THE LINCOLN PROJECT: FRIEND, FOE, OR FRAUD?
Hard to think of a sicker burn than "conservative Krassenstein-types".
https://crooked.com/articles/lincoln-project-friend-fraud/
DAN PFEIFFER / JUL.16.20
Excerpt:
Liberal proponents of the Lincoln Project tend to applaud them for two things: speed and virality. These two things are related and should not be discounted. There is no question that the Lincoln Project is playing a role in shifting media narratives against Trump by releasing punchy, emotionally evocative spots responding to Trump within the same newscycles. The fact that these attacks come from Republicans widely respected by the political press corps make them even more influential. This is of great value and shouldn’t be dismissed.
A few weeks ago, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) tweeted to praise the Lincoln Project, “Credit to these guys for moving fast and not needing to take a poll to know that a punch is going to land.” He’s right about one thing: Too much Democratic messaging is focused grouped into political applesauce (nutritious and inoffensive to anyone’s palate). But testing messages through focus groups or polls is a smart thing to do, particularly ahead of big expenditures. Before a campaign or PAC invests its limited budget on an ad campaign, they should know whether it will work with its intended audience. The Lincoln Project can forego message testing and get their ads up faster because they are putting nominal amounts of money behind so much of their work. And to an extent I’m glad they’re cutting these quick-and-dirty ads, and that they’ve had success online: Communication in the age of Facebook is about quantity and Republicans have a huge structural advantage. Between the plethora of secretly funded right-wing media startups to the state-adjacent propaganda operation at Fox to Ben Shapiro’s Facebook ponzi scheme, the right has more people making more content. The Lincoln Project turning out a rapid-fire series of viral videos is filling an important gap on the Democratic side, but everyone who is celebrating and funding their effort should know that the Lincoln Project’s goal is to win Twitter, not Wisconsin.6 As deft as it is, it’s a far cry from the work others are doing to win over enough voters to put Biden in the White House.
There is an old saying in Washington that the only people who believe Republican talking points are Democrats.7 This inherent sense that Republicans are better at politics than Democrats has been a feature of my party’s psychology since the Reagan era, even though Democrats have won the popular vote in all but one presidential election since 1992. Roger Ailes, Lee Atwater, and Karl Rove are famous mostly because Democrats have hyperinflated their roles to explain away our losses despite our more popular policies. So, it makes sense that Democrats are thrilled at the idea that a group of Super Villains has agreed to team up with us to take on the existential threat that Trump presents. Despite some of the backlash, supporting the Lincoln Project is not a de facto endorsement of the neoconservative policies of their former clients. The stakes are too high in this election to litmus tests allies, but the attention the Lincoln Project has received doesn’t match their actual impact. Priorities USA, Pacronym, and the other Democratic groups that have been taking the fight to Trump for months. They are spending more money, reaching more voters, and are more worthy of Democratic dollars.
Support the Lincoln Project if you want but know what you are supporting. And, oh yeah, make sure you cancel your recurring donation before the Lincoln Project starts running ads attacking President Biden for raising taxes on oil companies in early 2021.
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