Did… did I just slide to a parallel universe? Do I get to meet Jerry O’Connell? What the hell is going on?!
"This is a 1932-type realignment, if we do this right,” Bannon explained. “Look at the demographics that got us here – black, Hispanic, white, working class, all of it. If we deliver for these people, and I mean deliver in a big way economically, then this is a coalition that could last for 50 years.”
He added that loyalty to “crony capitalism” and “tax breaks for the corporations” could “squander” a unique moment in history.
Making the economy better is how Hitler got into power too. The irony in saying this could be a 1932 style realignment is not lost on me. Trump has also said he wants to go after his political opponents and put them in prison. Also something Hitler did.
To expand on this for the unaware: Hitler came back into power for his second term in 1932. His first term, similar to trumps, was rife with turmoil and political/administrative blunders. One of the first things he did, upon returning to power, was a German version of The New Deal. They massively invested in their country’s infrastructure and provided tens of millions of jobs for the young working class, who had been suffering the worst unemployment crisis in an age. For the first time in their lives, young Germans had good jobs (with great benefits) and were contributing towards building a better, cleaner, safer Germany, all facilitated by “the national socialist party”. This was the part of nazi history that actually included socialism, and it’s how the nazi party duped an entire generation into becoming their foot soldiers. They actually delivered substantive, positive change for the people, allowed people to get comfortable with the new status quo while they further built propaganda machines, then turned that status quo into a carrot on a stick. Young nazi’s were very fearful of a backslide, so when nazi propaganda started saying all these bad people were trying to take away their newfound financial freedom, it was very easy to convince these young, relatively ignorant, working class people to “defend” the country they proudly built with their own hands.
If the GOP did a 180° on all of their economic policy, of the last 60+ years, to follow a similar story arc, I would be extremely concerned. With how down-trodden our 3 youngest generations are, the conditions for an American copy of nazi Germany couldn’t be more perfect than they are right now.
I’m not a historian. I just read a book on this subject recently. Feel free to correct or add to anything I got wrong/missed!
I’d be interested to hear which book this was!
Well, it started with Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning, which is more about what happened after the coup, until nazi’s downfall. Then, I read parts of The Third Reich by Thomas Childers, which prompted a documentary watch and I haven’t gone much further than that. But both of those books are amazing and very informative. I can try to find that documentary too, if you’re interested.
I’m interested
If they flipped on their last 60 years of policy though… I’d be much happier with the status quo though. A new new deal and a thriving economy that helps the working class would be great. It would give far fewer issues that we need to address at once. Shit, if you got them flipped, since Republicans tend to fall in line they’ll take it as a win and celebrate it as they believed he would be good the entire time ignoring all of his policies changing. And it lands the Republicans left of the Democrats. Meaning when the Democrats lean towards the pubs to get voters … they’ll be moving left as well. If we somehow got healthcare and fair wages and taxation better through this… Then we only have to focus on ensuring they don’t subjugate populations like minorities, and get policing under control which all would be easier with a thriving economy and workforce. Less people are scared when more people are doing well. Whether someone is racist or not, the stereotypes become harder to push on people. A few other huge things like climate change, but with high taxes on the rich pushes companies to invest their money into their companies to avoid paying those taxes which in turn will churn out good things. (Either more quality, efficiency, research and expansion). Maybe we could finally catch up on battery tech and secure our own energy sources and grid for the future. That would be a great way to put America to work. Building an upgraded grid with storage and modularity for natural disasters.
Don’t get my hopes up on this shit just to
While I generally agree, I would still be extremely skeptical of those changes coming from the people that have spent the last 60 years sliding us into a situation were we desperately need those changes. If that was the play, I would see it as a decades long scam with the intent being to purchase legitimacy with a lie. The logical conclusion being they want absolute power and see a working strategy to obtain that by following in the nazi’s footsteps, with some modern revisions.
