist, anti-Semitic voices on the Alt-Right, but a mere thirty seconds spent on those openly white nationalist and anti-Semitic websites — such as Raddix Journal and Counter Currents — should be more than enough for even the most biased observer to realize that Breitbart is most certainly not one of those voices.

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The Left’s collective freak out over Bannon might be hilarious — were it not so dangerous. Continuing to associate Trump, his supporters, and conservatives in general with swastika-branded neo-Nazis is only going to further justify the anti-Trump violence that has erupted in cities across America.

Moreover, the Left’s collective freak out over Bannon’s appointment also proves it has learned absolutely nothing from Hillary Clinton’s electoral defeat. If the Left continues to dismiss and disparage white Americans’ completely legitimate concerns about radical demographic and cultural changes, it will only encourage more division, distrust, and anger.