Last Wednesday, Rhode Island Congressman David Cicilline sent a letter to President-elect Donald Trump asking him to reverse Steve Bannon’s appointment as the White House's chief strategist, with signatures from 169 of the 188 Democratic House representatives.
Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema, who represents Arizona’s ninth congressional district encompassing Tempe and ASU, was one of the Democratic House members who did not sign the letter.
Sinema’s office did not respond for comment at the time of publication.
Alex Baker, a business data analytics sophomore, said it’s not quite the time for Democrats to remain silent on the issue.
“I feel that it’s a rather disappointing silence,” he said. “I highly respect representative Sinema for her stance as a conservative Democrat in the House, but I don’t see this as a stance where she should divert from a majority of the Democratic voting block unless it’s a symbolic vote.”
Baker said Bannon’s appointment is something that many students should be worried about, taking into consideration what he has written on Breitbart.
“Students who are people of color and different gender affiliations, etc. ... all fall under a subset of people that Steve Bannon has penned or authored offensive articles about,” he said. “Youth under the term Millennials or Generation Z have also been somewhat demonized by Breitbart. So, it is an appointment that should be very concerning for students our age.”
Although the petition was signed only by Democrats, Baker said it’s critical that the movement garners support from Republican House members and the Senate.
“The most critical votes in this situation would be potentially from — pardon the pun — the ‘flakes’ from the Republican senatorial side including our senator Jeff Flake,” he said. “Hopefully a unified bloc of Democrats and potentially liberal House Republicans will persuade the Senate to reverse its position.”
Baker also said Bannon’s role will likely involve the manipulation of Trump’s message.
“An oft-repeated anecdote about President-elect Trump is that he mimics the last position he has heard, notably after his recent meetings with current President Obama,” he said. “So if he is in constant contact with a voice like Steve Bannon, … positions that Steve Bannon supports are going to be constantly repeated and reinforced in Trump’s mind.”
ASU Young Democrats President Austin Marshall said the concern over Bannon’s appointment should be felt by those of all ages, not just college students.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a student, if you’re young or old, or black or white — this is a very dangerous man who has propagandized hate,” he said. “I think it’s pretty unprecedented for the modern era to see someone who is so openly semitic, sexist, misogynist, etc. serving in the position he’s been appointed to."
Marshall said he hopes that Sinema is working on something beyond the letter petition to put pressure on Trump’s decision.
“I wish that she would have (signed the petition),” he said. “I don’t know why she did not sign the petition, but I’m sure that there’s other things that she could do on the official side and put pressure on the President-elect to withdraw the appointment.”
Marshall said he’s concerned knowing that no Republican House member signed the petition although there was an offer to do so.
“I think the GOP has fallen in line with Trump’s dangerous rhetoric, and that’s honestly scary to me, seeing that we’re going to see our first unified Republican government in nearly a decade,” he said. “We’re going to see a backlash in 2018 and probably 2020 for sure.”
Meanwhile, ASU College Republicans President Kevin Calabrese sees Sinema’s decision as one of solidarity.
“I commend Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema for putting her politics aside and respecting the decision of President-elect Trump, and I think that takes a lot of courage on her part,” he said. “She kind of deviated away from many of her own party. But I think that’s an important step toward reunifying the country after this election, so I think she made the right decision.”
Calabrese said it’s illogical to judge Bannon based on what he has written for Breitbart in the past.
“I looked back on some of the things that Bannon had done before he had gotten involved with Breitbart and most of that was pretty politically neutral, more like business ventures,” he said. “I feel like people who are kind of connecting his character with content that’s from Breitbart — that’s kind of like holding the CEO of FOX News accountable for the reporters.”
Calabrese said criticism on Bannon’s appointment should wait until after Trump’s administration has officially begun.
“I think if people would just approach this stuff with an open mind, and once the administration gets started then they’re displeased with the things that are going on, then definitely that’s the time to get vocal about it,” he said.
Reach the reporter at angel.n.mendoza@asu.edu or follow @angelnikolas96 on Twitter.
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