Rick Wilson

I came from like a Southern, Southern democratic conservative background in some ways, but things became, you know, when I was growing up, there was a perception that, that

because of the way I was raised, the way I was brought up, that personal responsibility was a big thing and that the rule of law was a big thing and that the Constitution was not a sort of set of helpful suggestions.

It was the rules.

What I saw coming up in the Republican world, as a foreign policy guy primarily, I saw this tension with evangelicals coming into the party process who did not want –

a small government, they wanted a big government to impose values.

While I was the first, I don't know, major Republican political guy, whatever, strategist, whatever you want to say that, to break with Trump in 2015, I had already started to sort of get uncomfortable with where the party was headed well before that.

I sent a memo to my clients back in 2006 or 2008, I can't remember which, saying, you got to get off this gay marriage thing.

First off, you're wrong on it from a moral perspective.

And second off, what business is it of the government to tell consenting adults who they can marry?

And I was a little bit of an apostate on that, I guess.

People weren't happy with it, but they also understood that I was right.

And

Then we got into this moment where the Tea Party pretended to be one thing and then it got bought out by the Kochs very quickly and became this culture war conveyor belt.

And I played in that space for a little bit and I was uncomfortable with it.

I didn't think it was particularly conservative.

I mean I believe that there is a broader consensus value set in America about you follow the law.

You –

You work hard and you should not be either overregulated or overtaxed, but neither should you be able to dump toxic waste into the river.

I came from this consensus world where a strong America in the world wasn't just because we had more nukes or a bigger military footprint, but it was also because people looked at America and said, man, they may not be perfect, but that's a pretty good system.

They may not be – they may not be right about everything, but you've got the right to talk it through.