Can Republicans Develop a "War Room" Mentality?
Last week, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon was convicted of contempt of Congress charges stemming from the January 6 riot at the Capitol. This is not about what you think did or didn’t happen on Jan. 6. It is not about what you think Donald Trump did or didn’t do. It’s not even about what Steve Bannon might have done or not done. And it certainly isn’t about whether you like Donald Trump or Steve Bannon. What it is about, is Steve Bannon’s mindset, Steve Bannon’s mentality.
On Friday afternoon, Steve Bannon stood outside the courthouse with his attorney. Having been convicted, he faces up to two years in jail. But Steve Bannon is not thinking about himself and whether or not he goes to jail. What he is thinking about is the Constitution, and the country. Later on Friday, Bannon appeared with Tucker Carlson and said, “If I go to jail, I go to jail. This is an ideological war, and we cannot lose.” He is absolutely right.
He may have had it prior to meeting the great Andrew Breitbart, but there can be no doubt that the passion, the bravery, and the willingness to tell the left that whatever had worked on conservatives in the past to shut them up and play along was not going to work on him. Andrew Breitbart knew that the ideological war that was brewing between left and right went far deeper than just one side winning and the other side losing. Bannon picked up on that and has tried to instill this notion in his fellow conservatives. Say what you will about Steve Bannon. At times he may look as though he is a man without a comb. He may look unkempt or unshaven, but even the name of his podcast, “War Room,” tells you everything that Steve Bannon does have. And conservatives would be wise to listen. Steve Bannon has a war room mentality when it comes to the left. He knows that as conservatives, we are most definitely in an ideological war with the left, and it is even worse than when Breitbart first warned us about it. While it may sound dramatic, prior to 9/11, many political pundits talked about how radical Islam was at war with the U.S., but we were not at war with radical Islam. The same thing is occurring now. The left is at war with conservatives, but we don’t seem to view it that we are at war with them. A one-sided view like this did not end well the last time, and it won’t end well in this case either unless conservatives begin to view the divide between the left and conservatives as exactly what it is, a war.
This mindset is distasteful to many conservatives and Republicans. They turn their noses up and make a face as if someone just told them to eat all their vegetables. They want to be nice; they want to “take the high road,” they just want to get along. They just want the left to stop calling them evil. And they really want the media to like them. Ask Mitt Romney how that has worked out for him. Many of those same Republicans who think having a war room mentality is not only just “icky,” but it is beneath them. The Bill Kristols and the George Wills would never dream of lowering themselves to such depths. They are so much more intellectually superior and so above those unshaven disheveled Bannon types. Those are the guys who just can’t conceive of the notion that conservatives today are not interested in losing with honor. They are interested in winning, and more and more, they are interested in fighting for that win. It has been said by a lot of people, and it will be said here again now. Conservatives, stop. being. nice.
What does that mean? It means that we are in a war for the soul of our nation. We are in a battle to preserve and protect and defend the ideals and the values our nation was founded upon. If you haven’t figured it out by now, it’s exactly what the left despises and wants to destroy. We may not be in a war that requires physical weapons, yet. But we are in a war that requires the weapons of the intellect. And if we utilize those intellectual weapons, conservatism wins every time. Let’s be clear just in case there are those that want to misconstrue the message. This is not a call for violence. That’s not how we roll, not how we operate. What it is, is a call for us to dish back what Democrats, the left, the media, essentially the same entity for sure, dish out to conservatives and Republicans. Call them on their arguments and their false premises. Make them back up their accusations and their arguments. Make them tell you where it is they got their authority to proclaim anything right or true. Stop being nice.
This November, Republicans and conservatives have a golden opportunity to give the left the biggest shove back they have received from us in quite a while. Right now, they run everything. After November chances are they will not. Imagine how they are going to react when they lose and lose badly. You may not think Steve Bannon is a guy conservatives should defend. Fair enough, we don’t have to defend him. But what we do need to do, is adopt his “war room” mentality. If we do not, we do so at our own peril.
