Bob Ehrlich: Let's Rename 'The Lincoln Project' to 'The Benedict Arnold Project' - That Makes More Sense

Media attention always follows those who disrupt.

In 2016, President Trump parlayed this law of politics all the way to the presidency. Four years later, a number of once-prominent Republicans also seek to disrupt a re-election campaign.

The rallying point is the so-called Lincoln Project.

Its founders were smart to co-opt a revered name. The American people (with the notable exception of a few rioters and woke college children who never learned about the “Great Emancipator”) are attracted to anything that carries the 16th president’s name.

No surprise here. Lincoln’s life story defines not only the American dream but also the incredible courage in the face of a truly existential threat to the country. He remains arguably our most beloved president.

Today, the Lincoln Project goes about the business of using the Lincoln moniker to convince enough undecided voters that a clearly limited Joe Biden is an acceptable alternative — a mainstream Democrat who is in no way a threat to the Constitution.

They will tell you plain ol’ “Amtrak Joe” has never suffered from wokeness (you can look it up).

Parenthetical note: Many of the organization’s supporters are former middle-to-left-leaning congressmen from marginal districts who have grown increasingly uncomfortable with a socially conservative, America-first GOP.

But the group’s central focus is not Joe Biden. Its dominant mission is to remind one and all that Donald J. Trump is evil.

Its list of grievances grows by the day. In no particular order, complaints include the president’s use of Twitter to communicate outside the mainstream press, his disdain for both party establishments, his unrelenting salesmanship, his decision to give family members jobs in the West Wing, his use of simple (and at times coarse) language, his habit of ignoring career bureaucrats, his love of golf (at his own properties) and his support for a “big beautiful wall” at the southern border.

And then come the media’s favorite hits: He praised racists at Charlottesville (well, not really — read the transcript), he is anti-Semitic (well, not really — his son-in-law and grandchildren are Jewish) and he struck a deal with Vladimir Putin to win the election (well, not really — four years of relentless investigation and still not one shred of supporting evidence in sight).

Regardless of facts on the ground, however, members of the Lincoln Project want you to know that Trump is really evil. 

Listen any hour of any day to CNN or MSNBC or NPR and you too can add to this never-ending list of Trump shortcomings.

What to do? 

My first thought is to take the high ground by acknowledging the Lincoln Project’s right to dissent. It shows that conservatives can withstand what at least NeverTrumpers believe is speaking truth to power.

All of this should be rather easy as the First Amendment lives on the right. We are not afraid of opposing views. We do not cancel. We defend the right to engage. It is what separates us from Joe Biden’s campaign — those who wish to limit our most precious rights as American citizens.

After these preliminaries, we can proceed to the bottom line, to what really counts on election day: school choice, private health care, legal immigration, enforceable borders, originalist judges, fair trade deals, opportunity zones, an isolated Iran, energy independence, standing up to China, religious liberty, Israel (and its Sunni-Arab allies), hunting down and killing terrorists, the Second Amendment, criminal justice reform, re-funding the police, growing your 401(k), honoring our flag on our feet, getting your kids back to school and playing high school football.

Come Nov. 3, the foregoing agenda should prevail over professional victimhood, riots, identity politics, defund campaigns, The New York Times, George Soros and socialism.

Accordingly, the Lincoln Project’s benefactors do not want you to think about how four or eight years of a Biden-Harris administration would damage our culture and make our country unrecognizable.

That the Biden-Harris agenda makes the Obama administration look downright mainstream by comparison should scare you to death.

Alas, not everyone has read their platform. I seriously doubt our beloved restorer of order, Mr. Lincoln, would approve.