Running Against the Devil: A Plot to Save America from Trump--and Democrats from Themselves

by Rick Wilson

Magical thinking in campaigns is deadly. It’s dumb. It’s all too common. The coming election is a time to focus on the real world, and it’s not a pretty picture. Donald Trump takes advantage of human weakness like few other people in the world. He’s predatory, amoral, and a dark, shitty monster of a person. This chapter is meant to help you identify and face your weaknesses, and to cauterize your soul sufficiently so he doesn’t wreck your campaign. DEPENDING ON DECENCY You want to believe this is a just and good world. You want to believe that good guys win, liars never prosper, and righteousness is its own reward. You want to believe you can run a campaign and a nation along principles that reflect the better angels of our nature, and not our most base desires. Are you new here? This is a fallen world, and decency is dead. I’ve said this before, but if your campaign ever for one moment believes it can shame Donald Trump over an action, a statement, a tweet, or a policy, quit now. You cannot. Decency and gentlemen’s agreements in campaigns aren’t unknown—hell, I’m good friends with Democratic consultants where our candidates tried to politically slaughter one another—but they do not exist in Trump’s world or this era. You will never get the MAGA tribe to back down, apologize, or go forth and sin no more.