Skeptical is understandable. But we can use some wins man… if the winds blowing in the right direction better to veer the ship in the right direction than try to go agaisnt it while hurting and tiring ourselves out in the process.
He’s talking about FDR not Hitler.
One would like to think so. The problem is that imagining a right-wing Republican willing to jackboot some motherfuckers is easy; imagining one who wants to out-FDR FDR? Come on.
FDR wasn’t the champion of civil rights but he did fix the primary economic problems of the US during the depression. I personally don’t trust Bannon either but he’s clearly comparing to FDR not Hitler.
They despise FDR. Despise is too kind of a word for how they feel about FDR. That makes zero sense.
Yeah, really. I mean, there was an entire plot to assassinate FDR called the Business Plot and they counted on literally a retired general to help them pull it off, who they were going to install as a dictator. A year later the general testified against his fellow conspirators before a House committee. Nobody was actually prosecuted (huge mistake, IMO), but the final report said, “there is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient.”
Bannon is from a catholic Irish family, his parents absolutely admired JFK. The whole reason why Bannon founded Breitbart was to propagandize an alternative right (alt right) to the elitist GOP. This does add up for him personally. Would Trump’s party do any of this though? Of course not.
This is a 1932-type realignment, if we do this right
Guys, he’s not talking about the re-alignment in America in 1932…
He’s just talking nonsense though. There is zero chance Trump will tax the billionaires overall. They paid him off, they own him.
But possibly of he’s feeling particularly pesky, he might target people he doesn’t like and target only them and pretend he did something meritorious.
Absolutely correct. Trump already told them if they help get him re-elected, he’ll cut their taxes.
And when has Trump ever kept his promises?
He will keep this one because in his mind it is a huge benefit to him. He’s always hated the idea of having to pay any taxes at all.
What the fuck is going on?
edit: this question was not literal
Right?
They might seem like they work together, but there are different grifters with slightly different goals. Banon wants to bring fascism back.
I’m wondering if we’re in the process of seeing the parties flip tbh. It seems like D’s are becoming more conservative and R’s are now trying to make systemic changes. Granted it’s not a perfect flip and R-progressiveness is more like going backwards at times (abortion) but things feel weird now.
- D: Trying to maintain (aka conserve) the status quo. Haven’t been truly progressive for decades. Doesn’t seem to have learned anything from losing in 2024.
- R: Got suddenly forced into populism by Trump’s surprise win and staying power. Their status quo rich politicians are all being forced out. “Anti-Elites” and big chaotic changes are now their calling cards.
If R’s realize that voters will strongly support them for attacking the rich, it might happen imo.
One key thing is that the Republican party has very much now become the party of the working class. In 2024, Kamala won those making less than $30k, and more than $100k. She won the poor and the professional class, but Trump won the working class, (and I assume) the extremely wealthy.
The Democrat’s real base right now is the professional class. Those with college degrees working white collar jobs. The poor also vote more for Dems, but they vote in fewer numbers based both on their poverty and their lower than average age.
We always assumed it was the rich vs everyone else, but it need not be that way. It could easily turn out to be the rich and the working class vs. the professional class and the poor. When someone like Bannon suggests raising taxes on the “rich,” he may not mean the actual ultra-wealthy, but the professional class.
And there is a form of taxation that could be implemented to fall on the professional class the hardest - targeting the tax advantages of 401ks and IRAs. That seems the most obvious target. Just raising income taxes would have to also hit the rich, but taking away a lot of the tax benefits of retirement accounts would mostly hurt the professional class, the white collar workers with bachelors and graduate degrees. The doctors, the lawyers, the engineers, the college professors, etc. The truly wealthy don’t really rely on these accounts much, as they have limits on them that make them useless for storing tens of millions or more in. And the working class? Well if you have a household income of $60k, odds are pretty low you’re going to be maxing out your 401k contribution.
The retirement accounts seem the most likely targets of this. The poor and working class don’t usually make enough to put substantial money away in these accounts, while their asset protections are a rounding error to the wealthy. Raiding 401ks and IRAs would be a way for them to raise taxes in a way that zeros in on the Democratic electorate and hurts them the most.
