I know. After 86 days, can we stop talking about the November election? With the women’s march showing unified and unprecedented concern in Brunswick and elsewhere, with hearings in Augusta on school funding and an onslaught of state and local issues, isn’t it time to move on? But, I have a revelation to share: I know who you did not vote for. That’s right, every one of you fine people in the Brunswick area, I know who did not get your vote, and I think we will agree, sooner or later, that this matters.

It is not news that the popular winner was not sworn in as President. Making the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue the biggest loser, I suppose, but that’s the wrong reality TV show. Yet, even if you and I voted for a completely different person on November 8, we both did not vote for one person: Steve Bannon. And no matter who you actually voted for, this is a real problem for everyone. Because Bannon is calling the tune and the steps right now, and all indications are that he is dancing our nation towards chaos.

How do we know? Bannon is widely credited with writing Trump’s Executive Orders, including the controversial immigrant ban, selecting his Cabinet picks, and wielding the greatest influence over Trump. This is widely reported throughout the press. Which helps explain why Bannon just described the press as “enemy number one” that “should keep its mouth shut.”

So we should get to know the man for whom nobody voted. The former editor of “Brietbart News,” he helped bring the “alt-right” into the mainstream. Also known as white nationalism. Bannon claims he’s no racist, merely an economic nationalist. But in interviews and the commentary he’s published, it’s clear that he whips up racist sentiment to deliver alienated white voters and secure power.

He’s also got issues with women. That includes 3 divorces and 2 allegations of domestic abuse, with a charge of domestic violence. Publication of truly unhinged articles about women fits into that context. His willingness to inflame hatred towards women to secure power is again quite evident. And, it’s effective.

Does this matter? Well, he’s not so different from the popular vote loser, Donald Trump, so perhaps the 25 percent of American voters who chose Trump have a right to say “give the guy a chance.”

But none of us voted for Steve Bannon, and his plans for our nation are becoming clear. What are those plans? Bannon once told a reporter “I’m a Leninist. Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.” He’s since tried to walk that back, but the radical steps Trump has taken, and his consistent elevation of Bannon, show those words ring true.

Particularly concerning are Bannon’s beliefs about Islam. Bannon, and many radical extreme conservatives, even elected officials, regard Christianity as “at war” with Islam. Bannon has said as much, and directly advocated for our nation to “really think about what our role is in the battle that is before us.”

This “Christianity versus Islam” perspective is a frightening departure from our history as a nation of immigrants that was specifically tolerant of religious difference. Did we choose a war on Islam on November 8? That wasn’t on my ballot.

Bannon’s recent appointment by Trump to the National Security Council, and de facto demotion of actual apolitical security experts, which helps determine whether we go to war, what covert actions to take, even what assassinations to order – has been described as “entirely inappropriate” by one noted alarmist.

But, wait. That was Maine’s Senator Susan Collins. Not exactly an alarmist. And yet, our senior Senator is clearly alarmed. And, as the swing vote on every single thing that the Trump administration does, this raises some important questions.

Will Senator Collins seek to reduce Bannon’s influence in the Trump administration? How? Will she use the power of her very powerful vote to halt the Trump agenda until a war-mongerer is removed from essential national security decisions? Will she still vote in the extreme, radical Cabinet that Bannon selected? A Cabinet wherein each choice actually opposes the duly enacted mission of each agency?

I do not envy Senator Collins’s position. But we stand at a moment of radical change, and a possible drive towards war, forced upon an unwilling electorate. Only 25% of voters chose Trump. None chose the extreme agenda that Bannon seeks. With Trump’s disapproval rating at a record high in record time, Senator Collins is being asked to stand up and answer: between dangerous, radical extremism and moderation, whose side are you on?

Jackie Sartoris is a former Brunswick Town Councilor