From ex-Republican strategist Rick Wilson comes, Running Against the Devil, a vital indictment of Trump, a no-nonsense, no-holds-barred road map to saving America, and the guide to making Donald Trump a one-term president.
All Democratic presidential campaign managers should run out right now and buy a copy of Rick Wilson’s new book – and then read it out loud to their candidates ... Unlike most of the Washington reporters covering Donald Trump, Wilson, a Republican strategist and ad man, wastes no time trying to be fair or balanced about the career criminal who is the temporary occupant of the White House ... Like his previous book...Wilson’s new effort is a reminder that the handful of Republicans who have found the cojones to break with their felonious leader often treat him with considerably more violence than the average Democrat does. This is refreshing ... Because Wilson has spent practically his entire working life as a Republican consultant laying waste to Democratic candidates, he realizes his advice may be greeted with skepticism. So he suggests he should be treated like a senior KGB officer defecting at the height of the cold war: 'The right response wasn’t ‘Fuck you.’ It was ‘Hey, we’d LOVE to check out this boatload of intel, plans, strategies and data you’ve collected.'
The most succinct description of Wilsons’ message is that the entire point of the Democratic Party in 2020 is to defeat Donald Trump. Unfortunately, it isn’t until page 77 we are actually told, 'Your mission is tough but simple. Defeat Donald Trump.' This highlights an issue carried over from Everything Trump Touches Dies. Namely, both books are about 300 pages, neither of them need to be, and their structures are choppy and unbalanced ... Rick Wilson is a strategist and ad-maker who fancies himself negotiating political swamps with a knife in his teeth. This is his specialty (if you don’t believe it, just ask him). But Running Against The Devil subverts expectations Wilson himself sets up and often offers advice any amateur could extend. That being said, while sharing many of its vices, this book also shares the virtues of Everything Trump Touches Dies: Wilson can still throw you into stitches while making incisive and experienced observations, plus he is right on the main points.
Scum-bag' is the most fastidious term used by Rick Wilson to describe the U.S. president. The term also implies the kinds of campaign Wilson recommends to Democrats if they are to take on and defeat Donald J. Trump in 2020 ... The author is a 'never-Trumper' who used to work for the Republican Party when he regarded it as genuinely conservative. He knows how the party works—or worked—from the inside. His get-tough-in-the-street strategy is a far cry from the elevated thoughts of Michelle Obama in Becoming or Samantha Power in Education of an Idealist, both reviewed here in 2019. Their blend of idealism and realism could make a reader feel good about struggling for a better world. But if Wilson’s tactics are the only way to wrest the White House and save America from a band of miscreants, some readers will prefer to emulate the legendary St. Jerome and retreat to a cave and study the Holy Writ.