We could even see a very weird political landscape where 401ks and IRAs were raided to pay for social programs like health insurance subsidies, expanded subsidies for new parents, subsidized daycare, and other social spending meant to increase birth rates. They would sell it as “raising taxes on the wealthy to give to the working class,” while they would really be raising taxes on the professional class to pay for subsidies for the working class and tax cuts for the wealthy.
The white collar college educated workers are the heart of the Democrat’s current power base. They are the most likely targets of any Republican tax increases “on the rich.” And the easiest way to raise taxes on the professional class without also taxing the wealthy is to come after the retirement accounts.
And while some might say, “that would never happen, people wouldn’t stand for it. It would be the government going back on its word, people would be infuriated!” Well, I just come back to the end of Roe v. Wade. Republicans stripped civil rights from half the country, and the electorate responded by giving them full control of government. If you can strip the civil rights from half the population, stripping retirement account benefits, which far fewer people are actually able to really take advantage of, is minor in comparison.
401k and IRA protections are just tax policy. They can be changed at any time. A law could be passed tomorrow that said, “401k accounts are being wound down. All 401k accounts must be liquidated within the next five years and transferred to regular taxable brokerage accounts. This liquidation will be taxed like any other 401k or IRA withdrawal.” Then, everyone has to liquidate their accounts, and the full balance would be taxed as regular income. Not only would this give the government more long term revenue, but it would represent a massive short-term windfall. The treasury would bring in trillions as the government effectively seizes 20-30% of every 401k account in the nation. It would be a temporary windfall, but in the years of this one-time liquidation, it would likely even allow Trump to claim he actually balanced the budget. Anyone with sense would know it was a short-term stunt, but his base isn’t known for having a lot of sense.
Party of hate wants to become the progressive party.
Yeah, fuck that, fuck those people.
Broken clock?
Exept Musk I assume. Or Trump. Or any other fascist fuck.
You can increase the taxes. The hard part is making them pay it
Lmao it’s like when the old white men become senile and slide to the right except Bannon is morally inverted.
Maybe he doesn’t want to get targeted by the adjuster. I mean killing CEO and the rich is hot right now with the 99%.
It’s not polling all that well, tbh. Only hot with 41% across the income spectrum among youths, lower in every other demographic.
I’m not young at all and I say…. Eat the rich… lol
The one poll I’ve seen about him was from a “company” that was created a few days before the poll released
I’ve been hate listening to his podcast. A lot of what he says would be considered pretty eft leaning. But then a lot of it is conspiracy minded. Honestly Lauren to his podcast, it’s pretty unbearable, but he hates the elites as much as anyone here. It probably goes some way to understanding why trump won
But he and Trump are elites. Especially Trump. You really can’t get much more elite than someone who owns a skyscraper in Manhattan with his name on it.
Bannon is from an ultra-conservative Irish-heritage working class family. He has always - at least in public - been anti-elitist, although of course he was an investment banker for years
Ok so he’s either a very complex and deep person, or a fucking liar.
Elite is a conceptual category. He’s a human being like the rest of us and a small ornament on the tree of life.
I would say “has his name on the skyscraper he owns in one of the richest cities in the world and is president of the United States” would fit most people’s concept of “elite.” I’m not sure who wouldn’t consider that person to be elite. You don’t think the word is being used in a complementary sense, do you?
He’s made a big deal before about how he’s “new” rich rather than old money, and how more established wealth looked down their noses at his gaudy lifestyle. So it’s plausible that he thinks the actual elite are another step up from where he is
So is everyone they’re competing against…
Who exactly do you think they’re competing against? They won the election. They control all three branches of government. They’re set to turn America into a one-party state.
Sorry, I meant during the recent election
People realize that he’s just a propagandist saving face by playing both sides and now playing with the short attention span and memory of the idiots on the other side, right?
