The storyline was established for the Alabama Republican primary. Another election between two opposing foes became a critical battleground between opposing factions. While the conservative grassroots has long butted heads with the Republican establishment, tensions were never higher. With both sides pulling out the big guns and piling on an avalanche of money, the race was the center of national intrigue.
Through out the primary, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was on the ground in Alabama making sure that the conservative grassroots comes out on top.
When Bannon originally joined the White House, he was widely criticized within the political mainstream. Republicans expressed concern, and Democrats reacted with outrage. He was labeled as a white supremacist and attacked for his views. His presence in the White House was considered hurtful to the legacy of the political institution.
For this reason, his departure from the White House was widely celebrated across the political spectrum. But establishment Republicans in particular may have celebrated victory too soon.
Bannon unchained and in the wild means Bannon is uncensored and without any filters. He’s no longer hiding behind the curtain, trying to quietly exert his influence over President Donald Trump and his policy decisions. He’s out in the open working against everything that the Republican establishment stands for.
At a rally supporting Judge Roy Moore, Bannon unleashed upon the Republican Party’s top names. He issued a defiant warning for them, stating their reckoning was coming.
With the Moore victory, Bannon’s reckoning becomes reality. The defeat for Senator Luther Strange, a favorite of Mitch McConnell, is the immediate loss, but it will send shockwaves resonating throughout the political system as the floodgates open against the entrenched establishment.
Since returning as Executive Chairman of Breitbart News, Bannon has become a major player in Republican politics as an instigator and power player for the right wing cause. While Moore’s popularity is likely due large in part to the candidate himself, the influence of Bannon’s anti-establishment machine should not be discounted either.
The question here will be how bad do things get for the Republican establishment.
In a defiant speech in Alabama, Bannon told the crowd the establishment views them as a pack of morons. More often than not, career politicians at the top do forget where they come from and only have a use for voters come election season. They speak to voters only during the election season, and then promptly turn their back on them and speak over them after the race is over. This is the undeniable trend for the Republican and Democratic political establishments.
An uprising by the Bannon-led nationalist right could become the biggest chink in the establishment’s armor since the Tea Party wave several years ago. Trump’s rise to the presidency may have been biggest shock to date, but that may have been just the beginning. Washington D.C. is still trying to recover after last year’s groundbreaking election, and Judge Moore possibly in the Senate won’t help matters.
As Steve Bannon himself warned the Republican establishment at the Alabama rally, the day of reckoning is coming for the party elite. The conservative grassroots are coming and won’t back down.
Take ‘me down, Steve!
Do it drain the swamp.