Though known mainly within Nazi, white supremacist, and political nerd circles before the election, Steve Bannon has now become a household name. The man whom Andrew Breitbart himself once called “the Leni Riefenstahl of the Tea Party movement” has wormed his way into the White House as the right-hand man to President-elect Donald Trump. And Bannon is a man who once allegedly “mused” that people who don’t own property shouldn’t vote.
Party Like It’s 1787
The original U.S. Constitution did not specify who was allowed to vote — the Tenth Amendment left that decision to the states. Most states limited voting rights only to those who were white, property-owning males.
Steve Bannon is feeling nostalgic for those good ol’ days.
The New York Times spoke with Julia Jones, who co-wrote a screenplay about Reagan with Bannon, and wrote that:
“Ms. Jones … said that in their years working together, Mr. Bannon occasionally talked about the genetic superiority of some people and once mused about the desirability of limiting the vote to property owners.”
Will Bannon whisper such musings into the ear of the President-elect?
Ms. Jones pointed out to Bannon that such a limitation would likely have a deleterious effect on Black voting rights, to which Bannon replied:
“‘Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”
This sort of revelation is becoming commonplace as we unearth more and more of Bannon’s past. As my colleague Andrew Bradford reported:
“These are just the latest racist comments attributed to Bannon. His ex-wife also said in a sworn deposition that Bannon once told her he didn’t want his daughters attending school with Jews, whom he accused of being ‘whiny.'”
Trump cannot yank voting rights away from people at will (yet), but the state-by-state efforts of Republican legislatures, aimed at suppressing minority votes, are working.
And now there is a man in a top White House post who is smiling and nodding at such efforts.
Featured Image via screenshot from YouTube video
