Project 2025 has Democrats losing their minds
The first thing you need to understand is that “Project 2025” – also known as the “Presidential Transition Project” — is a 900-page series of policy proposals assembled by an independent conservative think tank – in this case, the Heritage Foundation. It is something think tanks do all the time. The political left is served by similar think tanks, such as the Brookings Institution and the Institute for Citizens and Scholars
(Up until 2020 the Institute for Citizens and Scholars was known as the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. That’s when the Democrats’ left wing suddenly discovered that Wilson was a White supremacist and admirer of the Ku Klux Klan. They have yet to rename the Washington-based Woodrow Willson International Center for Scholars that focuses on globalization. But I digress.)
Democrats and their media cronies talk a lot about Project 2025, but they mostly misrepresent the truth. According to them, the Project is the work of a few evil people associated with the Trump administration. Actually, the input for Project 2025 was provided by 54 think tanks, universities and organizations.
The Project provides a list of 277 contributors with a wide range of political, academic and public policy backgrounds. It was then drafted by three dozen individuals with equally impressive resumes. Their collective sin – according to those on the left — is simply that they represent the conservative side of the political divide — that prefers people power over a massive federal bureaucracy controlled by a permanent elitist establishment in Washington. As it states in the Forward, “this book is the work of the entire conservative movement.”
It lays out four broad missions.
1. Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children.
2. Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people.
3. Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats.
4. Secure our God-given individual rights to live freely—what our Constitution calls “the Blessings of Liberty.”
(Pssst! It is that number 2 mission that has the left’s hair on fire.)
The first 70 pages deal with the office of the President and Vice President and all the boards, commissions and agencies under direct control of the White House. It basically is a 1-0-1 college level poli-sci course.
The next pages deal with managing the bureaucracy. If you believe that the federal government has grown too large, too powerful, too expensive and too unaccountable to we the people, you will probably like that portion of the document a lot.
Section Two deals with national security and defense. If you think the armed services’ first priority is to fight wars – as opposed to being a vanguard of cultural woke policies, political correctness and identity politics, you will definitely like Section Two. If you think allies should take on more of the burden of defending the world democracies, you will like the proposals of Project 2025. If you believe that the border should be secured and in the restoration of legal immigration, you will like the proposals in the document.
Project 2025 is not the Republican Platform. It is not the work of President Trump’s campaign – although some Trump officials have been among the large number of contributors. Trump is not one of them. Trump is not likely to have even read the 900-page document.
Still, Democrats are trying to link Trump to every word in the document AND describing the document as some sort of modern-day “Mein Kampf.” While they refer to the document with the most negative and fearmongering platitudes, they rarely talk about the wide range of proposals – other than a couple of cherry-picked examples. And those they spin as some evil conspiracy against the people of America.
If there is a common thread that runs through the long highly academic document, it is the underlying effort to reduce the size and oppressive regulatory powers of the federal government — and restore the foundational concept of federalism as envisioned by the Founders. The overriding purpose is to shift power and influence back to the states – closer to the influence of people.
So, what has made the radical left lose its collective mind over Project 2025? The first explanation is that Project 2025 is the work of a conservative organization and offers generally conservative policies. The ideas proposed in the document are no threat to the rights and freedoms of the American people. However … the thousands of proposals and recommendations do threaten the entrenched elitist progressive political/media establishment in Washington – those who believe that a strong central regulatory government is the ideal, as long as they control it ad infinitum. It is the source of their authoritarian power – and they are loath to have that power returned to the people.
Since the 1960s, the pendulum of government policy has been swinging to the left – greatly expanding the power and cost of the federal government in Washington. The result has been an explosive expansion of the bureaucracy and regulatory edicts crushing both state and personal constitutional rights – and usurping the legislative role of Congress. Liberal courts in the past have ruled in favor of the federal establishment. It has also resulted in enormous and unsustainable growth in spending at burdensome costs to the American taxpayer.
The pendulum appears to be swinging back to the right. The 2016 election of President Trump – and the philosophy and policies he represented — was a pushback by the people against the increasingly radical, woke and oppressive policies of the left.
