The Lincoln Blacklist A political group wants to make it easier to cancel Trump alumni.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-lincoln-blacklist-11610494450?mod=opinion_lead_pos3
EXCERPT
….”Stuart Stevens, a senior advisor to the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, tweeted Saturday that “we are constructing a database of Trump officials & staff that will detail their roles in the Trump administration & track where they are now.” He added: “No personal info, only professional. But they will be held accountable & not allowed to pretend they were not involved.”
The Lincoln Project is a well-funded political action group, run mostly by former GOP consultants, that made ads for Democrats in the 2020 election cycle. We often disagreed, especially with the group’s effort to unseat principled GOP Senators, but never begrudged donors exercising their First Amendment right to influence the political process.
It’s something else to turn fire on former public servants in private life. Mr. Stevens tells us in an email that he’s doing nothing more than Wikipedia does with its pages listing past Administration alumni. But then why broadcast his stigmatizing intentions?
The only reason for an anti-Trump group to publicize the employment information of former officials is to deter employers from hiring them. If they are hired, progressive employees could scour the list and create petitions for them to be fired or doxed. This will deepen America’s civic strife.
Thousands of people went to work for Mr. Trump because they wanted to help the country, and they often made a big difference in preventing worse behavior or decisions. Think of those who prevented the President from withdrawing unilaterally from Nafta in 2017, or argued that Mr. Trump shouldn’t fire Robert Mueller, or Justice Department officials who did not pursue unsupported voter fraud claims.
State and Defense Department officials implemented important changes to America’s China policy, some of which will be adopted by the Biden Administration. The economic team promoted policies that led to three years of impressive economic growth across the income spectrum. The architects of Operation Warp Speed accelerated the development of coronavirus vaccines.
We doubt woke employees or potential employers will be discerning about which former officials in the “database” to assail—and we doubt the Lincoln Project cares if they are. The impulse is to shun and banish by association. Most companies and universities dread political controversy, so the result would be further segregation of America’s public life.
The blacklist strategy is marketed with the imprimatur of Abraham Lincoln, yet its effect would be to drive citizens at one another’s throats. Is this what the group’s donors want?
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