The long-time Republican consultants who created The Lincoln Project did so as an act of contrition. They believe they contributed to creating the conditions in 2016 that allowed Donald Trump to thrive and win and when they saw that Trump actually meant what he was saying, they scurried back to the political center and fought against the president they helped elect.
Indeed, the Showtime series The Lincoln Project goes into excruciating detail.
“There’s nothing noble about us in the least; the cause is noble,” says co-founder Stuart Stevens. “You don’t have to think we’re good people. You don’t have to agree with us. You don’t have to like us. But we’re useful.”
“Useful, “perhaps, but not for the cause they say they espouse. If democracy is indeed in danger, their attempted destruction of Trump put into office people far more ruthless, far less tolerant, and far less enamored of Democratic norms and the traditions in which those norms exist.
A clear-eyed assessment would have told the Lincoln Project creators that Donald Trump was the lesser of two evils — especially when you consider that his aging opponent was easily manipulated by people who have nothing but disdain and contempt for democracy as it has been traditionally understood in America.
Related: LOL! The Lincoln Project Praises Biden’s Terrible Economy
One thing is certain, the anti-Trump hysteria generated in 2020 was aided and abetted by people who knew that they were grossly exaggerating the threat Trump posed but found it useful for achieving their goal: electing Joe Biden.
And now the radical hard left is poised to achieve what they could only dream of achieving a few short years ago. And their well-understood plan to “transform, America” into something it’s not and was never meant to be is literally a heartbeat away from bearing fruit.
The Lincoln Project played no small role in this disaster. Arrogance and hubris with a healthy dose of hypocrisy eventually laid them low, but not until they had set the stage for the next act of their drama; the destruction of the political opposition.
The staff — by then a combination of veteran consultants and young idealists — formed a rapid response team to react in real time to every twist in the final weeks of the campaign with the mantra “Look for the weak spot every day.” They calculated that Biden would need to flip 4 million GOP voters to win. It was a sophisticated numbers game, backed by polls and data that was overshadowed by viral ads that got more than 200 million views on YouTube.
The group made its biggest impact on social media. And through all this, the Trump team was stumped on how to respond. Trump’s preferred method of name-calling and insulting his foes only served to bring more attention to his enemies. Once, after a particularly savage attack on the president, Trump went on Twitter calling them “losers” and repeated the insult to White House reporters. That free publicity resulted in $2 million in donations to the Lincoln Project in 24 hours.
It was the social media ads — specifically “Mourning in America” — that catapulted the Lincoln Project into the national spotlight. Behind the scenes, the operation functioned less like a media shop and more like a traditional campaign war room.
The staff — by then a combination of veteran consultants and young idealists — formed a rapid response team to react in real time to every twist in the final weeks of the campaign with the mantra “Look for the weak spot every day.” They calculated that Biden would need to flip 4 million GOP voters to win. It was a sophisticated numbers game, backed by polls and data that was overshadowed by viral ads that got more than 200 million views on YouTube.
Eventually, allegations of sexual misconduct of the homosexual kind were made against one of the founders, John Weaver. And there was an ugly row among the principles on how to divvy up the cash left over from the campaign. But the Lincoln Project is still standing, although much diminished. It’s not likely to rise as high in the future. But if Trump runs in 2024, you can bet the Lincoln Project will be there, trying to destroy him.
