The key problem with any attempt to revitalize nationalist interests is that there's nothing that keeps people together as it once did in the past. There's little, if any, affinity between people as it once existed in the past here in the US. A Kansan has little concern for the matters that affect an Alabaman or a Texan having any worries for the plight of the New Yorker. Effectively, the US is just a collection of nations than a nation onto itself. I'm not sure what Bannon expects to happen if nationalism does finally take root because if people have more affinity for their home/resident state than they do for the United States then that just means the US ceases to be relevant in the lives of the average person and the whole fantasy of a unified nationalistic United States evaporates. Unless he's wants the abolition of the United States I can't imagine his plan ever working out.
Has anyone ever laid out an argument for why bilateral trade deals are better than things like TPP?<p>There seems to be no substance to this argument. It fits the pattern of Trump attacking something that's on balance good, but which is complex enough to easily find things to attack if you are entirely without a moral compass and just want to undermine your opponent. Then proposing to do the same thing "better" in some vague and unspecific way. Then failing to do so.