Random thoughts about Lincoln Project and GOP'ers turned Anti-Trumpers.
I understand that in the current anti-Trump environment, their assistance is welcome.
But one way or another, Trump will be gone after 24. If he loses the general, even the base will look somewhere else even if he's still a free man.
So will Lincoln Project revert to who they are?
Why aren't they running advertisements for Sununu? The ideology of Wilson, Schmidt and Conway line up perfectly?
Are they hoping to find favor in the Democratic Party? Influence?
They're classic neocons. Never met a war they didn't like, spreading Democracy at the point of a M16 barrel...
Here's my theory. The Lincoln Project and the Anti-Trumpers feel they have a better position as neocons in the Democratic Party than in a GOP Party overtaken with the "MAGA-types" who rolled out from under their rocks in 2016 and 2020.
Look at the numbers. Steve Schmidt managed the McCain campaign which was smoked by Obama in 2008. Schmidt managed to cobble together 59 million votes for McCain, losing to Obama by 10m votes. Then in 2012, they all watched Romney get around the same number of votes as McCain.
Trump comes along. Watch Rick Wilson on TV as a pundit in 2015. He was exasperated, incredibly frustrated by all the attention Trump got. The host would talk about Jeb Bush putting audiences to sleep and Wilson would be fuming.
Wilson found his spot as the "Republican Consultant pundit" chair on news networks. He did everything from CNN to MSNBC and NewsMax.
Leads me to my next thought... WHY are Wilson, Schmidt, Conway, Kristol, etc... doing this? And more importantly, what is their goal? I don't believe what they SAY about this question, I only care about where the evidence points.
The Neocon movement currently lies in an unmarked grave, somewhere between DC and PA. The architects of the movement led an unsuccessful effort... their efforts to use the military to spread democracy as a global birthright led to millions of deaths. Donald Trump put it out of it's misery in 2016 and it's not coming back. There just ARE NOT enough voters who will pull the lever for the neocons in the GOP.
But Trump activated hidden voters.
That's why they're so angry. They're royally pissed because their movement is dead and now they're elbowing for room at the Democratic table. They think more of their goals can be achieved by being ALLIED with Democrats than the current GOP but what does that say?
Mentally, I haven't finished this thesis... it's just random thoughts.
In summary, are the neocons of Bush/Cheney/Iraq War infamy now huddled with the Democratic Party to "kill" Trumpism" which means igniting a future version of neoconservatism... or they're accomplishing goals working WITH the Democratic Party?
Thoughts? How "welcome" are they?
= new reply since forum marked as read
I believe Steve became a Democrat in 2020 - according to Wikipedia. So he's one of the good guys now.
(link) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Schmidt
It doesn't seem that Rick Wilson or George Conway have any interest in becoming Dems. Your theory stated above may be correct as far as they are concerned. Trump definitely ruined their political careers, just as he's ruined the entire Republican party.
...before Trump: pushing conservative pet projects and using their brushed-back base of Ahabs to do it, because they'll point out that "you may not like us, but do you really want those Democrat socialist radicals -- who hate this country and everything you love -- running things?"
These are people who pretend Trump was some sort of black swan event that suddenly overtook the Republicans, completely leaving out the decades-long project to addict Republican voters to anger and outrage so that they'll stampede on command. Every NeverTrumper with media access was part of this effort -- political consultants, radio show hosts, columnists, etc. -- to create a voter base that was the perfect feeding ground for someone like Trump.
When they opine about what happened, they usually leave out the bomb-throwers like Rush, Newt, FOX, and their imitators. They get very pissy if you bring up what they did in their past careers, such as
or Charlie Sykes wondering how someone like Sen. Ron Johnson could be elected when Sykes, as Wisconsin's state-level Rush Limbaugh, was instrumental in getting a host of nutbars, including Johnson, elected.
The entire concept of Never-Trump, from its very beginning before the 2016 election, was about positioning themselves as the go-to people and Republican kingmakers once Trump was out of the picture. The ones who needed to retain their conservative audiences, like the National Review or Glenn Beck, knuckled under and went back into the fold. Those that had friends in the mainstream media and could ensconce themselves in places like MSNBC -- people like the members of The Lincoln Project or The Bulwark -- got liberals to pay their bills. All the while trashing liberals and Democrats when they talk amongst themselves. Never underestimate how much of their identity as conservatives revolves around their boundless contempt for people like us.
And the main danger from what was allowed to happen -- their prominence in the "liberal" media -- means that they get to set the parameters of debate. They have a public platform to brush aside and dismiss without any consideration liberal proposals that would interfere with the pet projects they want to get back to, like ending Social Security, more deregulation, more conservative judges, and more tax cuts.
