The Lincoln Project's new video has just one goal -- to freak out Trump

boing
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Flash mobs of racists defending KKK imagery after a social media hoax.

JIT ad delivery targeting the psychological weaknesses of leaders (or in this case, Don).

thisfacedoesnotexist.com becoming a tool for generating fake profiles to run influence operations on real people.

Mass forced migrations over climate change just starting to get going.

Can I get a request in how that science fiction start getting all happy and shiny again? 'Cause it sure seems like we’re living in '90s cyberpunk dystopia, and if we get started now, maybe we can write a future that doesn’t suck to get old in.

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Yeah, I don’t trust the Lincoln Project (or Republican Voters Against Trump) as far as I can fucking throw them. I’m happy to see the conservative party turn on itself and the daggers come out, but I’ve watched all too often as these same sort of ads are turned on liberals and progressives. My only hope is that the two factions so damage each other that they can no longer maintain a unified front going forward. It’s too much to hope, though. And the idea Biden might put a few of these assholes on his team as a way of “reaching across the aisle” is all too likely.

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His pick will be better than anything Trump comes up with.

He may not be ideal, but he is the clearly better choice of the two.

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My point is that a core idea of modern movement conservatism since 1980 – populist or not – is a Randian rejection of altruism. If getting rid of Il Douche means having to directly or indirectly endorse Biden, they’re going to expect a quid for that quo. TANSTAAFL is their motto.

The self-interest in preserving the party from self-immolation that you describe is also there, even though they’re late to that realisation. But George Conway, Mitt Romney, or any of the outspoken “sane” Republicans are still intent preserving a party that unabashedly celebrates selfishness and greed.

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The suggestion that these people support Biden? Sure, they’ve made statements that imply they do, but seen in the context of this ad, that may be just another twist of the knife in Trump’s back. This ad suggest to me they are trying to get him out before the next election, perhaps by incapacitation. They want someone else to be the candidate

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I think think that is even possible at this point.

They are playing the long game. Get in centrist like Biden, keep control of House and or Senate to limit Democrat power.

The longer Trump is in office, the longer he is harming the party.

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Going against the consensus here, but I actually didn’t find that ad very effective. Maybe it’s because I don’t watch much TV, but it struck me as over the top and missing the point. Conservatives are bootlickers, and Trump knows that he has a constant line of people ready to do the work. He disposes of people as a matter of course, whether they have effectively implemented his agenda or not. I don’t think the ad will make Trump paranoid, and I’m pretty sure he isn’t watching them on repeat.

The Lincoln Project is being given a lot of credit where I am not sure it is due - opinions of Trump are fairly baked in, and Trump’s popularity was dipping before they started pumping out ads. If they were focusing their PAC on opposing voter suppression, supporting mail-in balloting, ensuring a transparent election . Trump doesn’t need help shooting himself in the foot. They just want to wind back the clock 15-20 years to the heady days of the Bush years and “compassionate conservatism” (an oxymoron if I ever heard one).

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Love it. Love, love love it.

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You really don’t think Biden has learned anything over the past thirty years?

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He’s forgotten nothing, and he’s learned nothing either.

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I would respectfully disagree. They seem trying to tack back to “normal”. I’ll take another W over another 4 years of 45 and I think they get this.

Agree %100. Let’s stop the hemorrhaging bullet-wound to the gut of our democracy first, then find a way to put the organs back together. If The Lincoln Project wants to throw in a few stitches to heal the wound for whatever prerogative they have, then fine. Us freedom loving Americans will take your help (with a skeptical eye on you).

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They’ve put ads on Fox News in the past. I think the “Mourning in America” ad ran there.

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I’m not so sure at all.

This one has a call to action, and the call is “donate to the Lincoln Project”, which in the short term I think will do some good (these anti-Trump ads hit hard, more so then any other ads I’ve seen). However if you are a democrat, especially a progressive democrat I would caution you to remember that “the enemy of your enemy is your friend” even if true only lasts as long as that common enemy lasts. At any point the Lincoln Project can decide Trump’s chances are damaged enough and dump those funds into attacking Dem Senate or House seats. Even if they decide the only time Trump is “damaged enough” is after the 2020 elections are over anything they haven’t spent can be used in another election cycle, and once Trump is gone the Lincoln Project’s goals are far far less likely to align with yours.

So by all means enjoy the ads, hope they have an impact, work for the common goal of having an actual functioning adult in the White House, but remember 2020 won’t be the last election (well, I guess it could be if we somehow elect Trump again).

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I laughed a bit here because this is so good - and so true, too. Though now that I think about it, it’s making me a little nervous, too. If Donnie loses the election (which I’m increasingly unconvinced by, given the voting shenanigans the Republicans are up to), he’s going to be in office, demoralized, paranoid, hating America, just long enough to do some serious damage before Biden takes over. I mean, if you think he’s been bad so far (and he has), just imagine how bad he’ll be when he’s deliberately trying to set the country on fire.

Some of their ads seem extremely targeted to Trump, though. Their first one absolutely was - it only aired on Fox in DC so Trump would see it, get angry and get them attention by tweeting about it. (Which is exactly what happened.) About half of subsequent ads seem directly aimed at him as well - using idiosyncratic language Trump frequently uses that doesn’t resonate with anyone else - to get under his skin. If they were aimed at a broader audience, they’d be made slightly differently. And apparently even with subsequent ads, they’re spending a disproportionate amount of their money airing them in DC, particularly on Fox.

Yes, but in this case, it’s not that they’re expecting a quid pro quo necessarily (that sort of thing needs to be set up while providing the quid, after all), they’re doing this entirely for themselves. a) They’re trying to take back the Republican party, and b) if they can get Republican voters disgusted with Trump to come out and vote for Biden, they’ll also vote for Republicans down the ballot, rather than staying at home. That is, these ads advance their Republican agenda without the Democrats having to do anything.

He’s also gotten rid of people he perceived as insufficiently loyal. And he’s constantly going on about people laughing at the country, as the ultimate insult, even when it didn’t make any sense (i.e. because of something tragic). So that’s obviously a serious weak point for him - the thing he fears most is people laughing at him. Probably because he’s been such a ridiculous figure all his life, like an 8th grader trying so hard to be “cool” and being constantly rejected by the “cool kids” in society.

That was their first one? It only ran on Fox in DC, aimed squarely at an audience of Trump. Apparently their only sustained tv ad campaign continues to be there.

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Well, his boundless paranoia was one of the reasons Stalin died, so…

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“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
– said by a lot of people just before it bites them in the ass.

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The long game is dead. Recent events have demonstrated that :slight_smile:

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Well, I think the media is falling prey to the narrative that these ads are somehow the reason public support for Trump is eroding. I think that (a) the current evidence doesn’t support that, (b) it doesn’t give people enough credit for forming their own opinions and (c) that if the PAC is interested in beating Trump there are better ways to spend money than attack ads. But that would mean admitting things like voter suppression were wrong. Where were all these people when the Senate was blocking Merrick Garland’s confirmation?

As for taking another W over 4 more years of Trump, sure, I think everyone agrees with that. However, Republicans taking credit for Trump’s downfall is exactly their long game - and as bad as things have been during Trump’s reign he has pretty faithfully instituted what has been the Republican platform over the past 20 years. If the American left can’t start thinking past the next four years there will be no hope.

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Made me think of the track Ride immediately.

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