Rob Meyne
- Dec. 13, 2020
- 5 min read
No discussion of anti-Trumpers would be complete without a look at the Lincoln Project. They were promoted as Republicans who were so offended by President Trump’s character, rhetoric, actions, or morals they simply could not support him. They claim to be conservative constitutionalists who find Trump so reprehensible they would prefer to have a far left/nascent socialist in office.
That’s worthy of reflection. Assume for a moment you’re a hardcore Constitutional Conservative. Short of compelling proof of a crime, a candidate going on a killing spree, kidnapping elderly nuns, or assassinating puppies, what would they have to do to persuade you to support the most extreme leftist ticket in your lifetime? Right. Hard to think of anything. Especially once your candidate had established an actual governing track record that was indisputably conservative in most ways.
Yet the Lincoln Project claims to be conservatives who hate Trump so much they would rather have a socialist agenda permeating the White House. I don’t think it has much to do with his unique style or character.
The driving force behind most anti-Trump sentiment is jealousy. Yes, jealousy. The Steve Schmidt’s of the world, who devoted a substantial portion of his life to getting John McCain elected president, resent Trump. He succeeded where they failed.
Trump’s success puts the lie, quite directly, to the notion that politics is so uniquely challenging and mysterious that only big-dollar political elites (self-appointed) can do it. No. You don’t have to be a political pro to win the presidency. And every one of the prominent anti-Trumpers was wrong about him. They said he wasn’t serious about running, couldn’t get the nomination, win, or govern. They were wrong. They are wrong today.
A ton of anti-Trumpers left the party before Trump came along. Most, including the Lincoln Project guys, are political cyphers today. No one really cares about them, from a political standpoint. Certainly no one, prior to creation of the Lincoln Project, was sitting around saying “Trump could win if he could only get the support of George Conway.”
That’s like saying “I wish Bill Clinton would be willing to watch my teenage daughter for a night.” Or, “I could do better with women if I just had Al Gore’s personality.” Or “Pass me the piano.” No one ever says those things.
The Lincoln boys were never particularly successful strategists. They made money, gaming the system to line their pockets. But their list of major wins is pretty slim.
The Lincoln Project is a place for irrelevant, marginalized, former GOPs to go in an attempt to make news, fuel their egos, convince themselves they are right and Trump supporters are wrong, and to make money off of Democrat contributors. They pay themselves and their firms, finding a way to make money even though they’ve had to sell their political souls to do so.
Think about President McCain. The careful reader will note that McCain actually never was president. That’s the point. One of the reasons McCain was a loser on the world’s largest political stage is the incompetence and arrogance of his campaign chief, Steve Schmidt. Schmidt is one of the reasons McCain lost, yet he clings to the fiction that someone, anyone, somewhere waits for his latest utterance for enlightenment.
Ditto Rick Warren and George Conway, to name two more. They have figured out how to make money, for sure. In fact, they have profited to the tune of millions by raising money for the Lincoln Project, much of it from Democratic big donors in amounts as high as a million dollars each. They then paid businesses on whose boards or staff they serve. Got it? They were shut out of Trump world so found a way to make money as phony conservatives. Of course, one of them, Schmidt, interviewed for a senior job on the Trump campaign and was passed over. Like Mitt Romney, having been turned down, he decided he didn’t support Trump anyway. Like Romney, he is full of it.
Rather than maintaining loyalty to either principles or the Party, the Lincolnettes decided to raise money from Democrats and then paid themselves. Having no market for their services in the GOP, they found a way to make money off the fact that no Republicans really wanted them anyway. It is called “grifting.”
If they had to get rich from being successful presidential strategists, and otherwise offering a fair return to clients, they would all be washing dishes somewhere (not to insult dish washers by the comparison). Their list of political successes is shorter than a George Conway workout video.
Rick Wilson is perhaps the most detestable of the crew. He is an exemplar of everything he claims to abhor, and he’s in your face about it. See here. His own hypocrisy is legion.
Wilson is a fan of political bigotry and cancel culture, but posted a photo of his family cooler. While it is easy enough to be “cooler” than Wilson, it is most notable because it has the Dixie flag and the phrase “the South will rise again.” Yeah, sounds like a woke, politically correct guy to me.
Wilson also stands out as possibly the most vile, repulsive, and profane of the group. It is tantamount to trying to be the fattest Sumo wrestler. Not an easy achievement. You’ve got to actively try to be that offensive. If every word that rhymed with “truck” suddenly disappeared from the lexicon, Wilson would effectively have a speech impediment. It is usually proof someone lacks both intellect and character when their most frequently used compound word begins with “mother.”
The amazing part of it all is not just the brazen offensiveness of this gang, it is their complete lack of self-awareness or even cognizance. Being despised by these people – and make no mistake, they don’t just despise Trump, they despise you – is like Orson Wells or John Candy coming back from the grave to tell you how fat you are.
Aristotle said there are no morals without courage. An individual is deserving of your honor and respect when they put a lot on the line, and suffer personally, because they stand up for principle. The flotsam and jetsam who ran the Lincoln Project do not qualify.
To put an exclamation point on it all, the Lincoln Project moved far beyond their own hysterical hatred for, and jealousy of, Donald Trump in 2020 by working against seven incumbent Republican senators. How many did they succeed in defeating? Hint: it’s the same as the number of reasons to think they really care about unity, the country, or anything other than their bank accounts: zero.
