Steve Bannon says that the year 2025 is “1860 All over again”. Bannon, who was Once Donald Trump’s right hand man and chief campaign strategist, this self-proclaimed “political prisoner” who was sentenced to 4 months in jail for contempt of congress because of his refusal to comply with the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Attack on the US capitol says that the United States is in a dramatic tug of war for the soul of America. At a recent speech for conservatives at Hillsdale College in the great state of Michigan called “MAGA and the Fight for America”, Bannon spoke very fiery but interestingly to a crowd of conservatives like himself who are tired of “elites and globalists.” For those who are wondering why the year 1860 is so important right now it’s because 1860 was the year before the civil war in America. The Civil war was from 1861-1865. The most brutal fact about the civil war is that more Americans died in this conflict than any conflict in United States history. An Estimated 750,000 Americans were slaughtered during this 4-year period. By 1860, The US was so deeply divided over issues such as slavery, cultural values, the direction of the nation, and states’ rights. That the Confederacy (southern states) succeeded from the Union and became their own ruling authority. Many conservatives today feel this same ideology in their political situation today. Bannon and conservatives are now pushing a narrative similar to the southern states in 1860. They feel they are “underdogs” fighting against the corrupt and powerful government. A Populist vs elitist framing with MAGA and the conservatives being the populist crowd. Conservatives are pushing for the United States to have a major realignment, even hinting at the ideas of violence/conflict being necessary to “save the republic.” With this type of extreme polarization and drawing of the line in the sand, both extreme leftists and rightists see their adversaries as more than wrong, but dangerous. This leaves me questioning and fearful for the people who are not as polarized and extreme or don’t feel that they fit into either category. Where do Black Americans fit into this “civil war”? Where do brown immigrants or white immigrants fit into this “civil war”? This is a scary thought for many American citizens to have to deal with because if fighting were to break out, whose side do you join? Extremists are preparing citizens for a battle that they are not ready for, and I fear for the average American who is already struggling financially and on the precipice of a financial catastrophe. The last thing we can afford as people is a war on our homeland especially with unmarkable enemies and allies.
Is the undoing of the U.S democratic system something that MAGA’s attack dog Steve Bannon really wants or is there a bigger play in the picture here? Bannon is what you would call a traditionalist. This is a far more right winged branch of conservatism. In traditionalism, there is a very deep opposition and mistrust of modern institutions. This is where the idea of the populist vs elitist framing comes into play. Traditionalists are convinced that large scale federal and international entities that globalize the world are bound to fail (United Nations, US Government, European Union, NATO). Traditionalists believe that over time these large, scaled entities deal with too much and overtime lose their legitimacy. They would rather transition into smaller, regulated communities where borderlessness doesn’t exist and that a divided world is more “orderly.” While all these critiques may be very true and hold lots of valid points, I don’t believe that MAGA and its officials are using this narrative of gutting the federal government and large entities out of the kindness of their heart and for the betterment of the American people or people around the world. Bannon and many MAGA officials are using this idea of undermining the functions of government and non-governmental institutions for ACCESS TO POLITICAL POWER. In broad daylight in front of the entire world to see, conservatives are forming bonds in all levels of government whether supreme court, congress or house of representatives that would create a sort of caste system where people are ranked within a group based on birth lineage, social interactions, marriage choices and ancestry. Conservatives have exacerbated the constitutional crisis that we have managed to find ourselves in and in my opinion… always have been in.
There are too many examples of this Traditionalist value coming to light. Betsy Devos becoming the Secretary of Education, Scott Pruit heading the Environmental protection agency, Rex Tillerson becoming the Secretary of state are all examples of conservative political activists whose main goal is to dramatically reduce the agency’s operation. As secretary of Education Betsy Devos claimed that “I fight against anyone who would have government be the parent to everyone.” DeVos used her bully pulpit to champion religious education and to push for school choice. In late 2018, DeVos announced she was “dropping guidance” that was meant to protect students of color from what the Obama administration called “discriminatory discipline.” The 2014 guidance had encouraged schools to use alternatives to suspension and expulsion and came with a threat: If a school district’s discipline patterns revealed significant racial disparities, it could face a federal civil rights investigation. To justify rescinding the discipline guidance, DeVos’ department used an argument she would often repeat: that states and local districts should make education policy, not the U.S. government. Or, as she said in October 2019, “government has never made anything better or cheaper, more effective or more efficient. And nowhere is that more true than in education.” As you can see even as the head of the Education department, Miss Devos did everything in her power to undermine the credibility of the organization. This same can be said with Scott Pruit of the environmental protection agency. Pruit was known for his agenda to repeal Obama-Era regulations aimed at reducing carbon emissions, regulations limiting methane emissions, reduced regulations for clean water protections and Pruit also suspended greenhouse gas emissions standards aiming to ease restrictions on car manufacturers. Facing a mountain of ethical investigations Pruit stepped down from his position but not after the damage was already done. Although during his term as Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson did not always see eye to eye with Trump, he did manage to accomplish some of the things Mr. Trump wanted him too. Tillerson pushed for a major downsizing of the Secretary of state and also froze hiring and cut budgets for the department which many feel weakened US diplomacy. Because of the massive cuts and centralization of authority, service officers resigned, and this department almost crashed and burned.
