For-Profit ‘Nonprofits’ Are Smashing the Lights of Democracy

The Washington Post will do anything to protect democracy – no matter how many people they have to keep off the ballot to do it. 

At least that was the message they sent with a recent op-ed – written by a trio of officials from the far-left groups Third Way, MoveOn, and the Center for American Progress Action Fund – that attacks the bipartisan group No Labels. The piece is chock full of misstatements and Orwellian double-speak,  but it does get two things right: 

A) The date

B) The sentence “No Labels is spearheading an effort to put a third-party ticket on the ballot in every state.”

 Yes, No Labels wants Americans to have more choice at the ballot box, but the WaPo and their cadre of aligned non-profits don’t. See, they’re concerned that third-party candidates might lure center-left candidates away from supporting mainstream Democrat-Communists, and that might help Republicans. 

Or at least they say that’s what they’re concerned about, but of all the acrimonious points raised in the piece, the biggest one is the term “non-profit.” 

The grift at play here is this: groups like this attack normal, everyday Americans, they pretend they’re the only ones who can save the day, and then they hold out their money to collect donations. Bemoan polarization while fomenting polarization for profit. 

Participating in this coordinated effort – though not named in the op-ed – is the disgraced Lincoln Project. Their fingerprints are all over Twitter here, here, and here. Not content to desecrate the name of our greatest citizen, the Lincoln Project describes itself as a “pro-democracy organization dedicated to the preservation, protection, and defense of democracy.” We don’t know the difference between protecting and defending, nor do we buy their over-use of the word democracy here any more than we do in the term Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

TLP started as a self-proclaimed anti-Trump effort, but it has devolved into a political mercenary group attacking anything that gets them paid. They have a history of raising tons of money and pocketing the majority of it. (They’re not quite as bad as the Susan G. Komen Foundation, but TLP is still bad.) 

Over the last seven years, founder Rick Wilson has carved out a boutique industry for himself – Trump bad, we save democracy good, more slander, lather rinse repeat. The videos have gotten a little flashier, but it’s the same tired story over and over. Here they are attacking Gov. Ron DeSantis, here they are defending domestic terrorist Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson –   whatever gets them clicks and cash. 

It is miraculous that, after years of denouncing him as the anti-Christ of the fake, woke religion, far-left organizations and their allied media outlets have become Trump’s biggest fans. Could this be because they believe he’s the one GOP candidate that sad, senile Joe Biden could beat in 2024? Liberal groups spent more than $40 million in GOP primaries last year helping boost weak candidates like Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania and Don Bolduc in New Hampshire – and it worked.

Is this their evil plan going forward: remove options so voters are stuck with a repeat of 2020?

It might not be anything so sinister. It might just be greed. Social media overlords realized after years of booting Trump off that they’d killed the goose that laid the orange eggs – so they didn’t just let him back on, they’ve all but begged him to return. 

One might admire the entrepreneurial American spirit here … if the end goal weren’t the destruction of America, the collapse of the peaceful world order, and handing the destiny of the human race over to the Chinese Communist Party. 

Maybe they were mercenaries to begin with but increasingly they seem more like an old-timey carnival act trying to swindle a few bucks out of people with some political sleight of hand. But any organization that would work hand-in-hand with TLP is just as grimy. 

Alas, this description now includes The Washington Post, which has gone from the most respected newspaper in the country to a mouthpiece for extremists dancing on a string for the billionaire tyrant who owns them.

If democracy dies in darkness, as the WaPo’s eye-roll-inducing masthead has insisted for the past several years, then TLP, Third Way, and all the rest are doing a great job smashing all the lights. 

Jared Whitley has worked in the U.S. Senate, the Bush White House and the defense industry.