Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson wants Democrats to stop saving Republicans from themselves. I know Rick Wilson is not our friend, but I think he’s right here when it comes to what it’s going to take to get through to a bunch of Trump’s base on the damage the Republican Party is doing to all of us.
Here’s the back and forth with Wilson and MSNBC’s Ali Velshi, discussing how Democrats should be handling this impasse with Trump right now:
VELSHI: In a Substack post this week, you published it right before the shutdown, you wrote, “The consultants, pollsters, and focus group whisperers have told Democratic leadership they need to fight for the Obamacare ACA insurance benefit because it polls well. I’m sure it does. Happens to be right thing to do, but not the right thing to do right now. Why? Because pain is the only teacher in politics.”
Tell me what you mean by this, pain is the only teacher in politics.
WILSON: The dirty secret of the pull yourself up by your bootstraps tough guy MAGAs is that about 65% of the people who are getting that ACA benefit are MAGA voters in red states.
I want them to understand that Donald Trump is in one more way screwing them over. He has screwed them over on the tariffs. He has screwed them over on tax cuts for people like Elon Musk, our struggling billionaire class, and now he’s going to screw them over on their insurance benefits.
