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The End of Trump


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City Journal

“No grievance,” Lincoln said, “is a fit object of redress by mob law.”

Steven F. Hayward

January 7, 2021

The Republican Party has just experienced its worst day since the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, or at least since the resignation of Richard Nixon. On top of losing two winnable Senate races and thereby control of the upper chamber, the party has watched as the Capitol was stormed by a mob, which disrupted the tallying of the electoral votes before Vice President Mike Pence. Trump, still the party’s leader, badly misjudged the effect of his words and deeds on the Georgia Senate races, and on the crowd gathered in Washington to support him the next day.

Now would be a good time for everyone—especially Republicans—to reread Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum Address of 1838, which warned against the threat of mob rule alongside the peril of overweening political ambition. Though the speech’s language and style are archaic, its message is just as timely now as it was then, and for the same reason: political violence, whether localized in Portland, Oregon, or the nation’s capital by a comparatively small number of people, is a harbinger of the end of democratic self-government if it grows more frequent.

Lincoln warned:

(Snip)

Donald Trump has shown great perception of the defects of our political order; he has had many salutary achievements in office; he has fought hard for worthy objects against the intransigent opposition of the permanent government; his love of country is undoubted; he has given new hope to many unheard and hitherto unrespected Americans.

At the same time, his reckless public pronouncements have fallen short of the standard of the high statesmanship most needed—never more so than his remarks on the Capitol Mall on Wednesday. He has left himself vulnerable to the charge that he will exit office amid a flurry of “pulling down” not only fellow partisans, but the very institutions of our government itself.

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How the GOP lost control of Washington, and what comes next

News Analysis: Democrats owned the narrative and rules of the 2020 election. Will Republicans learn from it?

John Solomon

January 7, 2021

Now that Democrats are poised to control the White House, Senate and House, the traditional game of finger-pointing and recrimination will begin inside the GOP.

The first instinct for politicians will be to assign blame, call names and jockey for position. But the 2020 election wasn't just an election, it was a political watershed in which the rules and strategy for winning were rewritten.

The November election (and Tuesday’s Georgia curtain call) wasn't won and lost by the tactics, spending, individual players and messaging in the weeks before Nov. 3, according to interviews conducted with more than three dozen frontline players.

Rather, its outcome was cemented long before Labor Day 2020 by a Democratic machinery of former Barack Obama proteges, like David Plouffe, John Podesta, David Axelrod and Stacey Abrams, who worried far less about the tactics of ads, travel (Joe Biden hardly did!) and fundraising and far more about the strategy of how to control the narrative and the rules that would shape the outcome.

(Snip)

Finally, conservative donors need to have a new approach, stolen from the ROI model of the Soros and Bloomberg NGOs, so their millions don't just enrich consultants but have measurable outcomes in setting the rules and narratives that win the next elections. Everything from civic education and empowerment for state legislators to media-platform building needs to be funded, the experts said.

"Funding on the left seems much more strategic than funding on the right, which is predominantly tactical," explained Steve Hantler, who advises several high-net-worth conservative donors. "Liberal elites have for decades controlled the levers of power in education, media and entertainment and have used that power to indoctrinate generations of Americans against America's founding values.

"Now is not the time for for hand-wringing and finger-pointing. Now is the time for honest, critical self-evaluation." 

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