If there is one lesson to be learned from the 20th century, it is that a completely ruthless and clear-eyed minority is capable of winning and exploiting absolute power within a given country. If you don’t believe me, go ask Lenin and Mao.
In a way, that is what Steve Bannon is hoping to accomplish within the GOP. He has to know that his Reactionary faction doesn’t represent a majority of voters within the GOP, let alone the entire country. On its face, his efforts to promote Reactionary challengers to GOP establishment figures will just weaken the party and help the Democrats. His gamble, however, is that if his candidates win the primaries, the PBPs will fall in line and vote for them, no matter how outrageous they are, out of blind loyalty, force of habit, or the fear that any Democrat just has to be worse. If he’s right, his faction, however small, could gain absolute power in Washington.
He’s probably wrong, but who knows? Millions of Republican voters with grave doubts about Trump made him president. We’ll know more after the election in Alabama.