Running Against the Devil

November 25, 2019
Republican strategist Wilson (Everything Trump Touches Dies) delivers a histrionic yet trenchant guide to presidential politics with the ostensible purpose of helping Democrats win the White House in 2020. Declaring the Democratic Party to be “terrible at the work of electoral politics,” Wilson first presents the liberal nightmare of a Trump reelection (“your pride in being the most progressive candidate and campaign since FDR turns to ashes in your mouth”) before sketching the prospective lasting impacts of Trump’s second term, including the erosion of social norms (“a generation will learn its behavior from the worst role model since Saddam Hussein”) and the rise of a political dynasty (“the Imperial Trumps”). To prevent such a scenario, he suggests that Democrats make the 2020 election a referendum on Trump rather than a debate over policy issues such as health care, gun control, or the environment. Wilson intersperses his strategic advice with satirical asides (potential tweets from Trump’s second term, fact-checks from future debates) that produce more eye rolls than genuine guffaws, and while his keen political insights can be difficult to glean through his disdain for his imagined liberal reader, they’re often on-target. Democrats with a high tolerance for invective would do well to consider the book’s fundamental warning that winning in 2020 will require “put electoral realities ahead of progressive fantasies.”

November 15, 2019
A wily Republican strategist rings in on the challenge facing Democrats in 2020. Political campaign consultant Wilson (Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever, 2018), who airs his views in a variety of venues, intensifies his strident excoriation of Trump with a hard-hitting assessment of Democrats' chances of winning the next presidential election--a victory that is crucial for saving the country. The author decries Trump as "a flawed, awful shitbird of the worst order" and a "political and moral monster" who will go down in history "for endemic corruption, outrageous stupidity, egregious cruelty, and inhumanity" and who has spread "moral and political contagion" and caused the collapse "of a once-great party." Trump needs to go, but Wilson fears that Democrats will hand him reelection unless they focus on 15 states critical for an Electoral College win. "You're not really running a national campaign," he insists. "You're running fifteen state campaigns." After many chapters of "robust and richly deserved Trump-bashing," the author turns to strategy, cautioning Democrats against focusing on policy. Instead, they need to attack Trump's actions--e.g., a trade war that victimizes farmers, cruelty and brutality toward immigrant children, unrepentant racism--and personal failings to make their case to voters who can still be swayed: "the large and growing cohort of Republican women who broke away from the GOP, and the white, Democratic men who broke for Trump in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Florida." These voters want a moderate; they are not youthful progressives, who, Wilson asserts, won't win Democrats the states they need. The author suggests talking points about abortion, guns, immigration, tax cuts, judges, and socialism. He warns Democrats of the threat of a third party run and underscores the importance of "a real modern, data-driven campaign" and deployment of surrogates, such as the Obamas. He offers a state-by-state game plan, homing in on pertinent issues and recommending liberal spending on targeted ads. Democrats can win, Wilson maintains; but will they? A caustically funny, outraged, and deadly serious analysis.

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Starred review from December 1, 2019
Wilson, the Republican strategist turned Never Trumper, and best-selling author?the man who brought the phrase "everything Trump touches dies" into the political lexicon?is here with some 2020 tough love for Democrats: do the usual, and you're gonna blow this. The first half of the book chronicles the awful awfulness of Trump's presidency, in Wilson's signature robust and ribald style. "He ran as 'too rich to be bought' but governs as 'hey sailor wanna date?'" Those chapters will cheer Trump detractors, kind of the way listening to a golden-oldies station brings out the feels. The rest is a bucket of cold water poured over the Democrats' heads. As someone who's orchestrated many conservative election victories, he's here to tell progressive Dems that much of the country is just not into you, your plans, and your policy papers. Shut up about gun buybacks and the Green New Deal. And, most important, never forget this is not a national election. Winning the popular vote, so long a favorite blankie for Clinton voters, means nothing. The 2020 election will come down to 15 or so individual states on which the electoral college rests. And in those states, Trump can win. Wilson details how not not to let this happen. This is bold, bracing, and incredibly informative (and, also, hysterically funny). Dems, ignore at your peril.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Wilson will be all over the networks?well, except Fox News?trumpeting how to beat Trump.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)