“Project 2025?”
Not familiar. Sounds like something my brother would listen to.
One of those pretentious indie bands?
Oh, it’s a presidential policy agenda for a Trump administration in 2025?
Mostly written by people who had served in Donald Trump’s administration during his first term?
Seems like pretty standard stuff to me.
Isn’t it good that a president would be able to hit the ground running with plans from professionals who know what they’re doing?
No?
Well, heck. What exactly are these folks proposing to do?
Okay, that does sound weird. And they sound like creepy radicals in their recruitment videos.
But, can we get more specific? What have they promised in terms of a policy agenda?
Okay. Well, hey, protecting children is great. Family is great. No problems here.
Right?
MmmmmKaaaaay. Can you give me an example?
“… This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.”
Huh. I’m not sure what the word “abortion” has to do with First Amendment rights. Or any of the others. Why would they want to erase these words from existence?
Okay, what business does the federal government have in telling local schools what to do with their curricula? That’s for districts and neighborhood communities to decide.
This is more invasive than I’m comfortable with.
“Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”
Wait, what??!!
“Pornography should be outlawed??” This is insane! Weren’t they just talking about First Amendment rights? What kind of weirdos are these people?
Not to mention: Librarians who “purvey” pornography? What are they even talking about?
“Finally, conservatives should gratefully celebrate the greatest pro-family win in a generation: overturning Roe v. Wade… But the Dobbs decision is just the beginning. Conservatives in the states and in Washington, including in the next conservative Administration, should push as hard as possible to protect the unborn in every jurisdiction in America.”
Okay, I’ll say it. These people are whackos. Authoritarian whackos.
For all their talk about freedom, they want to intrude upon the freedoms of those they disagree with. They say that parents should have the last word…but only the parents they agree with. Convenient.
- They want to control speech.
- They want to control women’s bodies.
- They want to control what we do in our bedrooms. From birth control to pornography.
They must be stopped.
Jesus Christ…there’s more??
“The Conservative Promise lays out how to use many of these tools including: how to fire supposedly “un-fireable” federal bureaucrats; how to shutter wasteful and corrupt bureaus and offices; how to muzzle woke propaganda at every level of government; how to restore the American people’s constitutional authority over the Administrative State; and how to save untold taxpayer dollars in the process.”
They want to shutter the entire Department of Education? What insanity is this?
They want to reclassify tens of thousands of federal civil service positions, fire the workers, and then replace them with “an army of aligned, vetted, trained, and prepared” true believers indoctrinated to their cause?
This is straight out of some Communist country.
“And all along, the corporations profiting failed to export our values of human rights and freedom; rather, they imported China’s anti-American values into their C-suites.”
Irony is dead with this f*cking bunch.
Are we done yet? I’ll give you one more of their promises to cover.
Okay, great. “Liberty.” What horrors and dark ironies do we have in store?
“When the Founders spoke of “pursuit of Happiness,” what they meant might be understood today as in essence “pursuit of Blessedness.” That is, an individual must be free to live as his Creator ordained—to flourish. Our Constitution grants each of us the liberty to do not what we want, but what we ought.”
So, “freedom” as in, whatever they think our rights should be. That’s a whole lot of freedom for them, and hardly any for us.
Well, okay. You’ve convinced me. These are some real sickos. Why is no one talking about this in the media?
Oh – they have been?
I see that Trump has recently disavowed Project 2025.
That makes some sense. This stuff is insane!
But it’s obvious that he’s only disavowing it now because it’s inconvenient for the general election. Not because he won’t help enact it.
“They’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do, when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America, and that’s coming.” — Donald J. Trump on The Heritage Foundation, 2022
We all know Donald Trump isn’t a rabid fundamentalist ideologue, but his power rests on those ideologues being happy. The radical conservatives made a deal with the Devil, and they will take what they insist is their due. Project 2025 is how they intend to do so. No wonder they’ve put tens of millions of dollars into it.
Another thing we know about Donald Trump is that he does not take governance seriously. He will leave the details of rule to his administration. In other words, he’ll leave it to the very people who wrote this document.
Using the power of the federal government, these people intend to:
- strip women of their rights to their own bodies.
- use local police to search houses and round up undocumented immigrants.
- send military forces against fellow Americans to quash protest
- use the federal government to surveil us and coerce us into compliance.
We simply cannot allow this movement to take power.
I don’t know about you, but the three weeks following Joe Biden’s disastrous debate were absolute agony for me.
The country needed a clear contrast to Trump, to provide voters with a clear choice. As Project 2025 makes abundantly clear, the choice could not be more different. But someone needs to make that clear to the voters.
Biden needed to make that case. Yet if all people saw was Joe Biden’s frailty whenever he spoke, then that case would not be made.
Trump knew this, and he radiated confidence that victory would be his. In those weeks, my spirits were at their lowest point since Trump had left office.
But then, something truly special happened.
President Biden decided to step aside, and he endorsed his Vice President, Kamala Harris. And everyone rallied around her. Now we have a candidate who has the ability to effectively prosecute the case, and she has been doing a fantastic job.
Recently MAGA has been on the ropes, in a daze. It feels so good to know that we have a fighting chance again!
But make no mistake, this fight is far from guaranteed. Harris only has 2.5 months to work against Trump’s electoral advantages.
If the vote count is close in any swing states, know that Trump and his minions will create chaos, such as by refusing to certify the votes. They tried this last time, they will try it again.
