Has there ever been a sitting President who was attacked by his own party to this degree? I certainly can’t think of one.
No. McCain certainly received a shit ton of hate from his own party. But for President, Trump is collecting awards for awfulness at an amazing pacing.
Both Jimmy Carter (Ted Kennedy) and LBJ (Bobby Kennedy, Gene McCarthy.)
The attacks weren’t as vicious, of course. But they came from major players in the party, and had major impacts on the incumbent’s re-election. (LBJ, of course, decided not to run.) Whereas Trump can say, quite truthfully, that not a single major elected Republican official actively opposes him.
Teddy Roosevelt.
Teddy was attacked by the party hierarchy because of what was deemed his anti-business stance.
FDR was attacked somewhat when he ran for a 3rd term as it was deemed something no one should do.
Primary challenges to sitting president aren’t uncommon. Trump even had a couple as did George W Bush, not as serious as Jimmy Carter, and LBJ had
But more importantly, AFAIK nobody on the Lincoln party is still a Republican, nor are WaPo OpEd columnist, Colin Powell. So I retract my previous post. Trump is getting vicious attacks but by former not current Republicans.
He got attacked by plenty of people while they were Republicans.
Then they realized it wasn’t just him, it was the whole party and left the GOP.
Walsh was GOP for years while lambasting Trump several times a day.
Hell, people like Nichols didn’t leave the party that long ago really.
While I don’t know if I’d go as far as ''pompous" (earnest, certainly) this has the ring of truth to it:
Because Trump is an easy target. He is so hilariously bad at everything that you have no shortage of fodder.
I’m noticing now that none of their ads end up pointing voters at Biden. They’re all don’t vote for Trump, not vote for Biden. Have I missed one with the latter message?
I suppose that’s to be expected from a bunch of Republicans, but it makes it clear that they’re the enemy of our enemy, and not at all our friend.
I don’t think ads from PACs can say to vote for a specific person.
I’m pretty sure they can. SuperPACs can’t coordinate with a candidate, but they can surely advocate on behalf of one.
I also don’t think they need to. Suppressing the vote for Trump is enough, and actively advocating for a Democrat may be a bridge too far for many Republicans.
Yes, the point of the Lincoln Project ads is not to drum up votes for Joe Biden, it is to give current Republican voters an excuse to simply stay home in November, or even just go to the polls and vote a straight “R” ticket, but leave the President choice blank. As Democrats we may revel in the blatant bitch-slap most of the Lincoln Project ads seem to deal Trump, but the ads aren’t meant for us, they’re meant to show Conservative Republican voters how bad things have become under Trump, how Trump has never been the champion of their ideology that Fox News and his own staff make him out to be, and how they should abandon him or things will only get worse.
Will it work? Who knows. Personally I think any GOP voter who skips the 2020 Presidential election is as good as a vote for Biden at this point, so if these ads can cut into Trump’s numbers in key swing states, I’m a fan. The Lincoln Project people know this, which is why they are targeting not just D.C. to fuck with Trump personally, but swing states to mess with his numbers there. The splash effect could also end up bringing even more Democrat voters to the polls too, as it’s very hard to watch those ads and not want to run right out and vote for Biden if you’re a Democrat.
The question I have is what is their next move? If Biden gets elected, I doubt the Lincoln Project simply disbands and fades away into the night. This seems like the beginnings of a movement to take back the Republican Party, so who will they back once Trump is out of the picture?
Yes, this. Biden is perhaps the most moderate Democrat one can imagine gaining the party nomination; can anyone name someone to the right of Biden in the party with any real chance of gaining the approval of the party’s different constituencies?
Given that, if these folks can’t bring themselves to use their messaging to endorse Joe Biden in a death match vs Trump, then they’re pretty conservative folks, indeed; and despite them maybe being part of the solution today, they will certainly return to being part of the problem tomorrow. They’re not heroes.
Well, Hillary Clinton, Mike Bloomberg, Amy Klobuchar and a few others come to mind as being on the right side of Biden, and had a chance of winning the nomination.
Obviously, they didn’t, but all where possibilities as some point.
And that’s just off the top of my head.
Heck, if Bill Clinton could run for a third term, I bet he would have had a chance as well.
I don’t think any of those people had a chance to win the nomination. I think that by…looking at the actual results.
As I said above, I would rather Biden not appear in ads. Just let the DNC buy these ads and run them everywhere. I see nothing wrong with voting against Trump instead of voting for Biden.
They might once the mission is done. But if not, I would imagine finding a republican in national politics who doesn’t have considerable Trump stink on him may be hard. I don’t see them appointing Romney the head of the party.
Yes, I understand that. I’m not talking about the ads. I’m just not lionizing the ad makers.
I do appreciate their willingness to “do what is right”. If you can call it that.