In a USA Today op-ed, Catholic publisher Deal W. Hudson describes President Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon as a man who possesses a “deep Christian moral compass behind his capitalism.”
Hudson quotes a key passage in Bannon’s now famous 2014 Vatican speech, in which Bannon said that every Christian capitalist should ask themselves: “What is the purpose of whatever I’m doing with this wealth? What is the purpose of what I’m doing with the ability that God has given us, that divine providence has given us to actually be a creator of jobs and a creator of wealth?”
Hudson explains that Bannon’s articulation of this question demonstrates that he “understands what the Church teaches about social responsibilities” and, “unlike many free market conservatives, possesses a moral framework through which he views economic policy issues.”
From Hudson’s USA Today op-ed:
Bannon’s been said to be a wartime consigliere, they guy you put in charge when you go to the mattresses. The person you need in the middle of a campaign but whom you can dispense with when the war is over. That’s a good point, except for one thing. The war isn’t over. The administration is still taking ten incoming rounds a day, from a media that’s abandoned any pretense of fairness and objectivity. Against that, Trump needs a member of the team who can hit back, who can take the fight to the enemy.
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The wartime consigliere is one part of it. The other part is that Bannon understands the issues that took the Republicans to victory last November. Here’s a hint. It wasn’t Ayn Rand, Paul Ryan or Bill Kristol. Bannon understands, as well as anyone, why Americans voted the Trump/Pence ticket when the “experts,” including the entranced GOP leadership, predicted otherwise. He understands that the base of Trump’s support comes from the residual energy of the Tea Party and the reliable base of Christian voters, both Evangelical and Catholic. The Tea Party certainly foreshadowed the economic and security issues that drove the Trump surge, but the largest group among those activists consisted of conservative Christian voters.
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Trump understood the Tea Party and Christian base of his support early on in campaign, and the hiring of Bannon insured he would not forget it. Those who claim Bannon represents only nationalism and populism miss the mark badly. Bannon is a sophisticated thinker, experienced journalist and successful entrepreneur, whose mind has been shaped by his Catholic faith, and whose political instincts have been formed outside the Beltway.
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