Lincoln Project: Trump’s worst nightmare

The most devastating campaign ads against President Trump’s reelection have been delivered by a yearold political action committee called the Lincoln Project. They are clever, they are prolific, and they are alternately uplifting and enraging in making the case for his defeat. They come at rapid fire, and they instantly go viral on social media.

What is noteworthy is this onslaught on Joe Biden’s behalf is not being orchestrated by Democrats, liberals or even folks who necessarily agree with him on the issues. The masterminds are strategists who have run Republican campaigns at the highest levels of American politics. They view their crusade for Trump’s defeat as nothing less than a defense of democracy.

As I’ve followed their work, I find myself wondering: What will they do if Biden were to win? Will they try to push him to the center in recognition of the coalition they helped build? Will they start plotting his demise toward putting a more acceptable Republican in the Oval Office? Will they embrace his agenda?

I had a chance to put that question in a Zoom interview with two Lincoln Project cofounders: Steve Schmidt, whose portfolio includes managing John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign; and Mike Madrid, former political director of the California Republican Party.

“Steve and I would probably be opposed to the vast majority of what the policy platform would be of a Joe Biden presidency and a Democratic majority in both houses,” Madrid said. “But what I think we would be in agreement on is the fact that we need to concentrate and focus on the restoration of the foundations of the American experiment. We need to bring back decency and a heightened awareness and morality to the office of the presidency.”

Schmidt said he does not care whether the next president were a “lefthanded, vegetarian socialist” — as long as he or she were willing to live up to the

35word oath of office and represent all Americans. Trump has failed that test, he said.

“One of the great tragedies of this era is that Trump has never tried to be the president of all the people, which means that he’s a factional leader by definition,” said Schmidt, now registered as independent. “The guy I ran a campaign against, Barack Obama, he was my opponent, I never voted for him ... but he was always my president.”

The concept of “restoring our democracy” keeps coming up in our conversation. The two define it as structural changes to assure voting rights, restore public trust in institutions, address systemic racism, tighten anticorruption laws — and, perhaps most fundamentally of all, leave no doubt that there will be a peaceful transfer of power after a presidential election.

One of the criticisms of the Lincoln Project from some of their fellow “Never Trumper” Republicans is that it’s not just working to defeat the president, but is targeting what it calls his “enablers” in the U. S. Senate, even relative moderates such as Susan Collins of Maine and Joni Ernst of Iowa.

Rob Stutzman, a leading GOP strategist from Sacramento, agrees that Trump’s cult of personality has been

Interview with Steve Schmidt and Mike Madrid

John Diaz is guest host on “It’s All Political.” Listen at: bit. ly/ DiazLincoln damaging the party. But he does not regard a Democratic wave in November as the way to rebuild it.

“Arsonists aren’t builders,” Stutzman told me.

The Lincoln Project is unapologetic about its hardhitting campaign against Republican senators. Its ads against Sen. Lindsey Graham, the human weather vane who went from Trump basher in 2016 to obsequious golfing pal postinauguration, have been particularly brutal.

“This indecency, this stoking of violence of a cold civil war ... none of this could have happened without the silence, the complicity and the cowardice of the United States Senate Republicans and House members who knew — because

Steve Schmidt, Lincoln Project we can go back and look at what they said — who this guy was from hour one,” Schmidt said. Trump “has let loose the forces of extremism in this country. He has made the unpardonable offense against the American republic with his ruminations about whether there’ll be a peaceful transfer of power or not depending on his victory.”

I asked the two whether they saw parallels between what is happening to the party nationally and its diminution in California.

“One hundred percent. ... It’s clear as day, and it’s happening at a faster pace,” said Schmidt, whose California connection includes his work as spokesman for Matt Fong’s 1998 challenge to Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Fewer than 1 in 4 California voters is

“One of the great tragedies of this era is that Trump has never tried to be the president of all the people, which means he’s a factional leader.”

a registered Republican. The party now holds just seven of the 53 California seats in the House of Representatives. Democrats enjoy supermajorities in both houses of the state Legislature — and hold every single statewide office.

“I think the most heartbreaking part of it is somebody who’s spent his entire life and career working in the party is that it’s not trying to become relevant anymore,” Madrid said. “It’s given up on, it’s not trying to say we have better ideas when we have solutions. It’s devolved into a fringe movement.”

Unlike a consumer product that is flopping — which a company can address by quickly rolling out a new product — the rebranding of a political party that is shrinking in public acceptance can be difficult as it dwindles to its most extreme and unrepentant base. California is a prime example. “Political parties are much closer to supernovas,” Schmidt said. “As a star collapses, what happens is the star shrinks. But as it shrinks its density increases, and its heat increases. What you saw in California is the party’s collapsing and shrinking. It got more extreme. And it got crazier. And the central requirement now to win a primary for much of the country — and it’s been a long time the truth in California — is the craziest person will win.”

The Lincoln Project is taking on Trumpism on several fronts. It’s not only going after his Senate enablers. Some of its ads are aimed at an audience of one: the president himself. And they’re working.

“Lincoln Project ads are brilliant — they’re particularly effective because they’re targeting an insecure narcissist who’s stupid enough to step into every trap and respond,” said Dan Newman, a prominent California strategist. He certainly does.

After leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment of COVID19, Trump apparently felt well enough to insult Schmidt with a tweet. “Because I’ve beaten him and his very few remaining clients so much, and so badly, that he has become a blathering idiot,” Trump said. “He failed with John McCain and will fail again with all others. He is a total loser.”

As Schmidt noted among a fiery series of responses, “You’ve never beaten me at anything. This is our first dance. ... We are so much better at this than your team of crooks, wife beaters, degenerates, weirdos and losers. You are losing.”

If social media are any measure, Democrats are thoroughly enjoying having the Lincoln gang on their side. Its Twitter feed has 2.5 million followers, and its fundraising is going gangbusters. Republicans would be wise to get these operatives working for them — and on behalf of American democracy — once again.