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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBannon's appointment to the National Security Council is a Soviet-style political power play
https://qz.com/897950/donald-trumps-appointment-of-steve-bannon-to-the-nsc-is-a-soviet-style-political-power-play/Bannons appointment to the National Security Council is a Soviet-style political power play
By Steve LeVine
In a Jan. 28 order, US president Donald Trump appointed his senior political strategist Stephen Bannon to full membership on the National Security Councils Principals Committee, the senior-most gathering of US security and foreign policy firepower. The same order stripped the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of such status, relegating them to a seat at the table only on issues involving their direct responsibilities.
In an administration explicitly aiming to tear down what it considers obsolete and inefficient domestic and foreign policy practices going back decades, the elevation of Bannon is unprecedented. No US president before has named a political operative to the Principals Committee, less one lacking any professional or academic experience or credential in security or foreign policy, experts say.
The move was attacked by some of the countrys most prominent national security voices. The main objection is that Trump is giving the appearance of a politicization of the foreign policy advice he receives. But the move also resembles practices in non-democratic states such as the defunct Soviet Union, which sprinkled Communist Party officials throughout government to enforce political orthodoxy and report back to the Politburo.
The administration is inching toward something more authoritarian than weve seen in the White House, says political scientist Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute think thank.
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Bannon's appointment to the National Security Council is a Soviet-style political power play (Original Post)
dalton99a
Jan 2017
OP
eppur_se_muova
(36,281 posts)1. Less a "party" watchdog than a political henchman.
Bannon's loyalty is, at most, to tRump personally (at least as long as he remains useful).
Bannon would never have been allowed a security clearance in any previous administration.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)2. the only good thing is that they're marginalizing crazy Mikey Flynn nt
get the red out
(13,468 posts)3. Also
I believe the Muslim ban is as well. Showing his power to detain people legally traveling to this country. JMO, but I would guess that detaining people with Green Cards was no mistake.
Its more like Goebbels.