Why I Bought This Book: I actually had seen the author on of CNN panel debating the role of Steve Bannon in Donald Trump's government. And obviously the Joshua made a reference that he had written a book on the subject, and I have been fascinated by the rise of Trump and I knew nothing about one of the masterminds behind his improbable victory, so I set out to get my hands on this book, but it was very unlikely that this publication would ever come out here in Argentina, where I live. As result of this I tried using audible for the first time and I must say it took some time to get used to, it's a different experience compared to sitting down and reading a real book, it's frustrating not being able to underline what I liked about the book, but I did like it more than a normal digital book. Also, I must say I had a little problem with Audible when they tried to bill me, which was fixed really quick, but the thing is that they gave me two more free books for the inconvenience that super cool of them
Central Thymes:
• Green explains that Steve Bannon is a man with an unbreakable will, never relenting in pushing his agenda, and always striving to be the villain. For Bannon presenting himself as a bad guy actually falls into his favor because it pushes his adversaries to react, and hopefully in the way he wants, the author presents him as a man that is an expert an at pushing peoples buttons. The Author also describes him as a brilliant ideologist and opportunist.
• Bannon was obsessed with stopping Hillary Clinton from getting the presidency, he hated what he perceived as her elitest agenda. Bannon affirmed that if she had won the election he would have had unleashed such a media onslaught on her she would not be able to govern, setting to destroy her image and her legitimacy. Steve fed the narrative that she was part of an international financial conspiracy to rob the common man through their corruption. Now I must add that Hillary was a freaking sitting duck for Bannon, she was the worst candidate for the Democrats, she had too much baggage and she was painfully unlikeable. But it must be noted that Bannon mostly ignored the Clinton conspiracies, he mostly focused on the questionable origin of the cash that was pumped into the Clinton foundation when she was secretary of State.
• Up until his involvement with Trump, Bannon was just as despised by Republicans as he was by Democrats.
• Bannon viewed Trump as a part of a global phenomena, the rise of the populist right and has a deterministic view of history.
• The centerpiece of Bannon's policy for Trump centered around open hostility against illegal migrants and the menace there are for the country. Green establishes this is the basis of a new type of nationalism 2.0, that focused on easy target illegal migrants. I must add they focused people that had very little means of fight back, marginalized and tend to be poor, so it's like shooting fish in a political barrel.
• Author establishes that Bannon loved Trump F you atitude and confrontational nature, in a way he found a kindered spirit.
• Green affirms that Trump winning the election was a confluence of circumstances led him to victory, with a lot of help from Hillary's slip-ups which were capitalized by Steve Bannon masterfully.
• Bannon viewed traditional hardcore conservative trapped in a bubble predicating to their own , that were never taken seriously and could not reach a mainstream audience. But Conservative and Bannon had the obsession in the Clintons and had to stop Hilary at any cost and he tapped into this to exploit their political capital.
• Trump's first baby steps into the political world were advocating that Obama was not born in the United State, being part of the Birther movement. Now Green establishes that Obama's roasting of the Trump at the Correspondents Dinner over this issue, triggered something in Trump to take politics seriously.
• Bannon comes from a very conservative hard right Catholic family, Steve and his family view themselves as working class Democrats. But Steve lost his faith in the Democrats and in the government in general after being many years in the Navy and seeing how painfully bureaucratic it was, but what really made him change his political and social views was actually participated in a failed plan to rescue the American hostages in Iran during the late 70's early 80's, the way the Carter administration and the military completely bumbles rescue of the hostages just drove Steve crazy and after this he became a fool blown hawk Republican. Also, the author establishes that during Steve's time in the military, he served many years in Asia and in the Middle East, after encountering Muslim countries for the first time, he started to feel a profound disdain for Muslims and felt they were a backward and primitive society.
• Steve Bannon has a keen eye for finding political capital, or groups of individuals that had potential political capital. For example Bannon discovers online gaming communities like the one for the game the World of Warcraft, he realized that the people that participated in these comunities were smart, had money, were focused and motivated a true political goldmind. And I must add older generations tend to underestimate gamers in general and discard them as adults that are just immature, and gamers know this, now I think Bannon understood this, that older gamers feel contempt for the establishment and later he would use this to reach his political goals.
• Bannon learns from Andrew Brightbart to create a true social-political change, the cultural narrative must be modified, instead of trying to change institutions. They both went after political correctness and secular liberals because they were easy targets. For Example, Brightbart's style did not focus on new as a clinical exercise in absorbing facts but as visceral narration or drama with heroes and villain, he was a storyteller and this is what Bannon learned when he was taken under his wing.
• Trump and Bannon viewed the US as victims of foreign trade and globalist. A both had a strong antimigrant position. In the case of Bannon, in Obama's second term he wanted to push for immigration reform, Steve worked 24/7 using the full might of Brightbart to focus on the Border crisis of the unaccompanied minors that had arrived in droves at the southern border. During the campaign, the Wall was the only topic that could keep Trump centered and on message. Another core topic to the campaign was that the government and the political establishment had failed and there for Paul Ryan, a major Republican was just as much an enemy as Hillary Clinton.
• As Trump progressed in his political focus to become president his views of the world changed. While The Apprentice was running it was popular with minorities, it had a strong multiracial base among its participants and audience and it also drew advertisers because of this. But his Trump becoming a Birther jumping into the political world in such a racist way cost the program a major drop in ratings. It must be noted that Brightbart never advocated for the birther movement.
• For Bannon mainstream media was not the enemy, he did not want to get his message boxed into the conservative bubble, he needed platforms like CNN and Fox, and he also needed a messenger and Donalds was perfect even though he was not his first pick. Trump was able to cross easily between the mainstream and the conservative world and even touch the fringe elements of the write, and Steve was able to take advantage of this.
• Steve Bannon view of the world stage were very pesimistic, western civilization in crisis, Jihadist were islamic faschist and Russia is doing things right, and even though this isn't the book Putin for Bannon problebly a model States man.
• Bannon is not a rasist and acknogled that these elements are part of right wing parties especially in populism, that get washed away overtime, a undisered waystation for populist movments.
What I liked:
• The book is very focused and the author has organized the information very effectively, explains exactly what it wants and how it was obtained, through a series of interviews with most of the people that the book actually writes about, including Bannon and Trump themselves. Joshua tells a chronological account of the biography of Steve Bannon and partial account of Trump's beginnings, then he establish how Trump got into politics and how these two men started to work with each other.
• Even the book centers around the story of Steve Bannon, Trump and their rise to power, it does explain with great detail the theoretical backing that Bannon uses and his views of the world, without bogging the book down, making the experience of reading this book much richer.
• I didn't know that Brightbart was such a force in America politics, the author establishes that they were instrumental in the government shut down of 2013 (note I'm going to have to look that up).
• Fascinating peek into the minute by minute of election night that changed US politics forever, the way the author narrates this park of the book is riveting because even though you know the outcome he really builds the tension.
• One of the most intriguing parts of the book when the author goes into the part of Bannon's life when he dives into show business and into the world of video games.
Green resists take cheap shots at Bannon and on Trump.
Overall: 9 out of 10, facinating and well written.
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