In response, the left engaged in an all-out political war not only on Trump, but on conservative Republican leaders and voters – and on the GOP brand itself. The result has been the most extreme accusations and narratives – essentially making the Republican Party the enemy of the state.
They have concocted an absurd campaign narrative that conservative principles, politicians and voters are an existential threat to American democracy. They spin a riot into an insurrection. They accuse the Republican Party of planning a coup. They claim that the return of Trump to the White House will mean dictatorship and the end of future elections.
The left’s hysteria over the possibility of losing their entrenched power is seen in the insane reactions to proposals by a think tank. The left is running a hyperbolic fearmongering campaign based on the most outrageous false narratives. It is a sign of desperation.
To be sure … Project 2025 is intended to offer up policies that will reduce the power of the ruling class in Washington – and return power to the people by keeping government lawmaking close to the citizens who are most affected.
One of the problems with the Project 2025 document is that at 90 pages it is too long … too detailed … too academic. The proposals are written for serious policymakers and political scholars. The percentage of the public who will read the document is in the low single digits – perhaps even less than one percent. That makes it easy for Democrats and the media to engage in platitudes of disinformation, false narratives and even lies about the content. They take a few provisions and use spin and fearmongering to smear the document, and all associated with it – and even those not associated with it.
Like so many theoretical documents like Project 2025, it explores ideas that have pragmatic potential. But it also contains ideas that are impractical when considered against current political reality. I doubt even those who contributed to Project 2025 would endorse each and every proposal.
Unfortunately, those who misrepresent the facts about Project 2025 have the distinct advantage of a compliant and cooperative news media that serves as the left’s propaganda agency.
In a very real sense, Democrats are running against a document produced by a think tank. The absurdity of that should be self-evident. They are attempting to run against a hypothetical rather than address the real issues of concern to the American public.
But before, you buy into the Democrats’ fearmongering hair-on-fire hysteria, you should read — or at least peruse — the document. You may find it a lot less scary than the left portrays it. In fact, you might even like a lot of the hundreds of recommendations.
So, there ‘tis.
Wow, I thought this report was 900 plus pages.
Frank Stetson … Ooops. Typo. I know better because I have it a scan read. Thanks for the correction. Makes my argument that folks will not read if even stronger. It is not nearly as scary as the Democrat spinmeisters have it.
Larry, one, Project 2025, the proof has yet to be seen. Harris knows what it is. She will ignore it out of party principle.
Trump has little or zero knowledge about this Project or Policy promises made in tally speeches. He has US Constitution amnesia. That assumes he once learned some of its basic ideas.
Two, referring to all things woke. It’s a slur against common sense social justice policies. You, for instance, claim you are not biased racially nor is the US Justice System racially biased. If you truly are, then you are pro-woke.
Three. Democrats have not lost their minds over Project 2025. Who have lost their minds are the conservatives who are mum on the subject while they allege Democrats are. Democrats know what it is and it will do. Republicans listen to Trump. Enough said.
AC … From what you write, sounds like you did not read Project 2025. You simply are believing what you are told by Democrats. And the left-wing media. That does not make you an intelligent and informed person on the subject. In this case you opt to be a parrot rather than a critical thinker. You are criticizing something you know nothing about. That was one of the points I made in the commentary.
Also I never said the entire justice SYSTEM is free of institutional racism. I said, the PEOPLE are not racist as a culture — BUT there is INSTITUTIONAL and SYSTEMIC racism found primarily in the major cities with the large segregated, impoverished, under educated and unsafe Black populations, And I not that that they are ruled over by longstanding Democrat administrations.
Finally … woke policies are not well defined. It is not simply being opposed to racial injustice, as you seem to believe.
The democrats will lie. Project 2025 would be great. I’ve read the truth about it and it works for me. It removes much of the government bureaucracy and control
Now we know that Project 2025 is great-cause Dan Tyree says it is! (If there is a reason to believe that Project 2025 represents the end of democracy, we now have it….)
