Last night Stephen Colbert talked about Project 2025 — humorously, of course. Nevertheless, in doing so he brought it to the attention of millions. And in that he did the nation a great service.
Never heard of Project 2025? Not sure what it’s all about? Then you need to do a little reading.
Check out The Guardian for several articles. I suggest you start with Robert Reich’s “We should all be terrified of Trump’s Project 2025.”
The New Republic calls Project 2025 “a remarkably detailed guide to turning the United States into a fascist’s paradise” and says “These 900 pages lay out a Christian nationalist vision of the United States, one in which married heterosexuality is the only valid form of sexual expression and identity; all pregnancies would be carried to term, even if that requires coercion or death; and transgender and gender-nonconforming people do not exist.”
The Associated Press reported last August:
… the idea is to have the civic infrastructure in place on Day One to commandeer, reshape and do away with what Republicans deride as the “deep state” bureaucracy, in part by firing as many as 50,000 federal workers.
Or get it straight from the source, the Heritiage Foundation. It’s their baby and Trump’s. It’s what the far right intends to do when Trump is reelected.
Trump denies any knowledge of the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025. He’s been trying to distance himself in order to appeal to more moderate voters in November. But don’t be fooled; his fingerprints are all over it. His ideas pervade every page. (If nothing else, it’s telling that his longtime policy advisor Stephen Miller is deeply involved.)
Wikipedia neatly sums up the Project’s main points. Or you could read the entire 922-page manifesto for yourself. Just don’t miss, on page 15 of the introduction:
“Our goal is to assemble an army of aligned, vetted, trained, and prepared conservatives to go to work on Day One to deconstruct the Administrative State.”
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Header image: Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg / Getty
Stone cold terrifying
And that, sadly, is an understatement!
Yes.
I’ve been hearing about this, but thanks for putting out so plainly. Unfortunately, you are preaching to the choir here. I wish there were some way to reach the MAGA base and make them understand. I can’t even discuss the political divide with some of my own family members!
I assume that 99% of the time, only the choir is listening. And very few of them at that. But I think the MAGA base is hopeless. They won’t listen. They don’t want to hear. They think they already understand. They think — truly believe — that Trump is the answer to their every prayer. At the very least, he emboldens the violent, lawless individuals among them and that in itself is frightening.
Jim’s right, Colorado: anyone reading your blog is not going to need to read Project 25 to know that electing tRump is a sort of death-knell for America.
But still … I could be wrong (been known before), and some passer-by might pick all this up from here …
Wish I had faith so that I could pray.
An old saying comes to mind: There are no atheists in foxholes. Perhaps I’ll see you there.
Of the authors of Project 2025’s 900 pages, 81% were officially involved in Trump 45. Have a look at this piece by Judd Legum. Mr All Lies All The Time can say whatever he thinks voters want to hear.
Nice to see it spelled out in black and white, even though I never doubted it. What surprises me is that Trump even has the brains to try to distance himself rather than take credit for the whole thing.
For those not inclined to click on links, the article David references says, among other things:
scary.
Beth said it: Stone cold terrifying
I agree that the MAGA types won’t pay any attention to this and don’t care. But I’m still hopeful that there might be some moderates who would be frightened by this–if only we could get their attention.
I don’t expect MAGA types to change their minds about Trump but, yes, I too am hopeful that there might be some more moderate Republicans who will see the danger here and vote accordingly. What continues to puzzle me is why all moderate Republicans (if such a thing still exists) haven’t bolted the party by now.
Seems to me, Colorado, that anyone calling her/himself a Republican still can only be a tRumpist. Surely if you don’t support the criminal you can’t remain a member of the “GOP” ?!
You can be a member of the GOP without being a MAGA loyalist. There are some Republicans, like Liz Cheney, who are still Republicans presumably because they think the party can still be saved from MAGA-think. She has said she will leave the party if Trump is their nominee again. On the other hand, Adam Kinzinger left both Congress and the GOP.
Both served on the January 6th Committee and apparently reached different conclusions about their party affiliations. When Kinzinger tried and failed to get enough support to dump Trump, he left the GOP and endorsed Biden.
I have absolutely no idea how many Republicans there might be out there who don’t get polled, don’t get written about, and just go quietly about their business. And may or may not actually vote Republican. I can’t speak for them. I just know I would have bailed when Trump showed up. I did actually bail on them about 20 years ago.
Per a Jan. 2024 study from the NIH titled “MAGA Republicans’ views of American democracy and society and support for political violence in the United States: Findings from a nationwide population-representative survey”
I Think The Heritage Foundation Is a Authoritarianism
Most certainly.