In December 2019 The Lincoln Project was created by moderate conservatives and individuals opposed to trump and what today is referred to as the MAGA movement. They created print and video ads that were timely, hard hitting, and used trump's own words and actions to point out the hypocrisy and venality that were at his core. A common refrain spoken by many democratic anti-trumpers was, "why can't the Democratic party be more like the Lincoln Project." Sadly, in 2021, the Lincoln Project imploded on a wave of corruption, alleged sexual scandals and financial impropriety. But oh boy did they enliven the 2020 election!
Now, in 2024, the NH primary is days away and the talking heads are debating if there is even any point to having a primary when it's all but certain that trump will win. This morning not only was there no Lincoln Project to look forward to, but there was this headline in the Washington Post making it clear that the Democratic party still doesn't get it.
Biden advisers brainstorm best policy pitch to halt Trump’s rise
The truth that they don't get is that we live in a world of social media and algorithms, where success is based on how many clicks a site gets, and about a third of the populace continues to believe that Biden's win was based on fraudulent voting and that trump won the presidency. We live in a world where the extremely conservative Liz Cheney is considered a moral warrior by even those who remember her father as the architect of the lies that led us into the Iraq invasion and war in Afghanistan. About a third of the world we live in believes the lies that the January 6th protesters were unarmed, that they are political prisoners, that the event was incited by left wing forces and/or the FBI, and that the capital police welcomed the visitors.
Countering these beliefs is a Democratic Party that doesn't seem to understand. They are all about nuance, but nuance doesn't win fights. The truth that I see is that the people living in the blue and purple cities, counties, and states of this country are in a fight for our existence and beliefs. You may think this sounds extreme, but take a minute to think about trump, his MAGAs, and the people who have succumbed to him out of reasonable fears of doxxing, swatting, death threats and whatever else the maga people can feel emboldened to do. ** (scroll down) Think about his words and actions since his arrival to announce his candidacy on a down escalator in 2016.
Now think about yourself and what you believe. Democratic campaigns need to understand that the war will only be won if we can make people understand, and feel, how all the issues below will play out if trump wins or if Biden wins. And it doesn't need to be complex. Back in the Clinton days James Carville posted a sign in the campaign headquarters- It's the economy stupid. With a little tweaking democrats need to think the same way. It's ABORTION stupid...It's the ENVIRONMENT stupid... And so on.
Future posts will touch on each of these issues and lay out how this could be done. Maybe viewers will respond, maybe not, but for me it's better than ranting into the wind. Thanks for reading.
1. Abortion- what more can be said
2. Civil Rights- are we heading back to Reconstruction or the Compromise of 1877
3. Voting Rights- who, where, when, and how
4. The "isms"- race, class, gender, transgender, age, body type
5. Education and Schools- curricula, staffing, equity, charter schools
6. Church and State- the separation thereof
7. The Constitution- ours or theirs, federalism and state's rights
8. The Courts- state and federal including the supremes
9. The Environment- air, water, wetlands, property, mining, fossil fuels
10. Employment including wages and benefits
11. Guns- a right or will it become a requirement
12. Corrections and Penalties- death, 3 strikes (or maybe only 1 for some),
**Over the past 2 weeks Maine's secretary of state was swatted for refusing to put trump's name on the Maine primary ballot, and the judge in the NY civil fraud case has received multiple death threats.
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