Before we get into it, let’s note that The Heritage Foundation is a Right-Wing, that’s one step off extreme far right, media with mixed factual reporting. Both Brookings and the Wilson are left-leanings, that’s one step off center, with highly factual reporting. No, that’s not similar. I use Media Bias/Fact Check for my source on bias. The liberal ones are one bubble off center and true facts, and the conservative one is five bubbles off center and one bubble off extreme far right and sometimes true, sometimes not on the facts. The knotted-knickers bidding:
First Bid: Project 2025 exists and it’s much more than a 900+ page roadmap. The Democrats have lobbyists and “think tanks,” that write ideas and plans too, as Horist states. This “plan” has been underway by The Heritage Foundation since 1981 under the banner “Presidential Transition Project,” and people have been using it since then. Project 2025 is much more than just a think tank plan of ideas. It’s not just an agenda, but a database of employees ready to work and employees that must go: a hit list of middle management —- not CURRENT appointments, but “regular” workers deemed by The Heritage Foundation as “unclean.”. They are primed and ready to replace the perceived “deep state” with the “trump state” removing tens of thousands from their careers based on political party affiliations. They also have a database of Trump brown shirts ready to replace the career workers. We are talking Project 2025 will end tens of thousands of careers. Democrats noted that, as well as other fears about the contents. Horist is correct, that’s the main threat. Horist omits that they already have the hit list and the replacement Trump army listed, locked, and loaded. Horist is incorrect saying it’s the only thing setting my hair on fire. I have issues with a hit list, a replacement army list, forcing family values and anything based on “God-given.” I do not want The Heritage Foundation to pick the new deep state OR have the new deep state beholden to The Heritage Foundation for their jobs. Bad ju-ju. Really bad karma. And bad eggs.
Second Bid: Trump states he never heard of it. Yet it’s mostly being created by his people as in ex-employees. It’s not a few, it’s hundreds. And then quadrupled when adding in “contributors.” Trump lies and that makes Democrats concerned. If he can lie about knowing about it, if he can lie that no one he hired every mentioned it, then he’s probably lying about using it to replace tens of thousands of career employees.
Third Bid: Democrats go postal. The Project recommends reclassifying federal civil service workers as political appointees to allow the President to immediately replace them with loyalists with conservative Christian values: Trumplicants. The plan further proposes taking partisan control of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Commerce, Federal Communications Commission (FCC), NIH, and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), dismantling the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and replacing the majority of workers. Actions include: reducing environmental and climate change regulations, cut Medicare and Medicaid, and reject all forms of abortion healthcare including contraceptives and day-after abortion pills. Project 2025 also proposes criminalizing pornography, removing legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, capital punishment, DOJ prosecutions for “anti-white racism, and deploying the military for domestic law enforcement. Didn’t go hyper on this and say it ain’t so; these are all in the plan. It’s much more than just gutting government personnel because you are not a persuasive businessman and you are a loser politician.
Fourth Bid: Trump says some Project 2025 ideas are good, some are not, some are crazy. Guess he read 900+ pages pretty damn quick. Most of his plans are in Project 2025 and his plan is seen as sparse, to be polite. He has not commented specifically on the bad or crazy ones that have not been included, yet, in Trump’s plan. I can see why Democrats went off the wall. And when they looked at the creators, it’s mostly ex-Trump loyal appointees and workers supported by Trump lobbyists and think tanks.
I have never heard Democrats talk about “a few evil people.” Hundreds of folks Trump aligned, and Trump associated wrote it and Trump says “never heard of it” is enough to cause concern to this liberal. Also in the mix, and this is from the Project 2025 website are three pillars:
Policy Agenda is the first pillar as noted above.
Personal Database is the second pillar providing names of conservatives vetted, trained, and interesting in serving Trump. They are taking applications and I believe the database is 20,000 ready conservative workers, a virtual Trump supplicant army.
Training is the third pillar: Training is free and there are 30 courses up so far. There are specialties including: General Preparedness, Conservative Governance 101, Conservative Governance: Advancing Policy, and The Administrative State and the Regulatory Process.
