Posted originally on the CTH on January 31, 2024 | Sundance
This is kind of a funny and very real political story if you follow the mechanics of it. Essentially, it starts out with Politico noting the Ron DeSantis’ Super PAC Never Back Down, paid the Club for Growth Super PAC, Win It Back, $2.75 million dollars to run attack ads against Donald Trump. {Background Story}
Apparently, Ron DeSantis didn’t want to attack Trump directly, so using the Machiavellian tactics the professionally Republican group is known for, DeSantis funded a third-party to attack Trump on his behalf. A lot of people take issue with this discovery, but the story is actually deeper, and yes, even more Machiavellian.
You see, you might remember the DeSantis Super PAC was actually funded from the remaining campaign funds of Ron DeSantis in 2022. This was done with forethought and by specific design. This part is even noted in the Politico outline. However, what is missing is the other layer. The DeSantis campaign was funded with $20 million by the Republican Governors Association (RGA). That is a big part of the money that was later transferred to the super PAC.
So put this in context, because this is the non-pretending reality that was built into the program.
The RGA gives DeSantis $20 million in 2022 knowing it will be transferred into his presidential campaign super PAC in 2023. A part of that money – $2.75 million – is then sent to the Club for Growth (C4G). The Club for Growth then attacks Donald Trump. In essence, the Republican Governors Association funded the attack against Trump using DeSantis as the broker. Three layers of plausible deniability built in.
Now, ask yourself, who exactly does the RGA support? What is the goal and intent of this “approved Republican” political system that operates in the background of our national politics? When you answer those questions, you realize why the RNC has no support from Republican base voters.
The systems of the RNC and RGA are not about supporting “Republican” politics; these institutional systems, like the RGA and RNC, are entirely focused on retaining the business model that exists within DC and the UniParty assembly. Club for Growth is simply a K-Street political lobbying firm with the intention of paying for policy they create.
Not only did Ron DeSantis support the attacks against Donald Trump, but his campaign also financed those attacks in common alignment with the RGA, RNC and Club for Growth. This is a great example of the “illusion of choice” we have often discussed.
Tell me again about this magnanimous and manufactured political hero called Ron DeSantis…lolol. Now, do you see what I meant:
The Ron DeSantis campaign was built upon a foundation of fraud. Long planned as an effort to destroy the threat that MAGA represents to the Republican apparatus, nothing about the DeSantis campaign was grassroots, authentic, natural or real. The Sea Island organized campaign was a specific and detailed approach driven by the professional political class. Ron DeSantis was a vessel, a willing vessel, for the deliberate schemes and Machiavellian intents of the worst elements in USA Republican politics.
WE CANNOT UNITE with that group. Think about it.
Supporters of Ron DeSantis either knew of the Never Trump intents, or they were not smart enough to see the supernova flares of manipulation that were triggered from the outset. Either way, cunning or stupid, I do not want to camp with them. It is what it is. (MORE)
It is worthwhile revisiting the outcome from this collaboration as we discussed in 2023:
It is important, VERY IMPORTANT, to remember the Club for Growth (CfG) is the Ron DeSantis career financial vehicle {GO DEEP}. Ever since his first steps into Congress, CfG has been the primary financial sponsor for the now Florida Governor. There is no moment in the political career of DeSantis where CfG does not exist.
While the DeSantis Super PAC Never Back Down is the mechanics of the DeSantis election strategy, CfG is the well invested advising side, and David McIntosh has been the source of DeSantis’ career guidance for a decade. That’s how intrinsically connected Club for Growth is to Ron and Casey DeSantis.
CfG has also opposed Donald Trump for his “America First” economic plan from the moment they realized Trump was serious about economic nationalism, control over immigration, a renewal of the American manufacturing sector, balanced trade and reciprocal tariffs. All of these policy points are against the interests of McIntosh and the larger Club for Growth agenda. The CfG has been working against Trump since 2016.
That is the appropriate context for a memo written by David McIntosh to those who fund Club for Growth, as reported by the New York Times. McIntosh writes a brutally honest letter to the professionally Republican donor class, saying all of their efforts against Trump have been futile, and there is no effective strategy that will break the bond the American middle class voter has with President Donald Trump.
(New York Times) – A well-funded group of anti-Trump conservatives has sent its donors a remarkably candid memo that reveals how resilient former President Donald J. Trump has been against millions of dollars of negative ads the group deployed against him in two early-voting states.
The political action committee, called Win It Back, has close ties to the influential fiscally conservative group Club for Growth. It has already spent more than $4 million trying to lower Mr. Trump’s support among Republican voters in Iowa and nearly $2 million more trying to damage him in South Carolina.
But in the memo — dated Thursday and obtained by The New York Times — the head of Win It Back PAC, David McIntosh, acknowledges to donors that after extensive testing of more than 40 anti-Trump television ads, “all attempts to undermine his conservative credentials on specific issues were ineffective.”
[…] “Even when you show video to Republican primary voters — with complete context — of President Trump saying something otherwise objectionable to primary voters, they find a way to rationalize and dismiss it,” Mr. McIntosh states in the “key learnings” section of the memo.
“Every traditional postproduction ad attacking President Trump either backfired or produced no impact on his ballot support and favorability,” Mr. McIntosh adds. “This includes ads that primarily feature video of him saying liberal or stupid comments from his own mouth.”
[…] The memo says this of Win It Back’s most promising pandemic-themed ad: “This ad was our best creative on the pandemic and vaccines that we tested in focus group settings, but it still produced a backlash in our online randomized controlled experiment — improving President Trump’s ballot support by four points and net favorability by 11 points.”
Win It Back did not bother running ads focused on Mr. Trump as an instigator of political violence or as a threat to democracy. The group tested in a focus group and online panel an ad called “Risk,” narrated by former Representative Liz Cheney, that focused on Mr. Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021. But the group found that the Cheney ad helped Mr. Trump with the Republican voters, according to Mr. McIntosh. (read more)
The Sea Island Group
Ron DeSantis
Never Back Down PAC
David Macintosh
Win it Back PAC
Club for Growth
Republican Governors Association
Republican National Committee
…. Yes, MAGA crushed them all, using Donald J. Trump as our weapon.
We ain’t done yet.
Have an awesome day!
Centinel2012 