Former Michigan GOP party leader flips sides. Now he's working to defeat Trump

[Nevilledog]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/07/10/lincoln-project-former-republicans-anti-donald-trump/5412909002/?fbclid=IwAR28krBqPB8Ez_qvaVnpkPHiMbGxc-oMoGybKLsVwi6comH-b3t2WX_jHCI


Jeff Timmer used to be a key Republican operative in Michigan, the state party’s executive director, the smart guy who helped draw legislative and congressional districts that still make Democrats crazy. He spent three decades linked to a party fighting for abortion controls, limited government, free-market policies.

But he couldn’t bring himself to support Donald Trump in 2016.

Four years after he and 75,000 other Michiganders sat on the sidelines in that election, Timmer is back, though not so much as a Republican: On Twitter, he excoriates Trump and mocks him and the president’s allies in the starkest of terms. As an adviser to the Lincoln Project — a group of former Republican consultants from across the U.S. who want to defeat Trump and elect Joe Biden — he is part of what has been one of the most trenchant and recognizable opposition brands in the 2020 campaign.

“It’s a burn-it-down, Molotov cocktail-throwing army,” Timmer called the Lincoln Project, saying it’s there to “bruise Trump every day and get him off message” in hopes of beating him, especially in states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that turned the election in 2016.

For Timmer, it goes all the way back to the beginning of Trump's first campaign in 2015, when he chastised Ford Motor Co., said Mexico was sending rapists and drug dealers to the U.S. and declared the American dream "dead." He later suggested a federal judge had a conflict of interest overseeing a civil suit involving Trump's for-profit university because of the judge's Hispanic heritage. "I felt I couldn’t support him when he came down the escalator (in 2015)," said Timmer, referring to Trump's entrance in June 2015 at Trump Tower. “I thought, ‘This guy is a circus clown show and he’s not serious.' "

*snip*

[empedocles]

1. Welcome Aboard

[roamer65]

2. I enjoy giving TLP money.

It’s like having a front row seat to the party. I fucking hate Trump. I am enjoying it.

[elleng]

3. Excellent!

[Mike 03]

4. Timmer's twitter feed is BRUTAL

Non-stop abuse of Trump and his minions.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Nevilledog]

5. Bwahahaha

He'll fit in perfect with LP

[mnmoderatedem]

6. the list continues to grow (nt)

[erronis]

7. So there are a lot of new never-trumpers from the (r)epuglicons. That doesn't mean that they won't

work to put another asshole in the presidency - maybe another Nixon or Reagan or W?

They were totally bamboozled by this cheap con artist. Most Democrats and thinking people could see this. Not the (r)epuglicons.

They will just wait to find another grade-b actor, a dimwit, a crook, or another carnie to run in 2024, 28, 32, 36, etc.

Their platform won't change. Take the money from the poor and give it to us (the rich.)

[Nevilledog]

8. Let's get rid of trump and learn from these guys while doing it.

[erronis]

9. learn from these guys (gals) while doing it. Not sure what they are teaching us.

That it's ok to embrace a total loser and help vote him into office, and then change your mind - say whoopsie?

That's just too easy, too glib. "Well, Mom. I guess I did destroy the country. But next time, trust me, OK?"

I want to learn from everyone. But I want these sons-of-goppers to also learn. Don't come back to the party without a conscience and a sense of ethics. (The whizzing sound you hear is me pissing in the wind.)

[Nevilledog]

10. I'm not ready to adopt them.

Guess we'll find out after the election where they stand.

[OnDoutside]

12. If what we think is going to happen in November, actually transpires, there will be a civil war

within the GOP. There is no way they are going back to the Republican Party, and they've openly said so, in fact I don't think any of us understand the level of hate that's building with the GOP towards them. When Trump is beaten in November, the likes of Haley, Pompeo, Cruz etc will be jockeying for position, and will aim the blame at the likes of Wilson etc (rather than themselves) for the scale of the loss.

And remember too, that all the founders of the Lincoln Project opposed Trump from the very beginning, so they didn't help "vote him into office".

[erronis]

13. So someone (Norquist, Grinch) creates a new "tea party" that is the "all new" repuglicons.

Haley, Pompeo, Curz will happily blame the Romneys, McCains for the faults that allowed trump to be their "standard bearer."

I don't know about the voting records of the founders of the Lincoln Project. Did they vote for the Democratic ticket or did they vote for anything but dump? I'm not sure that saying they "opposed Trump from the very beginning" is the same as saying they actively supported the only other viable candidate, Hillary.

[OnDoutside]

16. I don't think it will be so easy for Haley, Pompeo etc when they were core enablers. In any case, it

will be the outpouring of hatred and retribution that will be fun for us to watch. I genuinely believe that this bile has built up for so long, that there will be massive consequences.

As regards the founders of the Lincoln Project, a bit of googling will help you there. I would guess that most were Jeb Bush people, and opposed Trump all the way, whether they voted for Hillary or not. I do remember Wilson say that while he wouldn't vote for either, a President Clinton would be an immeasurably better President for America.

[Phoenix61]

14. They are teaching us how to effectively use

media, something the Dems have not done very well.

[Cha]

11. Kick!

[onethatcares]

15. remember their names

The Lincoln Project has already done the heavy lifting, Remember their names, The Lincoln Project has already told us what to look for.

Remember their names.

[erronis]

17. Good post from WaPo: Understanding the mysterious group of Never Trumpers

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/13/understanding-mysterious-tribe-nevertrumpers/

Pundits and operatives studying Never Trumpers tend to treat them like an offshoot of the humanoid family (Homo integrity) or a new civilization in the deep political jungle. The political anthropologists often wind up confused or exasperated. The conversation goes something like this:

But what do you guys want? We want President Trump gone and Trumpism thoroughly discredited.

Then what? We’ll figure it out later.

You’ll never work in Republican circles! You’re assuming there will be a Republican Party. But if you are right, I have no interest in them anyway.

[Nevilledog]

18. Thank you!