This is a separate group funded by The Heritage Foundation and they have tens of thousands ready to backfill the jobs they terminate. Tens of thousands. Now, should Federal employees vote Trump to end their careers because they are Democrats? Should they be upset that they are already being backfilled?
I did not see that part of Project 2025 in the Horist piece intended to calm us down, nothing to see here, just don’t look behind the curtain. So, why get upset? If we clean out government with each administration, then I am signing up to be a real estate agent in the DC area…… Sounds like steady worker with peaks every four years. It’s not supposed to matter what party you belong to when you pledge your oath to the Constitution, but apparently conservatives think it does. The foundation for this is the concept of “the deep state” which can’t even be proven. Tens of thousands will be fired, given unemployment and other separation $$$$$, to serve an idea that cannot be proven. And then many laws written to take us back in time, when pornography was illegal, back to the time before government safety rules and regulations, equal rights protections, a time before legal contraceptives, and even a concerted attack on folks targeted as “anti-white.” That’s a poison pill I can’t swallow, so yeah, I am upset about Project 2025, it’s writers, and anyone like Hoirst who supports or enables this troglodyte-generated crap.
Based on recent events, I do not see the pendulum swinging to the right; matter of fact it can’t. And that’s the right’s biggest problem —- it’s not a party, it’s one man demanding total fealty to anything he says and does. It can only swing to Trump and that’s not looking good. And this time, IF it swings to the left, we will shut the door on this crap. Conservatism is good. Destroying democracy and the constitution is not the way to get it done.
Same ole Libs. Every single day!
Larry, I will be the first to admit that I have not read 900 pages of conservative BS in the 2025 Project about how bad our country is, and what we must do in order to “fix it”. Instead I am relying on the Cliff’s notes version, which may not have all the details, but do provide the general gist of the document. If, as you say, there are many portions of Project 2025 that the average voter is going to like, why are no conservative politicians pointing those areas out, and instead all of them are running as fast as they can from this roadmap for an incoming administration to takeover the country? Those actions don’t seem to jive with what you have written above (of course, much of what you write is completely nonsensical…) I suspect that much of the document reflects positions such as your opinion on overturning Roe v Wade, which you feel most of the country was in favor of, which is utter nonsense… The one area that has been widely reported (and the guy that you will vote for in November has reported that he plans to do), is to make it possible for him to fire government employees if they do not support him. This should make every freedom loving American take pause, because it does essentially allow the President to place fools into Government offices-we all should remember that the bulk of Trump’s cabinet appointees in his first term were totally unqualified for their positions, and were placed in those positions because of A) he thought they were loyal to him, and B) he thought they would eliminate those departments. Fortunately, many of these appointments realized that yes, the departments they were in charge of did provide significant service to the country, and that the man they were working for (Trump) was a complete idiot. I have to wonder why Republicans (and yourself in particular) want that kind of control over US citizens-could it be that you are an imbecile? (I believe that is your preferred moniker rather than idiot…)
Mike f … At least you admit to your ignorance on the subject of Project 2025. You say you will rely on the “Cliff Notes.” In other worse you simply accept what critic say and parrot that political a propaganda. You opinion has no value because it is grossly uninformed .. period.
And of course you say things that are not true. I have NEVER said most Americans support the overthrow of Roe v. Wade. In fact, I have specifically written that most do support abortion. I just do not agree. More ignorance on you part. And YOU call ME an imbecile. Next time you want to find an imbecile, look in the mirror. LOL
Larry, You throw a lot of trash at me in your comments above, but my major criticism of the Project 2025 (which the idiot you plan to vote for in November supports)-total crickets. Having the administration in power (and that would be any administration R or D) in charge of firing government workers due to them failing a litmus test of support for that administration is a recipe for corruption (and incompetence) on a grand scale. I realize that doesn’t bother you, but does show you to be a complete ignoramus who really doesn’t put country over party….
Mike F: it’s worse than you think. The “PLAN” is actively creating a hit list of current government employees to be fired below the level of appointed workers. They know who to can. The “PLAN” also has a list of applicants for the jobs. The “PLAN” also has training for the brown shirt list to be ready to take the jobs and implement this FINAL SOLUTION.
