Jake Danna Stevens/The Times-Tribune via AP
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, March 2020
When Steve Bannon impulsively phoned me three years ago and said some incautious things about his boss, he got fired as White House political director when the Prospect published my interview. The most revealing thing he said was this:
The Democrats—the longer they talk about identity politics, I got ’em. I want them to talk about racism every day. If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.
This was the essential Trump ploy. Use thinly disguised racist messages, get the Democrats to stand up for rights in response, and use race as the wedge issue to win the election. It also helped Trump and Bannon that the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, was not using pocketbook issues to bridge racial gaps.
Well, a funny thing happened this year. Bannon got his wish.
Democrats are talking about race. Hell, almost everyone is talking about race. But this time, not with the impact Bannon hoped for.
Thanks to four years of Trump egging on America’s worst instincts on race, compounded by escalating police violence, most white Americans are not doubling down on racism. They are saying, enough is enough.
We’ve emerged into a moment where America at long last supports radical change and healing on race, and Trump’s racism is wildly out of fashion. It took a kind of five-way bank shot:
Trump stokes racism; the cops conclude it’s open season on Blacks; most Americans respond with disgust; the COVID epidemic shines a further spotlight on structural racism and Trump’s cynicism—and racial justice becomes a winning issue for progressives and Democrats.
History sure works in strange ways. Someone called this dynamic a dialectic. Thank you, Brother Bannon.
