On April 28, This American Life released an in-depth episode called "The Beginning of Now" which talks about how Steve Bannon and his Breitbart News service got involved with Dave Brat's candidacy. That candidacy represents what is wrong in politics today and provides some insight into the kind of anti-immigrant fervor that put Donald Trump in power. Rep Dave Brat (R-VA) was recently mentioned with reaction to the violence that broke out in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he made the same effort that President Trump did to establish a false equivalency between the counter-protesters and the white supremacists.

Breitbart's involvement with Brat, Freedom Caucus, Trump

Steve Bannon and Laura Ingrahm focused on Dave Brat's candidacy to unseat the then-representative Eric Cantor. After Brat won, Bannon's Breitbart also became involved with starting a revolt within the House of Representatives to remove the then-House Speaker John Boehner using the Freedom Caucus. Rep. Brat would join the caucus when he took Cantor's seat in 2015. But obviously, Breitbart's involvement in campaigning didn't end there.

Brat's xenophobia

Bannon's involvement in Trump's campaign is also common knowledge as well as his removal from the White House this month. It's also been reported that Stephen Miller -- who writes Trump's incendiary speeches and also enjoys using his position to troll America -- was also part of Brat's campaign.

It should also be noted that Stephen Miller's stance on illegal immigration supports the reduction of the number of immigrants that enter the United States, which now includes even legal immigration.

Dave Brat's stance on immigration is also another similarity with Trump. The President recently pardoned the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, Joe Arpaio, who was convicted by a federal court to for contempt of court when he ignored orders to stop violating the civil rights of Latinos in his county.

The pardon is largely seen as the President's own contempt for the law and the Constitution and is currently being considered as an impeachable offense. Interestingly enough, Brat has nothing to say about the pardon. But being that he's kept up with a number of similarities he shares with Trump, it's likely that he's fine with the pardon.

Brat denies immigrants their rights

But during his campaign, he attacked Cantor for supporting a Path To Citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants who were raised in the United States. It's been reported that a case being fought out in court over a Latino who is supposed to be protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, that is being challenged by the Trump administration. It's already resulted in at least one deportation and one detainment. President Trump has made it clear that he has no plans in establishing a path to citizenship for those under the program, an evolution of the ways of right-wing extremist politicians like Dave Brat. In 2015, Brat said during an interview on a right-wing talk show that undocumented immigrants who wanted to serve in the military were responsible for the decline of Western civilization.
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