Bannon would tell a lie in order to weaken someone else’s position. Not saying that he is all full of shit and has no truth. But there are times where his agenda doesn’t make sense and that he’s clearly lying or trying to pull a fast one on whoever is listening. It starts with the lies about these institutions that have roles in our society, and his attack on them. Deep down, Bannon and these traditionalists know what they are doing isn’t fighting for the people of the country at all. They are fighting for the power of being in control of the country. Bannon likes to compare himself to the likes of early revolutionaries in America who fought back against the Kings and Tyrants of Europe at the early days of the countries inception as we know it. He says that in Trumps first term they “took on the most powerful empire in the world with virtually nothing”. I find it ironic that Steve and his MAGA-ites truly believe that they are the peasants and lower-class people in the country. In the same speech, Steve calls out the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin saying that if these Universities don’t change their diversity initiatives, then the two Universities will lose federal funding… This doesn’t sound like the threat of someone who is “powerless”. This actually sounds like a threat from someone who is already in control. Using the same government that he demonizes for having too much power as a weapon against his political adversaries is laughably ironic.
I also find it hard to believe that MAGA has aligned itself with the middle class. Just last month on May 14th, 2025, Trump took 30 high profile CEOS including CEOS of Tesla, Boeing, OpenAI, Amazon, Blackrock, IBM, Coca Cola, Uber and many more to Saudi Arabia in his high stakes middle east tour. 7 days later Steve Bannon is giving a speech about how elitists and elitism have taken over the country. Maybe Steve should look directly into the mirror of his own party. In this speech Steve lays a claim saying that 70% of Americans have no real assets and the only way to improve our conditions as a nation is to raise taxes on the rich. But his party does not seem to be doing so with the latest new bill around taxes. Lastly, I will say when someone speaks about the United states budget and its spending. If they do not mention downsizing the budget of the Military defense spending, then they are unserious. For the first time in history, the United States is on track to spend a trillion dollars in one fiscal year on defense spending. Crickets from Bannon on that topic though. It is estimated that it would cost 25 billion dollars to end hunger in the United States…. obviously much less than the defense spending. It is estimated that it would take 20 billion dollars to end homelessness. Altogether, it would cost about 45 billion dollars to fix 2 of the largest problems in America. But Steve won’t even speak truth to power. This is why I say someone like Bannon who knows the truth but is too afraid to speak it OR has a different agenda, is dangerous to the American ideology and way of life.
With an upcoming constitutional crisis many fear that there is an impending war looming between Americans. While I do agree that the United States is more polarized than ever before, we cannot afford for this year of 2025 to be the equivalent of 1860. Americans physically, financially, spiritually, and emotionally are not ready for a battle. Especially not a battle against their neighbors of all people. Traditionalists like Steve Bannon believe that the destruction of the modern world will necessarily lead to something good. Bannon has said that this next battle will be the “mother of all battles”, and the losers will be labeled as traitors just like the losers of the civil war and revolutionary war. Traditionalists and their ideas of how to handle the convergence of multiple crisis that we face will be what leads us to another civil war if it were to ever occur. I don’t think it will because of how cloudy the lines of who’s on what team will be. But it is scary to think that some people are loading up for a hypothetical battle of our SHARED land. In order to power the people, we must not divide ourselves like this, we are all fighting the same enemy and this enemy happens to be amongst us, leading many of us the wrong way in the name of hate and misinformation. “One side is going to win and one’s going to lose. The side that doesn’t quit is going to win.” – Steve Bannon.
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