Mother Jones – July-August 2019

12 MOTHER JONES |^ JULY / AUGUST 2019

OUTFRONT

PETER RYAN

But what has made Dworkin such

a polarizing figure—“a fucking abom-

ination,” one Democratic operative

complained to the Daily Beast; “a con

artist stealing from people whose only

crime was to care about their coun-

try,” in the words of an opposition

researcher—isn’t that he tweets too

much. It’s what he’s done with all the

money he’s raised. In 2017 and 2018, the

Democratic Coalition brought in more

than $754,000, most of it from small

donors responding to appeals to fuel

the “blue wave” and fight back against

Trump. Yet even as it boasted of being

the preeminent online resistance orga-

nization, it spent just $2,350—0.3 per-

cent of what it raised—on independent

expenditures supporting Democratic

candidates or targeting Republicans.

Instead, much of the money went to

Dworkin’s consulting firm Bulldog

Finance Group for fundraising consult-

ing and to other individuals associated

with the super-pac.

Dworkin says he’s done everything

he’s promised to do, even if his ac-

complishments are of a harder-to-

quantify, intangible sort. But to his

critics, he’s emblematic of a Trump-

era phenomenon: resistance grift. The

same urgency that has fueled grass-

roots organizing, fresh new voices,

and investigative journalism has also

spawned their opposites—organiza-

tions that raise money but seem to

spend it on nothing substantial; public

figures who exploit the spotlight for

their own motives; and citizen sleuths

hyping dubious information to grow-

ing legions of followers. Or, in the case

of Michael Avenatti, all of the above.

Capitalizing on political appeals for

profit has long been baked into the dna

of the conservative movement, from the

rise of direct mail in the 1970s to the

financial newsletters and dietary sup-

plement sales of the ’90s and aughts,

to a president whose campaign was an

exercise in brand promotion and who

paid a $25 million settlement for fraud.

But the emergence of this kind of prof-

iteering on the left is something new, a

product not just of opportunism, but of

BRIAN AND ED

KRASSENSTEIN

Credentials: Twins, crypto-

currency speculators, and

Florida men once raided by

the feds as part of a possible

fraud investigation

Known for: Inserting them-

selves into Trump’s Twitter

replies

Profit center: A $19 donation

to their Patreon account to

fund their podcast, The Kras-

senCast, gets you a copy of

their satirical children’s book,

How the People Trumped

Ronald Plump.

SETH ABRAMSON

Credentials: Creative writing

professor, poet

Known for: Extremely long

Twitter threads about collu-

sion. Wrote a 451-tweet thread

in response to Mueller report.

Profit center: His New York

Times bestseller Proof of Col-

lusion. (A sequel, Proof of Con-

spiracy, is out this summer.)

LOUISE MENSCH

Credentials: Former Tory

MP and author of the novel

Sparkles

Known for: First reporting that

Trump aides had been snared

in a fisa wiretap. (Whoa!) First

reporting that Steve Bannon

might face the death penalty

for espionage. (D’oh!)

Profit center: A crowdfunded

Russia blog called Patribotics

ERIC GARLAND

Credentials: Futurist

Known for: Being the guy

who kicked off a 120-tweet

thread on Russian election

meddling with “It’s time for

some game theory.”

Profit center: Sold access

to his “premium” Twitter

account for $10 a month

CLAUDE TAYLOR

Credentials: Clinton White

House staffer, travel photog-

rapher

Known for: His Twitter

account @TrueFactsStated,

where he claimed that Trump

was secretly indicted in 2017

Profit center: His Mad Dog

pac, which paid him $72,000 in

2018 for fundraising and social

media consulting

JOHN SCHINDLER

Credentials: Former nsa

staffer turned Naval War

College professor (until he

resigned after texting a dick

pic to a Twitter follower)

Known for: Using his NatSec

background to speculate

about what Mueller really

knows

Profit center: Charges $

a month for his “premium”

Twitter feed (sfw) —T.M.

TIME FOR SOME

NAME THEORY

Some notable resistance hucksters