By Drew Ryun
As I wrote a few weeks ago in my post Bannon’s Braggadocio, it’s one thing for someone like Steve Bannon to boast about how many Republicans he is going to take out in primaries. It’s entirely another thing to back that boasting with legitimate funding.
The consensus up until today has been that there is relatively little daylight between the Mercers, specifically Bob and Bekah, and Steve Bannon. Today we all found out otherwise.
Here’s my quick take on things. It’s not that the Mercers and Bannon have dissimilar objectives. Many of us among the liberty, free market movement share the belief that there are those in Washington, DC who say one thing on the campaign trail and do a 180 once elected. And they have to be replaced with those who will fulfill their campaign promises. As these campaign chameleons do their DC kabuki dance, the country goes deeper into debt, socialized medicine becomes an encroaching reality and the difference between the two major parties, which should be stark, blends into a murky gray.
Here’s where I think the difference is. Donors like Bob Mercer want to see creative destruction, a sort of market disruption, that has an objective in mind-an actual principled, free market driven party that is intent on giving as many people as possible the greatest amount of liberty.
On the flip side of this is Steve Bannon, aider and abetter of the alt-right and a modern day (would be) Robespierre who just wants to create chaos. Articles like this one from Buzzfeed are damning. Bannon’s personal history is damning. As I have written before, we can be principled conservatives and not be with Steve Bannon. We can foment for constructive change and not have to embrace the ugliness that he embodies.
A new day dawned today in conservative and Republican politics.
And it is a good thing.
