Rick Wilson has worked to elect Republicans for thirty years, but he will “no longer use those skills to serve the party I once loved. That party is gone.” He has not become a Democrat, but he is adamantly anti-Trump. His book, Running Against the Devil; A Plot to Save America From Trump and Democratsfrom Themselves, is a rant against President Donald Trump as the worst president in history. The explosion of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in all fifty states this past month indicates that he is not alone in that opinion.
Wilson’s message is serious, but his delivery is hilarious with over-the-top snarky comments and profanity. It’s a fun book to read, but the bottom line is that the Democrats must stop Trump from winning a second term. Wilson sees Congress unable to respond other than sending him “a strongly worded letter.”
Wilson’s example of Trump’s corruption is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocking bipartisan efforts to stop Russian election interference in the 2020 election. It occurred right after a Russian oligarch announced that he would build a new aluminum plant in Kentucky, where McConnell is unpopular and faces a close re-election.
According to Wilson, Democrats must not focus on the national vote. Instead they must remember to run fifteen disciplined state campaigns; it is absolutely necessary to win in the swing target states. Their messaging and strategies cannot rely on miracles. Nor should they waste energy releasing anger, “even though he deserves it.”
He advises that Democrats must stop insisting on picking candidates based on what policies they love versus what wins and that means according to him, “Do not scare the shit out of the Republican squish voters, as in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona.” They cannot afford to choose candidates “who strokes their ideological happy place.”
Wilson drapes his strategy with a string of poll findings. A January 2019 Pew survey asked democrats if they wanted their party to become more moderate or more liberal. Only 40 percent wanted a more liberal approach, whereas 53 percent said they wanted a more moderate approach. Data shows how socialism may not frighten the populace like communism did in the fifty’s but in the swing Electoral College states for 2020, it could stop the Democrats from attracting the key voters that flipped the House from Republican to Democrat control. For instance, according to a February 2019 Public Opinion Strategies poll, 54% of the voters in 11 of those swing states oppose socialism; as did 57% of suburban women and 56% of independents.
From his prior experience in leading Republican campaigns, he believes that Trump’s advisors want to “make this election about a core package of issues, NOT a referendum on Trump’s personality, leadership and accomplishments.” Consequently, if democrats run on detailed policies they will be appealing to the brain and lose, instead they need to appeal to the heart by focusing on Trump’s faults.
In brief, Wilson is saying that Trump is a flawed president, but a clever one who has brilliantly exploited the Grievance Culture of “Everyone is coming to get you.” They are the immigrants, Black Lives Matter, Anitfa, Muslims, women and Sloths — Wilson’s dry, cutting humor graces every page.
Running Against the Devil will probably not convince many Republicans to vote against Trump. Also, Wilson’s advice to the Democrats runs directly counter to the progressive drift of the party, which pushes a progressive agenda to the front lines, no matter what surveys say about its effectiveness in getting votes in the swing states that won the election for Trump.
Wilson may convince Democrats that Biden’s victory is not about a popular vote. Hilary Clinton got that and still lost. Trump made the election about her, not her policies. Wilson knows how that was done, and he is doing it now to Trump. He has co-founded the Lincoln Project with other well-known Republicans to produce and run attack ads against the president. By provoking anxiety and fear about Trump, they hope to persuade enough disaffected conservatives, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in swing states to abandon him and perhaps even vote for Biden.
Nick Licata is author of Becoming A Citizen Activist, and
has served 5 terms on the Seattle City Council, named progressive municipal official of the year by The Nation, and is founding board chair of Local Progress, a national network of 1,000 progressive municipal officials.
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