We are talking tens of thousands to be summarily fired with tens of thousands brown shirts ready to defend Trump over the Constitution.
Actually Frank, that is exactly what concerns me. And, as I pointed out, it is that portion of my critique that Larry chose to ignore (surprise!)
Larry, still you think you know all that Project 3025 is word by word. I doubt you personally read this conservative play book’s every word. Otherwise, if your report would have been less cover up and more awareness that this documents how far and extreme this think tank group’s philosophy would take the nation away from her underpinnings set by the Constitution and defended by millions of military patriots.
Republicans talk patriotism, but it’s all talk. You all would not stomach sacrifice and suffer loss like patriots have for 250 years. This all has been done so you and I can enjoy the rights and freedoms that others have guaranteed.
You say the Democrats have their hair on fire. That’s true hyperbole coming from you. The true fact is you and your view of those who think differently is compete fake news on hyperbole steroids. The sum of hyperbolic over sell in the negative finds few buyers. Look at the comments your pieces receive. How many are agreeing with you with comments on topic complimentary. None that recall. All see their opportunity to bleed political conservative bile.
Your message ignites open season for trigger happy politically ignorant and uninformed despairing Horist clones. It comes as no surprise that you draw sycophantic approval from right-ist non thinking followers.
Maybe three readers consistently read your overly right biased pieces. Knowing what’s coming and expect no less they best you time after time.
Year after year you repeat yourself. I spend much of the year on the road through several states and have no time for reading PBP style propaganda, When I do, no change. Nothing new and improved, more of the same ol’ .
All things considered, your age and Trump’s together, what positive could come from that match up.
Larry, still you think you know all that Project 3025 is word by word. I doubt you personally read this conservative play book’s every word. Otherwise, if your report would have been less cover up and more awareness that this documents how far and extreme this think tank group’s philosophy would take the nation away from her underpinnings set by the Constitution and defended by millions of military patriots.
Republicans talk patriotism, but it’s all talk. You all would not stomach sacrifice and suffer loss like patriots have for 250 years. This all has been done so you and I can enjoy the rights and freedoms that others have guaranteed.
You say the Democrats have their hair on fire. That’s true hyperbole coming from you. The true fact is you and your view of those who think differently is compete fake news on hyperbole steroids. The sum of hyperbolic over sell in the negative finds few buyers. Look at the comments your pieces receive. How many are agreeing with you with comments on topic complimentary. None that recall. All see their opportunity to bleed political conservative bile.
Your message ignites open season for trigger happy politically ignorant and uninformed despairing Horist clones. It comes as no surprise that you draw sycophantic approval from right-ist non thinking followers.
Maybe three readers consistently read your overly right biased pieces. Knowing what’s coming and expect no less they best you time after time.
Year after year you repeat yourself. I spend much of the year on the road through several states and have no time for reading PBP style propaganda, When I do, no change. Nothing new and improved, more of the same ol’ .
All things considered, your age and Trump’s together, what positive could come from that match up.
AC or Art? Within three minutes, you post the same article under two different names — even as you accuse me of being repetitious. LOL, Short term memory problem? And it is Project 2025 … not 3025. And for the rest, it is nothing more than an incoherent litany of personal insults. It is pitiful to think that this is what you think gives your life meaning.
Larry, Is writing BS for the windbag post what gives your life meaning? At least you write that you know your opinion on subjects such as abortion does not match what the majority of the US population believes. It is precisely those positions that make most of us highly (and I use that term loosely) skeptical of your statement that you think most of the population will like some of the recommendations. You are out of touch with what the country believes. The heritage foundation does not represent what the US population wants, which is why Republicans who are up for election are running as fast as they can away from Project 2025. If you truly believe there are aspects of this document that the general population will approve of, please provide those, rather than the opinion-based tome that you wrote above trashing (readers you guessed it!) the Democrats who do not approve of this guideline for government….
“It is pitiful to think that this is what you think gives your life meaning.” Wow, judge, jury and executioner. All from a guy invested in politics his entire career.