Steve Bannon: Remake Republican Party Into ‘A Worker's Party’

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon wants the Republican party to be a party that represents the working class, not the special interests in Washington D.C.

Bannon spoke at length about his ideas for the Republican party in author Keith Koffler’s new book titled Bannon: Always the Rebel.

“The reorganization of the Republican party into a worker’s party, that’s what I focus on every day,” Bannon said. “And I keep telling people. Once we get 25 percent or 30 percent of the black working class, once we get 25 percent or 30 percent of the Hispanic working class, we’re gonna govern for 100 years.”

Bannon derided groups like the libertarian Cato Institute for their pro-amnesty policies on illegal immigrants. Koffler quotes Bannon at length:

I come from a black neighborhood. They’re conservative people. More conservative than the radicals I see coming out of the Cato Institute. You give me the Cato Institute versus a black, working-class neighborhood…[and I’ll take] the black working-class neighborhood,” because it is workers, not libertarian theorists, who “are the backbone of the country.”

He described the much hailed “autopsy” of the 2012 election as “bunk” and said that if Republicans wanted the votes of working-class minorities, they should focus on protecting their jobs and industries that were essential parts of their communities.

How do Republicans win black voters, who vote against them nine to one? “You get them by showing that we’re going to support the protection of American industries. We’re going to help nurture and grow American industries.” Bannon believes the key to building Republican strength among blacks and Hispanics is by building an economy that can sustain working-class jobs, which is one motivation behind Trump’s push to rebuild America’s infrastructure.