Steve Bannon has spite coursing through his veins

Kurt Schlichter has a Townhall column today - look it up yourself; I don't link to Kurt Schlichter columns - in which he recounts some of his latest Twitter exchanges with people who (taking the LITD position) assert without reservation that Ben Sasse is an exemplary conservative and utterly undeserving of Schlichter's contempt. Actually, the larger point Schlichter is making is that federal legislators ought to show loyalty to those who voted for them. He tries to appear reasonable, going so far as to say that there's nothing wrong with criticizing Trump - including aspects such as character and demeanor - but that it must be done in a way that does not indicate disloyalty to what the voters are clearly expressing they want. He does a woefully inadequate job of detailing just what it is that thos voters want, leaving it on the level of a general discontent with elitism, as Trump defenders generally do.

This is a rather rich position for someone like Schlichter to take, given the derision he heaps on those of us who insist on a consistent body of principles (that include personally conducting oneself with at least a modicum of dignified bearing). As we've said many times, there is no consistent body of principles that amounts to Trumpism.

Anyway, the whole things gets one to thinking about how hardcore Trumpists (I doubt if Schlichter considers himself in this category; I would imagine he acknowledges his place in the abrupt-turn-to-fandom-after-Cruz-dropped-out camp) view this matter of loyalty.

We can see that Steve Bannon regards it as a line that he gets to draw, and that, once crossed, is going to cost buckets of blood:

Former White House chief strategist and Breitbart captain Steve Bannon is running his scorched earth strategy against not just those Republican politicians that he feels are insufficiently worshipful of Trump, but GOP donors, as well.

How is that supposed to work, if he takes out everybody that might otherwise support Trump, or at least, not attempt to impeach him?

Anyway, his latest target is billionaire hedge fund guy, and big league GOP donor, Paul Singer.

On a Friday night call to the president, Bannon reportedly told Trump that he was going to unleash on Singer.

So what has Singer done so wrong?

Well, he opposed Trump during the primaries, but eventually came around, mending fences, and even donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. He’s also cut some serious checks to fund outside groups that are helping to push Trump’s tax reform moves.

He’s not an enemy of Trump, per se.
According to a recent Axios report, however, that’s not stopping Bannon.

Trump agreed with Bannon that it needed to be done, according to two sources familiar with the conversation. (Though I’m also told that Trump has since told at least one other person that Singer is “on the team” — suggesting that maybe he’s telling everyone what they want to hear.)

Trump has no ideological mooring, nor does he have the intellectual capacity to understand what he’s saying or who is friend or foe.
No, Singer’s crime is that he funds the Washington Free Beacon, the outlet that recently outed itself as the conservative source of initial funding to Fusion GPS, in its research of candidate Trump.
What began with the Free Beacon was picked up by Democrats later, and was eventually turned into the Russia dossier that suggested there were ties to Russia that could be used to blackmail Trump, should he win the presidency.

• A source close to Singer said the billionaire had no idea who Fusion GPS was until they became a subject of news reports related to Trump and Russia. Though the source added that of course Singer generally knew — and it was public knowledge — that the website he funds, the Washington Free Beacon, paid for opposition research.

I wouldn’t call this an offense to attack, but to Bannon, and I’m sure to his alt-right marauders, this will be seen as reason enough to bring Singer down.

In their Friday phone call, Bannon told Trump he had been looking for a long time “to set things right with Singer and his entire crew,” according to a source familiar with the conversation.

• Since the NYT story broke, Bannon’s right-wing media outlet, Breitbart News, has been relentlessly attacking Singer and calling on politicians who’ve taken money from him to return the donations.

Yeah. Why would they do that? First of all, they need those donations. Second of all, he didn’t do anything wrong.

Bannon is actively working to cut off the lifeline to the Republican party with his attacks that serve a dual purpose: alienate the big money donors, causing them to pull their support, and alienate the average voter, losing their support, as well.

How he figures this helps the president, I have no idea.

Bannon has long despised Singer. In Bannon’s worldview, Singer belongs to a “globalist” cabal that favors open borders and includes other bogeymen and bogeywomen such as George Soros and Hillary Clinton. It’s also helpful to Bannon that Singer has close ties Mitch McConnell — the Senate GOP leader whom Bannon is obsessed with destroying. 

This is the kind of "loyalty" inner-circle Trumpists insist on. Kurt, are you cool with it?