Okay, we’re back to Project 2025, a field guide to the destructive intentions of the incoming administration.
I urge you to consider this as we continue. A majority voted against Democrats in the 2024 election, largely on the basis of economic fears and a masterfully orchestrated, if morally repugnant, anti-immigration platform. Also on the platform, of course, was the open intention to roll back civil rights for women and especially for LGBTQ+ citizens.
Based on the other commentary I’m reading, it’s the economics and immigration issues that most people voted on. But it’s the anti-diversity (and especially anti-LGBTQ+) rhetoric that dominates P25 in my reading so far. Their deep agenda is one that, far from limiting government scope and downsizing its functions, employs government resources – that means your tax dollars! – to police private behavior or expression in which the government has no legitimate interest, for no reason except that a certain narrow slice of the American religious spectrum hates that behavior or expression.
If behavior doesn’t affect the security of the state, the state should leave it alone.
Section One: Taking the Reins of Government (p.19)
“As we approach our nation’s 250th anniversary, which will take place during the next presidency, America is now divided between two opposing forces: woke revolutionaries and those who believe in the ideals of the American revolution.”
What P25 means: diversity is the enemy.
What the 2024 election actually revealed: voters are more concerned about the economic future of the US than with identity politics – and guess what, anti-diversity initiatives are identity politics.
A thought to proceed with: diversity benefits economic growth. Tariffs, deportations, and censorship all damage economic growth. Therefore, the underlying agenda of P25 has nothing to do with making America great for the coming generations. The agenda, despite its frequent references to liberty and freedom, continually bares its Christian Nationalist, white supremacist skeleton.
Another full quote which lets that skeleton dance:
“Whether it be mask or vaccine mandates, school and business closures, efforts to keep Americans from driving gas cars or using gas stoves, or efforts to defund the police, indoctrinate schoolchildren, alter beloved books, abridge free speech, undermine the colorblind ideal, or deny the biological reality that there are only two sexes, the Left’s steady stream of insanity appears to be never-ending.”
I love how they act like free speech and a colorblind ideal are things they want.
In a world built by P25, “free speech” means “it’s perfectly fine for violent white supremacists carrying Nazi flags to march down city streets and litter people’s yards with propaganda.” “Colorblind ideal?” I have no idea what they mean by that. Because Nazis are the exact opposite of colorblind.
(taking a breath) I expect these posts to cover limited ground here at the beginning of the document, because that’s where most of the dogma will be. Once we get into the policy-specific chapters, I expect it to go faster. Hang in there.
Section one, p 20: lays out the strategy of filling agencies with political loyalists. Interestingly, P25 calls out the first DJT administration for failing to do this. Well, his team got the message, didn’t they?
On page 21, again interestingly: “the President is there to uphold the Constitution, not the other way around.” That is a message DJT *doesn’t* seem to have taken onboard. Here they’re talking about limiting executive orders (specifically the kind they don’t agree with). The discussion moves on to the separation of powers, which is a laugh considering the SCOTUS that’s been pandering to the far right to devastating national effect. We then move on to this: “nothing is more important than deconstructing the centralized administrative state.” Sounds familiar, huh?
Next up: White House Office, pp 23-42 including endnotes, is about choosing an executive staff that will facilitate the President’s functions. It’s a useful breakdown of the many job positions and where they fit in the flow chart (see, I’m not just here to set things on fire; this is good information, mostly free of Christian Nationalist and/or white-supremacy dog-whistles). It does not, however, say anything about how this vast staff could be trimmed in the interest of a smaller government. “In most Administrations, PPO [Office of Presidential Personnel] will staff more than 100 positions during a transition and thousands of noncareer positions… .” (p. 32).
On page 38, they couldn’t resist putting in another agenda-specific statement: “incoming policy councils will need to move rapidly to lead policy processes around cross-cutting agency topics, including countering China, enforcing immigration laws, reversing regulatory policies in order to promote energy production, combating the Left’s aggressive attacks on life and religious liberty, and confronting “wokeism” throughout the federal government.”
Comment: that statement reminds the conservative reader what’s really important here: banning abortion, promoting a specific flavor of Christianity, and erasing diversity awareness (along with, of course, drill baby drill).
This brings us to the next chapter (it’ll be page 43 of the text, page 76 of the PDF doc), and it looks ugly.
Takeaway so far: my early impression was that this entire huge document, while presented as a rational plan for reforming the federal government, is a smokescreen for a narrow social agenda motivated by Christian Nationalism and white supremacy. So far I haven’t seen anything to change that impression.
Things important to progressives – actual religious liberty, personal liberty, and other civil rights – will be very much under attack in the near term. That doesn’t absolve us from paying attention to voters’ legitimate economic concerns, including inflation, the cost of professional education, and housing.
Come up with concrete ways to address those concerns, because if DJT and his cohort do even half of what they’re saying they will do, the economy is going to get very shitty very fast, putting us in a good position.