The ‘Lincoln Project’ is a political action committee created last year, allegedly for the sole purpose of preventing the re-election of Donald Trump. Their inaugural op-ed in the New York Times last year proclaims, “We are Republicans and We Want Trump Defeated.” According to their mission statement, their goal is to elect Democrats with a “shared fidelity” to the Constitution despite their “many policy differences.” While they seem to have no problem finding Democrats who concur with their ads, any significant differences between these self-identifying “Republicans” and the Democrat party remains to be seen.

Their most famous Facebook ad, “Mourning in America” is so dishonest that even the liberal moderators of Facebook have slapped on a warning label. Their rebuttal to this warning is nothing short of comical:

"Facebook states that their censorship is the result of a Politifact claim that the Mourning in America ad is 'false.' However, Politifact's 'grade' is based on incorrect and misleading information. Politifact cites the CARES Act as the reasoning behind their tag of 'False,'" the statement says. "The Lincoln Project does not cite the CARES Act as the basis of the claims in our ad. We cite Bloomberg Businessweek, Common Dreams, NBC, Rolling Stone and a list of other reputable sources that back up The Lincoln Project's claim."

One of these “reputable sources” recently settled a multimillion dollar lawsuit over a thoroughly discredited story about a “gang rape” at the University of Virginia. Most tellingly, all four of these “reputable sources” lean to the left, according to website Media bias fact/check. In fact, two of them are about as leftist as you can get, but you do not need a fact checker to figure this out: Common Dreams’ mission statement claims share the “progressive values of social justice, human rights, equality and peace” of its readers.

Political Action Committees are organized for the sole purpose of persuasion, so like politicians, they often tell half-truths and sometimes even lie. But not all lies are equal, and that lying about little things like crowd size is not as bad lying about more consequential things like the events surrounding the deaths of four brave Americans in a third-world hellhole. Having said that, one of the worst forms of deception is intellectual dishonesty.

By calling themselves “Republicans,” the organizers of the Lincoln Project want to create the impression that they are “real” conservatives and that Donald Trump (who has done more than any president since Reagan to appoint originalist judges and restore federalism) is a somehow “clear and present danger to the Constitution.” As expected, the mainstream media is pushing this narrative. While some organizers of the ‘Lincoln’ Project may still belong to the Republican party, there is nothing “conservative” about them. How long has this been going on?

Shortly before the election of Barack Obama in 2008, the late Washington Times columnist Tony Blankley wrote about a “new type” of Republican that emerged in reaction to the New Deal of the 1930s. Blankley called them “me-too” Republicans. He then went on to describe them as a “pathetic breed of spineless, protect-your-career-at-any-cost Republicans” enamored with growing the government, and convinced that they could “do it better.” Blankley then proceeded to list columnists Peggy Noonan, David Brooks, Chris Buckley, David Frum, and Kathleen Parker as their modern-day equivalents, and attributed their contempt for Sarah Palin to “cultural snobbery” and “fear.” Blankley then went on to suggest that Noonan may have seen the writing on the wall, and “unconsciously feared” that someone like Palin would lead a conservative movement that would render them irrelevant.

Blankley was spot on: Eight years later we got Donald Trump and every last one of these “me-too” Republicans became a #NeverTrumper.

The Lincoln Project has not only set its sights on Donald Trump, it now targeting all senatorial Republican who failed to cast a vote for impeachment, including moderates like Susan Collins. In effect these disgruntled “Republicans” are also happy to see Republicans lose all control of Congress as long as every vestige of the grassroots movement the brought Trump to the White House is eliminated. I liken this to a spoiled brat who burns down the clubhouse after not getting his way.

According to a statement on the Lincoln Project homepage, defeating Trump will allow the country to “heal its political and psychological wounds.”

Trump did not divide America. He just pointed it out. Blaming Trump for America’s current state of division is as ludicrous as blaming Jews for anti-Semitism, and the notion that this group can play any constructive role in uniting America is laughable in view of Rick Wilson’s profound contempt for people that voted for Trump and his publicly expressed desire to see Melania Trump infected with COVID-19.

It might seem ironic for such a hate-filled super PAC to bear the name of the president who famously proclaimed, “with malice towards none” as the Civil War was winding down. Then again, this might be an indicator of their lack of self-awareness and inflated sense of moral superiority. The same kind of chutzpah that emboldened an outgoing administration’s inner circle to illegally spy on its successor, and proceed to lie in order to destroy the life of a decorated four-star general who knew too much. What hath pride wrought?

Antonio Chaves teaches biology at a local community college. His interest in economic and social issues stems from his experience teaching environmental science. His older articles with graphs and images are available here.