Lincoln Project und John Weaver

Serious Black, Mittwoch, 30. Juni 2021, 09:29 (vor 1054 Tagen) @ NN

The lesson to be gleaned from the implosion of the Lincoln Project is the lesson to be gleaned from so much of American public life over the past four years, which is that no individual, political party, ideological movement, or institution has a monopoly on virtue—and that those who loudly insist otherwise are likely to be guilty of the very things they claim to despise. (Andrew Cuomo, do you feel seen?) That this basic concept, engraved throughout recorded history and in human nature, has been so difficult for so many people in this country to accept, is at the heart of America’s continuing civic and political implosion, which shows no signs of abating even with Donald Trump exiled to Mar-a-Lago.

If the distinguishing feature of American conservatives—the attribute which ultimately inclines one to identify with what is still broadly understood to be the “right”—is anti-elite resentment, for progressives it is an unshakable belief in one’s moral superiority. Exhibit A is Schmidt’s non-apology apology, in which he mainly casts himself as a victim and lashes out at “the rancid collection of liars, thugs and fascists” among the former president’s supporters who have “attack[ed] my character and the character of my friends over John Weaver’s amoral predations.” (According to former Lincoln Project employees, while performing the role of noble Republican dissidents in public, Schmidt and his grifting pals regularly referred to their political opponents as “cocksuckers” and “faggots” behind closed doors). Down to his adoption of the faddish verbal tic “My Truth,” (an impressive demonstration of the lengths to which the political grifter—a breed transcending any simple notions of party affiliation, political ideology, or personal loyalty—will go to bamboozle whichever constituency it is they’re trying to dupe that particular day), Schmidt offers a master class in self-righteousness and blame-shifting. The invocation of child sexual abuse to distract attention from his own serious misdeeds, by a man who helped make Sarah Palin a phenom and today fashions himself a leading opponent of the mindless populism he ushered onto the American political stage, is but the latest act of opportunism in a career defined by them.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/lincoln-project-steve-schmidt-john-weaver