The media has made him out to be much more of a conservative icon than he ever truly was, because they like to smear him as a white suprematist.
Well all that is certainly true. However, conservatives have done their part. In the early days after Bannon was first brought into the WH, I ventured some relatively mild criticism of him (on this site). The blowback was ferocious. The mob formed right up, and they were out for blood.
Of course things are different now. But you’d almost have to be a survivor from the early days to know what it was like. Conservatives routinely listed Bannon as one of Trump’s few good picks. When Bannon left the WH, it was as if many conservatives’ dog had died. Jvanka-hate hate spiralled out of control, and black armbands [for mourning] were the order of the day.