The Bannon Presidency Is Over

Steve Bannon, formerly the chief strategist of whatever it was Donald Trump has been trying to accomplish, has returned to the media outlet formerly known as the Trump Pravda, Breitbart Dot Com.

With the termination of Steve Bannon’s job in the White House, those who were concerned about the dangerous liaisons between Donald Trump and the alt-right can breathe a little easier.

That the website bearing Andrew Breitbart’s name is up in arms over Bannon is a good sign. Like any journalist, their number one fear is losing access – something Bannon provided for them. The website and the people slavishly devoted to it were a part of the larger alt-right movement, or so Bannon himself claimed.

Now, they seem to want to declare war on this White House, and take aim at the Donald Trump administration because it is now a Democratic administration. It of course seems very funny to us here at RedState and elsewhere in the conservative media who predicted this. After all, Donald Trump was himself a Democrat until he realized he could get elected as a Republican, and promptly switched over so he could begin appearing at CPAC.

However, all of this aside… all of Donald Trump’s flaws aside… there is now a little sliver of hope because that alt-right influence has been purged.

Trump is not suddenly a perfect guy now that he is finally rid of someone so toxic as Steve Bannon. However, only Bannon was the one who seemed to think Trump’s first and third statements on Charlottesville were a good idea. Only Bannon thought Trump was correct to embrace the alt-right racists as acceptable members of the base, and that it was correct to play toward them.

Trump is not a man of ideas. Trump is a man who hires ideas, and he hired Bannon for his. As it turns out, however, Bannon rather sucks at any decent political idea and is just good at getting the president to play to the lowest of the low. Trump’s biggest mistakes, the very things that made such easy controversies in the press, had the taint of Bannon on them. Now that he is gone, there is a bit of hope, however slight, that the ship can finally right itself.

Firing Bannon isn’t the magical cure-all for all of Trump’s ills, but it will no doubt be the most positive choice he’s made since the Gorsuch nomination. I’m not looking for conservatism to flourish under Trump, nor have I ever considered that an option. But, with such a toxic and conflicted presence out, there is the slightest chance that we can see some consistency. Whether it’s actual, Republican consistency or that Democrat influence he’s left with, any sort of consistency right now is preferably to utter chaos.

(Please don’t ruin my optimism. I kinda need it right now.)

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