About that “Lincoln Project”

Politics create winners and losers. Though some decry this facet of our national conversation as unnecessarily confrontational, it is the only non-violent way to settle disputes on a large scale. Better a political contest than a shooting war.

However, the losers in the equation are increasingly experiencing a form of buyer's remorse over the whole vote-of-the-people thing. Having been indoctrinated into believing their cause to be some incandescant expression of divine wisdom, they cannot envision a world where an ideology as jewel-encrusted as theirs ought to be subject to such silly things as laws and elections.

After all, they are the experts; they are the smartest people in the room and by the grace of Gaia, they'll save us from ourselves, whether we want saving or not.

Far moreoppressive and brutal regimes have sprung from this mindset than from the more pedestrian motives of money and power. From this worldview springs "might makes right," as the losing side will not be denied.

It's really not that hard to get elected as a Republican in Nebraska. Sure, certain districts are more challenging than others, but overall, Republicans are in the catbird seat in this state.

Except when they decide that "reaching across the aisle," is a wise choice.

When engaged in ideological battle with an opponent who considers nothing less than your destruction as an amenable outcome, these forays into the land of bipartisanship and pink plaid Unicorns invariably become muggings, with the Republican left bleeding in the alley, his principles stripped and his pockets picked.

This naive act of "compromise" becomes both betrayal and surrender when principles are at issue.

Yet, despite most of us having learned this lesson spare years beyond our weaning, some still insist on ignoring it, taking Lucy's worthless word that she'll leave the football in place this time.

Four-odd years into the Trump era and the cotton-headed GOP still buys into the existence of a "swing voter."

Let me tell you right here, right now...there's no such thing.

There are those on both ends of the political spectrum who have fully-formed ideologies, and there are those along that continuum who do not. Why not? Some are simply not far enough along in either life experience or useful education to have achieved a coalescence of thought, however, these are not the "Independents" we are discussing.

If you take the time to listen to these fence-sitters they'll tell you all about themselves without once having the self-awareness to realize they are a living cliche. There are three traits common to them all to varying degrees.

First, they are headline readers. They scan headlines to inform themselves and dig no deeper. They listen to top of the news soundbites and consider themselves informed and cosmopolitan.

They generally dig no deeper because they instinctively realize they do not have the requisite knowledge to understand information that must first be deciphered for accuracy. To avoid the brain-strain, they avoid the subject, preferring to recite the narrative-building headlines as if they had winnowed the available information to its essence, all by themselves.

Second, they are given to following their intuition over their intellect. These are the same sort who, when shopping for a new car, reflexively peruse obscure details about an automobile's manufacture (because all the books say that's what you're supposed to do) but promptly make an impulse purchase of an entirely different vehicle because they saw a color to "die for."

They follow a similar method when casting their vote, often deciding at the very last moment, for the most ephemeral of reasons. They are unable to process the information of a month's-long campaign, so they "go with their gut," and vote for whomever gives them the best "feeling" when they hear them, regardless of what their "favorite" actually proposes to do.

The final major category of these self-described "Independents" are the hopelessly self-absorbed, those who believe themselves to be above partisanship, too good for ideological wrangling.

Also known as "people most likely to run for President of their Neighborhood Association," they proffer opinions based on supposed secret knowledge, to which only they and a few others have access, and of course, if you had the access they do, you would agree with them.

When pressed to reveal this knowledge, or how they came by it, they give a paternalistic smile and tell you to just "trust them," as if they are protecting you from being crushed by the unbearable weight of thoughts as consequential as theirs.

Naturally, there are other variations on the above themes, but by and large, all "Independent/Swing Voters" are gradients or amalgamations of these three flawed civic characters.

And, to woo these public-deficients, millions upon millions are spent, even though only a fraction of them will ever cast a ballot, and those that do are wholly unpredictable.

A far more reliable source of support is left sitting at home, taken for granted by the very politicians whose pandering has disgusted them to the point of apathy. They are sick of being an assumed, easy trick, and, as we saw in 2012, were willing to stay at home rather than reward their duplicitous candidate with their vote.

The best strategy is not a "strategy" per se, it is simply telling the truth, exposing the lies and pledging to accept nothing less than the honest fulfillment of duty from everyone else.

Trump didn't pander. He didn't overpromise, while knowing he intended to underdeliver, as had scores of candidates before him. He presented his vision, tied it directly to the founding principles of our nation and raised a banner to which all patriots could rally, and rally they did.

If our state and local candidates would merely do the same, they would tap into the disaffected Republican voters who will no longer turn out for milquetoast impersonations of leadership. There are enough of these disaffected to win election after election, if we would simply quit pissing them off.

This is the lesson the GOP elite and self-congratulatory consultant class refuse to learn, despite having their noses rubbed in it by the overwhelming success of Trump. Now, these same also-rans have turned their attention to sabotaging Republican control of the Senate.

We don't need to change the names of military installations. We don't need to accept the false premises of the Left in order to win the support of the middle, who we've already learned, aren't really a middle at all, but rather a sagging, structurally-deficient center just waiting to collapse under its own insupportable weight.

When the Tea Party voters laid waste to the Democrat Senate Majority, Harry Reid declared "the nation has sent a message that they want us to work together!"

He was lying and he knew it, as did everyone else, except those mush-brained Independents who have never seen a filthy pile of dung they couldn't parrot to their friends as a "nuanced approach" only they can understand.

We sent a Republican majority to do battle. We sent a Conservative majority to defeat the Harry Reids of the world and all they represent. While the swamp thwarted these first, halting attempts at reform, the sentiment remained unchanged throughout the Obama Presidency, even to this day, with the plain-spoken patriot Donald Trump having gladly assumed the mantle of People's Champion.

A sad tangle of Never-Trump Republicans (read: swamp creatures) have taken their individual pity parties and combined them into one grand cotillion of mirthlessness - a blockbuster event with all the power of a sleepy kitten's paw.

Flushed with Jeb!-like energy, they call it the "Lincoln Project," and have begun showing the nation just how petulantly bitter elitists can behave.

Of course they see themselves differently, as some new generation of Founding Fathers, committed to all things patrician and high-minded. To them, elections are performances where the show ponies strut for the hoi polloi and snicker behind the scenes at how gullible the rubes can be.

They have long known the true source of power in Washington DC, as they have been licking those hands their entire careers. Elections change nothing, save for determining whose turn it is to bow and scrape before the untouchable uber-class of monied interests from whom marching orders and media narratives flow.

Not content with making fools of themselves by pleading for someone to "please clap," these titans of obsequity have decided their efforts are best directed to denying Trump a Republican Senate should he be reelected.

Yes, the Lincoln Project is a cabal of swamp-dwelling RINOs who hate Donald Trump with the heat of a thousand suns, and are willing (just like their bedfellows among the Leftists) to burn down the whole thing if it means ridding themselves of "he-who-is-not-one-of-them."

They are beclowning themselves as they riffle through the thousands of consultant-manufactured strategy papers that all boil down to the same, tired plot: Win over the Independents.

The lesson Trump taught in his 2016 masterclass is to forget about the clueless center and instead energize your own side. If you build it, they will come.

Trust me, if Independents can be relied upon for anything, it is their predisposition to cling to the coattails of a winner. Be that winner by refusing to pander to those who don't even know their own minds.

Do this and you'll be lightyears ahead of the "Lincoln Project."