And if the total electoral count is close and a dispute must be resolved, can we really trust our current Supreme Court to make the right call? The same court who granted near-total immunity to the office of President? Immunity even for the assassination of political rivals?
No. We need to rely on our own determination. We can’t let it be close. We need a blow out.
We need to send this bozo packing. Keep him out of the White House, and get him back in the court house.
We need your help. And we need your friends’ help.
- To whatever extent you can: donate money to key races.
- Volunteer to get out the vote. Or help people register.
- Volunteer to text potential voters. Or phone bank. Or canvass door-to-door.
- Sites like Vote Save America can at least help you think about your options.
And of course: vote! And get your friends and family to vote!
At the very least, tell everyone you know about these plans for a future Trump administration.
If they think it’s all overblown, point them to the group’s own materials. Such as this document. Or this collection of creepy training videos.
Or even my post here, since it offers some handy highlights.
Thanks to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, there is real energy in the campaign, and real hope to lean into. We really do have a fighting chance!
We can trounce them. But only if we bring our all.
As Harris is saying now: “When We Fight, We Win!” I still believe that. I still believe in America. Let’s prove the vice president right.
- Let’s all believe in us!
- Let’s overwhelm these weirdos with our collective joy.
- Let’s relegate this creepy, vindictive movement to the history books.
- Let’s turn the page on MAGA malaise, for good and all.
And…since this is supposed to be an “AudioPhyles” entry…
…Let’s listen to some 80’s music to get motivated!
Okay, now up and at ’em!
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I tend to think of TNOCS and a refuge from the nuttiness of American politics, but this is spot on. I keep trying to read the “Mandate for Leadership” because I don’t want to rely on media outlets to tell me what it says. I’ll do my own research, thanks.
I say I keep trying to read it, but every page turns my stomach. Couched — no joke intended — in its language is a dark vision of what the United States is and what they think it should be. It’s like they never met anyone outside their little bubble of privilege. So I’ll read a little and then have to walk away. Fresh air does the mind good. Which makes it harder to accept that they want to lift clean air guidelines.
If anyone in Middle Tennessee is reading this and needs a ride to the polls, let me know. I’ll get you there. Vote!
I weighed the idea of posting something like this on tnocs, but ultimately decided it was too important to ignore.
It’s hard to strike the right balance of worry vs hope. Tim Walz really knows how to strike that balance, so I’ll leave it to the coach to get everyone properly pumped:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHtYcbH50ag
I think this is the energy that’s going around:
https://youtu.be/YDQTZ36lCDA?si=lbv6eKUDGxp9-5Gb
Love it!
I also noticed that PE was used as background music for the DNC, and then started singing this for some reason…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt-udg9zQSE
You’ve got my vote. Not that it’s any use to you.
I’ve been watching from afar. Appalled at the intentions of Project 2025 which seems a variant on the Orwellian doubledpeak of 1984; we’re going to protect your freedom by subjugating your rights. Despairing at Joe Biden’s decline and refusal to accept that he may have become more of a liability than a positive influence on the election. Which has turned to very cautious optimism with the energy and hope Kamala Harris has brought.
It’s not my election but the influence America still has around the world will impact the rest of us. A Trump win in particular is likely to be taken up by others seeking to copy his moves.
I follow the news, I like to know what’s going on and be informed but lately the temptation is to shut it all off and pretend it isn’t happening.
I hope that it all works out and you get the blow out victory that sends him packing.
A Trump win would likely have huge ripple effects all around the world, none of them good. For everyone’s sake, let’s keep these freaks out of power!
Thanks for this, P of A. I’m convinced that this thing with the Republicans and all their ancillary ‘despicables’ (there’s a word that’s aged nicely) is a fever dream that they’ll emerge from with a measure of remorse. Perhaps that’s the optimist in me, as they’ve been going down this path since ’80 and the ‘states rights.’ At this point, I don’t even care that they take no responsibility for themselves and their current positions, only that they move on after Trump loses his grip on the party. It’s a stain, but still one that can be scrubbed off without damaging the fabric underneath. Here’s hoping.
If we’re talking elected Republican politicians, sure. Give them a chance for a mea culpa, and move onto saner pastures.
But people like Russ Vought, Steven Miller, and any of these policy ideologues have to be ostracized and kept far from power or influence. They are personas non gratas, and their ideas are poison.
As VP Harris says, we’re not going back.
It was online for months.
The Daily Beast has a decent podcast called The New Abnormal. It’s like Sam Seder’s The Majority Report, but with cussing. Both podcasts, cautiously, delved into Project 2025.
First person in congress to voice concern about Project 2025?
Rep. Jasmine Crockett(D-Tx.).
MSM reported the wrong Crockett story. At the same time, Crockett made waves by describing as MTG as being, how do I put it politely, on the androgynous side. But if you kept scrolling, there it was, possibly the first exposure of P2025 by an elected official.
Why did MSNBC attempt to hire former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel?
I think her job was to normalize the document. Chuck Todd, of all people, the guy who never asked enough follow-up questions on Meet the Press, led the charge against McDaniel’s hiring. (As it turns out, he was better than his replacement.)
MSM is failing America.
Freakin’ HBO did their job. John Oliver warned America on June 16.
What irks me about MSNBC is that they talk about Project 2025 without context. I think it should be dissected in concert with “official act”, the Supreme Court ruling that gives the president immunity from everything.
Excellent excellent excellent job, Phylum.
Next up. School us on “chevron deference”. (Those mother- snuck that ruling in on a Friday ahead of immunity, which went public on Monday.)