Steve Bannon was chief executive officer of the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and was also the executive chair of Breitbart News, a far-right news, opinion and commentary website which according to several sources, Bannon himself included, is associated with the Internet-based alternative right, or alt-right. On November 13, 2016, Bannon was appointed chief strategist and Senior Counselor for the Presidency of Donald Trump.

Bannon’s view of the world was presented to a conference held inside the Vatican. BuzzFeed published the transcript of Bannon’s remarks at the conference hosted by the Human Dignity Institute and attended by some of Europe’s most conservative religious voices.

Here is the part of his speech:

“I believe we’ve come partly off-track in the years since the fall of the Soviet Union and we’re starting now in the 21st century, which I believe, strongly, is a crisis both of our church, a crisis of our faith, a crisis of the West, a crisis of capitalism.”

According to Steve Bannon, there are three forms of capitalism in the world but certainly the best one is so-called enlightened capitalism:

“One is state-sponsored capitalism. And that’s the capitalism you see in China and Russia. You have this kind of crony capitalism of people that are involved with these military powers-that-be in the government, and it forms a brutal form of capitalism that is really about creating wealth and creating value for a very small subset of people. ... The second form of capitalism that I feel is almost as disturbing, is what I call the Ayn Rand or the Objectivist School of libertarian capitalism. And, look, I’m a big believer in a lot of libertarianism … However, that form of capitalism is quite different when you really look at it to what I call the “enlightened capitalism” of the Judeo-Christian West.”

The Judeo-Christian tradition had been eroded by increasing secularization in the west and, according to Bannon, that is the biggest problem in the world. His stance is very clear when it comes to religion, faith, either Jewish or Christian, would save the world of current problems.  A return to Judeo-Christian traditionalism will allow for the necessary economic forms that will provide return to the path of enlightened capitalism, which in turn will “wipe out” the racist elements of right-wing parties. It will also provide the necessary virtues, Bannon argues, to resist the global threat of “radical Islam”.

Bannon has been widely denounced as being racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic. 

Steve Bannon had also asked the question that should determine everyone’s actions: “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?”

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders called on President-elect Donald Trump to remove Bannon’s appointment to the White House. Sanders is concerned about the regression because “Over the years, we have made progress in becoming a less discriminatory and more tolerant society – and we are not going backward,” he said. “The appointment by President-elect Trump of a racist individual like Mr. Bannon to a position of authority is totally unacceptable. In a democratic society, we can disagree all we want over issues, but racism and bigotry cannot be part of any public policy,” he added.

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