Stephen Colbert’s “Tooning Out the News” interviewed Rick Wilson from the Lincoln Project, makers of viral anti-Trump ads. I have to admit that as I watched this, I was alternately laughing, cringing, and shaking my head in disgust.
So what do you think? Is the Lincoln Project made up of good guys who are saving us from Donald Trump? Alternatively, are they actually comparatively responsible for the horror that is Trump, and are just trying to save their own skins (and will be back to their old tricks once Trump is gone)? Or are they merely amoral grifters who realized that there was lots of money to be made? Or all of the above?
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They helped create the monster and are only now trying to do something about it because it is hurting their brand. As soon as they replace donnie with a more acceptable mouthpiece they’ll be thrilled to reset the clock to 2015 as if nothing ever happened. Example? What Wilson did to Chamblis.
I was cringing at the cartoon interrogators. The Lincoln Project is doing a d— good job of bringing down Mr. Trump,and they are the only ones who can do it within the Republican sensibilities. Who are we to stand on our liberal purity at this time? We need to build bridges and embrace a 360-degree circle of allies.
I graduated high school(90% white) in 1969, when the beautiful young men of my generation were being drafted and sent to Viet Nam, while neighboring blacks were being denied housing, education and employment, as well as being hounded by Oakland police across the bay. In the 60’s we protested and marched, supported draft dodgers and conscientious objectors,integrated our schools,and attended Black Panther teach-ins.
For all his faults Nixon is credited with being the only one who could open relations with China. LBJ escalated Viet Nam – he also used Texas-style pressure to bring us Civil Rights legislation, Headstart programs, and elevated the War on Poverty. To my mind Reagan brought us homelessness and closed mental hospitals, but he is honored by many of my Mexican-American friends for making legal citizens of their immigrant farm-worker fathers. Okay, so we all know how Bush laid the groundwork for the pickle we find ourselves in with Trump. Can we please forgive our past and move forward?
Rick Wilson reminds me of one of my uncles. For all his racist talk (and boy did he tease mom for her civil rights work, and me for my hippie ways), he was my favorite: generous, scrappy and hard-working. I spent several summers at home on my aunt and uncle’s ranch, gathering eggs, shelling peas, canning fresh salmon, herding cattle, riding jeeps, butchering and picking buckets of blackberries. He used the word bitch when referring to his hunting dogs, who he loved and trained strictly.
I’m convinced Rick Wilson is an ally. I’m sending the Lincoln Project $15, and sending $120 to Friends of Bernie Sanders hoping he can keep up the pressure for health care and demilitarization. We need to fight on all fronts and not tear ourselves apart castigating anyone who will help move the needle forward by any means available.