Let’s follow up on one of those lessons from the Trump Administration. The Lincoln Project – a group of Republican ‘Never Trumpers‘ – ran a ton of anti-Trump ads during the 2020 campaign. Specifically, let’s look at how the Lincoln Project might influence the future of the Democratic Party.
Many mainstream Democrats believe they won in 2018 and/or 2020 because they won those mythical suburban, college-educated white voters who just love squishy, bipartisan moderates. We see this in, among other sources, the public words of Nancy Pelosi. We also see it in local candidates like Abby Finkenauer and national ones like Joe Biden.
The Lincoln Project and Never Trumpers
The Lincoln Project launched an operation in 2020 with the apparent goal of convincing Republicans to abandon Donald Trump. It appears the project failed. Republicans overwhelmingly supported Trump in 2020.
But a flood of ‘Never Trump’ Republican columnists touted the Lincoln Project. They loved it. And they used it as a wedge to push Democrats to the right. Consider, for example, David Frum’s efforts at pushing Biden toward bipartisan policy.
This stuff serves as catnip for liberals and progressives who want to lead us into the bipartisan future. And they play professional-managerial class liberals like a fiddle. Police departments in liberal cities do exactly the same thing – pretending to be high-minded while warding away liberals from supporting ideas like ‘defund the police.’
The Future of the Democratic Party
And so, it looks like the Lincoln Project will likely succeed at pushing the Democratic Party to the right – or at least at preventing it from turning to the left. The problem is that Democrats didn’t win in 2018 or 2020 because they moved to the right. They won because voters hated Trump.
In the short term, this probably won’t harm Democrats too much, at least electorally. But the long term tells a different story. The more Democrats marginalize its electoral left – politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the rest of the Squad – the more difficulty Democrats will have in keeping their younger generation interested in voting or serving in office. And Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer – and the older, more moderate voters they represent – won’t live forever.
