I founded the Lincoln Project because I believed a fast-moving and hard-hitting political campaign organization could hurt Donald Trump and help elect a Democratic president. When it was founded, there was a very real possibility that Senator Bernie Sanders could have been the Democratic nominee.
The organization would have fought as hard for him as it did for Joe Biden because it imposed a single litmus test in consideration of its advocacy: was the candidate that the organization supported faithful to the US Constitution? That was it. Period.
The Lincoln Project was the most successful disruptive political start-up of the modern era outside of the Barack Obama presidential campaign. It is the most effective Super PAC in US political history, and it found deep resonance in the country. It included Republicans, Democrats and independents. Tens of thousands of people volunteered through it for hundreds of campaigns all over the country. Millions of dollars were spent on Black turnout programs in partnership with African American organizations all over the country. The Washington, DC-based Democratic Party’s lackluster media consultants and poll-driven data robots erupted in rage when the results of conviction, mixed with the creative genius of the Lincoln Project advertising teams, exploded into actual passion among millions of Americans.
Those involved in the Lincoln Project were raucous, wild, dysfunctional, unethical, principled, incompetent, self-pitying, whining, self-important and wildly effective all at the same time, in a way that is unique to political organizations and rocket ship start-ups. I am proud of what it achieved. I am also embarrassed by what happened. I am both more idealistic and profoundly more skeptical of people than I was before this experience. It was one of the wildest and most intense years of my life.
Some of it was captured for a just-released Showtime documentary, executive produced by Fisher Stevens and Karim Amer. I have watched the series twice now.
There is something beautiful about the experience that is deeply American. We did not need to ask for the permission of the government or a party official to start it. It proves that ordinary people can make a difference. The organization began with a statement of intent and conviction expressed as opinion on the pages of The New York Times – in a free country, in the free press, by free citizens against the most powerful person in the most powerful office in the land. The op-ed was deeply American. It was defiant, and it called for the removal of the President of the United States from political power.
The opinion piece was a call-to-action. People responded. The organization grew in influence, fame, reach and effectiveness with each passing day. Within months, the Lincoln Project, under the command of the brilliant 26-year-old Keith Edwards, had a greater social media following than both the sclerotic national Democratic and Republican Party political committees.
Its content was seen billions of times at a measurable value that exceeded $750 million in total spending. Yet it was attacked as a “grift” and ineffective by a Democratic Washington, DC, consultant class that reacted with rage to the idea of disruption in the practice of politics.
Millions of people were inspired to get involved because of the Lincoln Project. The takeaway from the Lincoln Project is not to stay away from politics. It is the opposite. It is to get involved.
Some of my Lincoln Project colleagues imagined themselves possessing certain special skills. Maybe, but I never thought it was those skills that contributed to the success of the organization. The secret sauce was conviction. We believed every word in every ad. For a group that was routinely described as hitting below the belt, there wasn’t a single serious factual criticism of a single ad out of hundreds that were released in 2020. Has there ever been a political campaign that can say that?
The entire political-media industrial complex in America could not process a conviction-based organization that rejected poll-tested banality in favor of fierce assertion. It was conviction, belief and assertion that was confused as low blows by a political class blinded by cynicism.
The Lincoln Project proves the ability of ordinary people to make a difference in politics. I will always be deeply humbled to have played a role in an organization that amalgamated the talents of TikTok teens, the organizing genius of grassroots activists, singers, directors, actors, impersonators, impressionists, cartoonists, and editors in the country. It excited people and showed that they could stand up and fight back. They did.
I am going to write a final series of reflections about the Lincoln Project based on new information revealed in the documentary. There are many lessons to be learned, but I am going to tackle them by subject.
This first will focus on governance, leadership and management.
The second will focus on fame, entitlement and grievance.
The third will speak to integrity.
The final essay will be a personal meditation about what I learned, and how I have been changed by the experience.
Additionally, I will also dismember some profoundly dishonest media stories. The focus will be on The New York Times, New York magazine and Associated Press stories that I have previously demolished. Specifically, I will be focusing on the bestowment of anonymity against the stated policies of all the journalistic organizations. The corrupt use of anonymous sourcing is foundational to what is called “access journalism.”
Access journalism is as corrupting to the media and ethical journalism as the government lobbying revolving door is to American democracy and government. The chief practitioners of access journalism are political journalists. Nary a quarter-hour passes without the American political press expressing its cliquishness over the slightest criticism over the most incandescent ethical breaches.
I do not want to give away the candy store, but I think it is fair to say that the Lincoln Project is the story that keeps on giving. It will certainly show a deep breach of The New York Times policy on sourcing and the granting of anonymity to a source. Specifically, The New York Times probably wasn’t anticipating that their front page stories about financial improprieties and a sexual misconduct coverup at the Lincoln Project would implode like a plagiarized Ben Domenech story because the principal source of the story outed himself in the commission of a political smear on a documentary airing 18 months later.
I will not start another political organization, but perhaps others will. I hope my reflections will help. I also believe the hundreds of thousands of Lincoln Project donors and volunteers deserve the whole truth about what happened. Every detail of it.
The Lincoln Project
After watching the first two episodes of Showtimes doc series on the Lincoln Project I couldn't help but imagine Trump winning the election and ergo, how he likely would have abused the power of the state to come after those involved in the endeavor. As for the strife that accompanied the group; it pales in comparison to the brilliant work accomplished in ejecting Cheetos Mussolini from our White House. I say Bravo Steve and thank you!
It was the Lincoln Project that first gave me hope, dissipating much of the cynicism that many of us who stood for the Constitution and rule of law were struggling with. I donated more than once. It gave me real hope that we actually had a chance to defeat the growing, home-grown menace that seemed to be inexorably ripping us from our democratic and republican (writ large) moorings. What also gave me hope was, all BS aside, a man who had an exceptional command of the English language and boundless energy, courage and conviction to fight the good fight. You don't find many folks like that who are the complete package. Thanks for doing what you did and continue to do, Steve.
As to the bad apples on the LP team, there was little you or your team could do about it until the facts came out. After they did, I think you and some who were with you displayed exceptional integrity by your subsequent actions. Regarding the series, I haven't watched it yet but will soon do so.