The Lincoln Project
By George T. Conway III, Steve Schmidt,
John Weaver and Rick Wilson: We Are Republicans, and We Want Trump Defeated-
[This article was originally published
in The New York Times. The authors have worked for or supported numerous
Republican campaigns and administrations.]
Dec. 17, 2019 – Patriotism and the
survival of our nation in the face of the crimes, corruption and corrosive
nature of Donald Trump are a higher calling than mere politics. As Americans,
we must stem the damage he and his followers are doing to the rule of law, the
Constitution and the American character.
That’s why we are announcing the Lincoln
Project, an effort to highlight our country’s story and values, and its
people’s sacrifices and obligations. This effort transcends partisanship and is
dedicated to nothing less than preservation of the principles that so many have
fought for, on battlefields far from home and within their own communities.
This effort asks all Americans of all
places, creeds and ways of life to join in the seminal task of our generation:
restoring to this nation leadership and governance that respects the rule of
law, recognizes the dignity of all people and defends the Constitution and
American values at home and abroad.
Over these next 11 months, our efforts
will be dedicated to defeating President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box
and to elect those patriots who will hold the line. We do not undertake this
task lightly, nor from ideological preference. We have been, and remain,
broadly conservative (or classically liberal) in our politics and outlooks. Our
many policy differences with national Democrats remain, but our shared fidelity
to the Constitution dictates a common effort.
The 2020 general election, by every
indication, will be about persuasion, with turnout expected to be at record
highs. Our efforts are aimed at persuading enough disaffected conservatives,
Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in swing states and districts
to help ensure a victory in the Electoral College and majorities that don’t
enable and abet trumps violations of the constitution; even if that means
Democrat control of the Senate and expansion of the Democratic majority in the
House.
The American presidency transcends the
individuals who occupy the Oval Office. Their personality becomes part of our
national character. Their actions become our actions, for which we all share
responsibility. Their willingness to act in accordance with the law and our
tradition dictate how current and future leaders will act. Their commitment to
order, civility and decency are reflected in American society.
Mr. Trump fails to meet the bar for this
commitment. He has neither the moral compass nor the temperament to serve. His
vision is limited to what immediately faces him — the problems and risks he
chronically brings upon himself and for which others, from countless
contractors and companies to the American people, ultimately bear the heaviest
burden.
But this president’s actions are possible
only with the craven acquiescence of congressional Republicans. They have done
no less than abdicate their Article I responsibilities.
Indeed, national Republicans have done
far worse than simply march along to Mr. Trump’s beat. Their defense of him is
imbued with an ugliness, a meanness and a willingness to attack and slander
those who have shed blood for our country, who have dedicated their lives and
careers to its defense and its security, and whose job is to preserve the
nation’s status as a beacon of hope.
Congressional Republicans have embraced
and copied Mr. Trump’s cruelty and defended and even adopted his corruption.
Mr. Trump and his enablers have abandoned conservatism and longstanding
Republican principles and replaced it with Trumpism, an empty faith led by a
bogus prophet. In a recent survey, a majority of Republican voters reported
that they consider Mr. Trump a better president than Lincoln.
Mr. Trump and his fellow travelers daily
undermine the proposition we as a people have a responsibility and an
obligation to continually bend the arc of history toward justice. They mock our
belief in America as something more meaningful than lines on a map.
Our peril far outstrips any past
differences: It has arrived at our collective doorstep, and we believe there is
no other choice. We sincerely hope, but are not optimistic, that some of those
Republicans charged with sitting as jurors in a likely Senate impeachment trial
will do likewise.
American men and women stand ready
around the globe to defend us and our way of life. We must do right by them and
ensure that the country for which they daily don their uniform deserves their
protection and their sacrifice.
We are reminded of Dan Sickles, an incompetent 19th-century New York
politician. On July 2, 1863, his blundering nearly ended the United States.
(Sickles’s greatest previous achievement
had been fatally shooting his wife’s lover across the street from the White
House and getting himself elected to Congress. Even his most fervent admirers
could not have imagined that one day, far in the future, another incompetent
New York politician, a president, would lay claim to that legacy by saying he
could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.)
On that day in Pennsylvania, Sickles was
a major general commanding the Union Army’s III Corps at the Battle of
Gettysburg, and his incompetence wrought chaos and danger. The Confederate Army
took advantage, and turned the Union line. Had the rebel soldiers broken
through, the continent would have been divided: Free and slave, democratic and
authoritarian.
Another Union general, Winfield Scott
Hancock, had only minutes to reinforce the line. America, the nation, the
ideal, hung in the balance. Amid the fury of battle, he found the First Minnesota Volunteers. They were immigrants. Many
didn’t speak English. They were the very people the Know Nothings tried to keep
out of the country.
They charged, and many of them fell, suffering a staggeringly high casualty rate. They
held the line. They saved the Union. Four months later, Lincoln stood on that
field of slaughter and said, “It is left to us, the living, rather, to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so
nobly advanced.”
We look to Lincoln as our guide and
inspiration. He understood the necessity of not just saving the Union, but also
of knitting the nation back together spiritually as well as politically. But
those wounds can be bound up only once the threat has been defeated. So, too,
will our country have to knit itself back together after the scourge of
Trumpism has been overcome.
George T. Conway III is an attorney in
New York. Steve Schmidt is a Republican political strategist who worked for
President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
John Weaver is a Republican strategist who worked for President George H.W.
Bush, Senator John McCain and Gov. John Kasich. Rick Wilson is a Republican
media consultant and author of “Everything Trump Touches Dies” and the
forthcoming “Running Against the Devil: A Plot to Save America From Trump and
Democrats From Themselves.”
This article was originally published in
The New York Times:
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