“They’re going to continue to fight,” Bannon said of the media, which he repeatedly described as “the opposition party,” and other forces he sees as standing in the president’s way. “If you think they are giving you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken.”
Atop Trump’s agenda, Bannon said, was the “deconstruction of the administrative state” — meaning a system of taxes, regulations and trade pacts that the president and his advisers believe stymie economic growth and infringe upon one’s sovereignty.
“If you look at these Cabinet nominees, they were selected for a reason, and that is deconstruction,” Bannon said. He posited that Trump’s announcement withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership was “one of the most pivotal moments in modern American history.”
.. “They’re corporatist, globalist media that are adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda like Donald Trump has.”
.. Bannon added, “Just like they were dead wrong on the chaos of the campaign and just like they were dead wrong on the chaos of the transition, they are absolutely dead wrong on what they’re reporting today.” He said “all” of Trump’s campaign promises would be implemented in short order.
.. Bannon is “very dogged” and “incredibly loyal” — and called him “a very dear friend.”.. Bannon commended Priebus on being a “steady” force inside the West Wing.“I can run a little hot on occasions, but Reince is indefatigable,” Bannon said.
Trump, an Outsider Demanding Loyalty, Struggles to Fill Top Posts
During President Trump’s transition to power, his team reached out to Elliott Abrams for help building a new administration. Mr. Abrams, a seasoned Republican foreign policy official, sent lists of possible candidates for national security jobs.
One by one, the answer from the Trump team came back no. The reason was consistent: This one had said disparaging things about Mr. Trump during the campaign; that one had signed a letter opposing him. Finally, the White House asked Mr. Abrams himself to meet with the president about becoming deputy secretary of state, only to have the same thing happen — vetoed because of past criticism.
.. Even after he won the Republican nomination last year, he did little to win over those who had opposed him,
.. Mr. Trump had “ruled out much of an entire generation of Republican public policy types” and alarmed others with his empowerment of Stephen K. Bannon, his chief strategist, to shape national security. Even some cabinet secretaries appear unable to pick their own staff.
.. For Mr. Trump, the challenge is more pronounced because he and his advisers feel they cannot trust some of the senior career professionals still working at the White House or cabinet departments. Leaks about Mr. Flynn and Mr. Trump’s phone calls with foreign leaders have convinced White House officials that they face an opposition within.
.. Another challenge has been Mr. Trump’s implementation of ethics rules that bar White House officials from lobbying for five years after they leave the government, prompting senior congressional officials and lobbyists to demur.
Rush Limbaugh: ‘We Are on Offense With Donald Trump’
.. My advisers are telling me exactly that, Rush, they’re telling me to ignore it. But I can’t. I’m not gonna sit here and let my family be dishonored. I’m not gonna let myself, my family be lied about and I’m not gonna let those lies take root and become established as truth. I don’t care. I don’t care what they say is the right way to do this, I’m not gonna let it happen. When people lie about me, when people wound me, when people attack me, I’m gonna fire right back at ’em, I don’t care. And my advisers are trying to get me to stop, and I just can’t.”
That’s why he continues to tweet, and his tweets are effectively going around a dishonest media to inform and connect with everyday Americans. He’s also conducting negotiations with his tweets by informing people what he’s doing. And by doing this, by tweeting in this unpresidential way, not seen anything like this, it’s just not how it’s done, Trump is also capturing the whole idea of unpredictability, which makes Trump a never ending top-line news story and has his adversaries always on defense.
.. “our side,” I mean, conservatives, some Republicans — admit it, folks, we’ve grown tired and weary of being on defense all the time. We’re tired of getting up every morning and looking at either a person or an idea, something that we hold dear under assault, like marriage, or who can use whatever bathrooms, we’re tired of being on defense, we’re tired having to defend things that shouldn’t need to be defended because they’re under assault.
.. And that’s one of the big invisible unspoken reasons why he has such loyalty is because people who support him are just like a lot of you in this audience, fed up with being on defense and being on a team that never fought back, much less went on offense. But these tweets and this erratic or unpredictable behavior keeps Trump’s opponents on defense, and, believe me, it is a delight to see it.
.. Another thing that Trump is doing with these tweets, he’s leading. And because he’s leading, he’s holding everybody’s attention. What will Trump do next? What will Trump do next? Nobody’s asking, what’s Pelosi gonna do next, what’s Harry Reid? You know, we’re not steeling ourselves for what assault is coming at us next. We’re all looking on eagerly: What’s Trump gonna do next? How’s he gonna bamboozle ’em next? How’s Trump gonna end-run ’em next? That’s what’s everybody excited about here.
Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States
Albert Hirschman’s Exit, Voice and Loyality is a book written by an economist but accessible to all – a rare achieve in any academic disipline, especially economics. The book was written in the early 70’s but still has relevant today. Its greatest achievment is the illumination of ‘exit’ as the mentality of modern western capitalist societies – the idealisation of the consumers’ right to ‘vote with one’s feet’ – and its spread into all forms of social activity. Hirschman adds a historical dimension to this by arguing that the whole of the United States has largely been built on ‘exit’ mentality – from the mass migration out of Europe from the 17th century onwards to the calls to ‘go west’ across the plains. Exit is the strategy advocated today by neo liberals as being the manifestation of democracy in the market sphere.