John Lamparski/SOPA Images/Sipa USA via AP
President Trump’s Fascist KKKAMPAIN and Black Lives Matter march in New York, June 20, 2020
The Open Mind explores the world of ideas across politics, media, science, technology, and the arts. The American Prospect is republishing this edited excerpt.
Alexander Heffner: The restoration of democratic norms and accountability is the centerpiece of this initiative.
John Weaver: When we first decided to move forward with the Lincoln Project, we were increasingly alarmed at the conduct of Donald Trump, who used the cowardice in [the] career prism within our party and the Republican Party to gain power and in doing so, just [exacerbated the] distrust and lack of respect, racism, and more in our country.
There was no better shining example for us than what Abraham Lincoln faced as president in a civil war. So we’re coming up on the most consequential election really since that 1864 re-election campaign that Lincoln went through. That’s the guiding principle that drives us to this day.
Heffner: [People who are] subject to dissuasion or depression of turnout, they often hear this is the most critical election in our history, but they don’t often hear that there are a hundred thousand-plus American deaths in the span of three months.
Weaver: Imagine as we speak [that] the president of United States is flaming the fires of a potential race war in order to hide the fact that now more than 103,000 Americans are dead, dreams are dashed, businesses are closed, millions are unemployed because of his narcissism and his ignorance and his malfeasance. By the time we get to November, the number is going to be well over 200,000 Americans dead. That’s more than, certainly more than we lost in Vietnam combined with Korea, combined with every war since World War II.
I believe it was Stalin who said, one death is a tragedy, millions of deaths are considered a statistic. That certainly seems to be Trump’s goal is to move away from any of this and focus on all sorts of other terrible things that he can come up in his mind for us to be discussing. But at the end of the day, he’s been a failure, but worse than that, he has brought, as I said earlier, he’s brought disrespect, he’s brought racism out into the clear open, and worse in our country.
Heffner: Your ads have focused on the ineptitude, the cronyism, the corruption of this administration. But do you fear in any way, shape, or form, John, that the American people are desensitized to the traffic of the malfeasance?
Weaver: I think I coined the phrase that the army of the decent are coming together in a grand coalition to hopefully oust Donald Trump and his enablers. It needs to be a question, not just for Trump, but for the party that I used to belong to.
I do worry and I have my complaints with the mainstream media about this, that there is a numbness to the insanity from the White House—and certainly that exists within his core base, but we’re seeing now his polling numbers and I know what everybody says about polling numbers, but they’re consistent, that 55, 60 percent of Americans reject his, not only his handling of the COVID crisis, but his overall handling of the presidency, and in my experience, an incumbent running for re-election and it will be about him.
He will achieve the number or slightly below the number of his approval rating. Right now, his approval rating is 40, 41 percent. It’s our determined goal to keep it at that, at that place.
Heffner: Is it indeed achievable and plausible that you can detox, depolarize to the extent that this coalition, the majority, the decent majority, which has really the silent majority under President Trump, can rebel and be powerful in an electoral outcome?
Weaver: I absolutely believe so. And look, he lost the popular vote four years ago. He narrowly won the Electoral College vote by 77,000 votes spread over three large states. He lost the special, his party; Trumpism lost the special elections in ’17. They were soundly rejected, in a blue wave in ’18. That wave has continued. We see suburban women, college-educated white women, disaffected Republicans, Republican-acting independents, joining forces with people of color, traditional Democrats, people on the far left and the left and the center left.
So, yes, I do believe that a grand coalition if we stay focused and determined, can oust this president; can send Trumpism reeling, not ended unfortunately, and give then President Biden an overwhelming wind at his sails to try to right many of the wrongs that have happened to this country in the last three and a half years.
Heffner: You’re also focused on the United States Senate, Donald Trump’s enablers, who have really resigned themselves to be leeches and not independent of the executive branch.
We see suburban women, college-educated white women, disaffected Republicans, Republican-acting independents, joining forces with people of color, traditional Democrats, people on the far left and the left and the center left.
Weaver: Either because of cowardice or the careerism, the Republican Senate and the Republican House rolled over for him, and they need to be held accountable for doing so much of what Trump has done in this country; they’ve allowed that to take place because they’ve stood back and either done nothing or decided to echo his hateful and harmful words, and his policies.
So whether you’re in Arizona or Colorado or Montana, or Iowa, and maybe, North Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas, and Georgia, those are all places where very good and very competent Democrats are either running ahead or even with Republican incumbents. I think most of those will go to the Democrats this cycle.
Unfortunately, I think Stuart Stevens, who just joined us as an amazing political communicator on the Republican side, said it best: We spent 30 years working for Republicans. It turned out it was all a lie. It was all a lie.
Imagine we were like Bernie Madoff salespeople out there. And then we find out the day after that everything that we were advocating for, character and responsibility and belief in the rule of law, and much less the policies, a cogent national security, free trade, all of that was BS, right, nobody believed any of it except for we political consultants.
Who would have thought that we would be the ones out here upholding the principles of the party? So I urge everybody to participate, I think it’s going to be a big turnout election, notwithstanding Republican efforts to suppress the vote. It’s not going to be so much about turnout as it is about persuasion. I urge everyone to get involved.
Heffner: Is there something inherent about Biden that will make him less susceptible to the cyber espionage bots, trolls who are going to come after him?
Weaver: The race will be about [Trump], no matter how much he tries to distract it, no matter how much his allies in Russia or, or wherever, try to impact that. Now do, are we, are we going to have to be more diligent than ever and more? [Am I] ready to pounce whenever we see this information? Absolutely. And I know we at the Lincoln Project are especially prepared to do so. I believe the Democrats are as well, and I think the American people writ large, not every segment, but writ large are in a mindset to withstand that kind of disinformation.
But look, I also believe that Joe Biden, I know him a little bit because of my association with John McCain. I know him to be a good man of the highest character, exactly what this country needs at this moment. And I believe he can withstand these attacks and be a great president, but all of us are in this together.
We have to fight this together and we have to report misinformation and lies as we see them and speak to our family members and our co-workers and our neighbors and our peers, and not be afraid to speak out against Trump and what’s said on social media, because we are in this together.
