Taking on Project 2025
The right is trying to split hairs on Project 2025. “We aren’t calling for social security to be cut!” for example.
But The Heritage Foundation, which controls Project 2025, has publicly advocated for raising the retirement age. So that’s a cut to everyone who has paid in. The Heritage Foundation can’t shield Project 2025 from scrutiny by pretending they’re ideologically distinct.
Here’s another: Project 2025 “doesn’t advocate a national abortion ban.” Instead it directs the FDA to withdraw abortion medication from the market and for enforcement of The Comstock Act, which could end nearly all abortion care, within a pro-life culture at HHS.
Further, they can’t claim that they’re not actually planning something just because it’s not in their 900 page plan. The president of the Heritage Foundation made clear that they are intentionally withholding parts of the plan so that the Left can’t know about them. That leaves us going to the next best source—the authors themselves.
I walk through these sleights of hand and then discuss five major initiatives of Project 2025, providing vetted talking points about each that people can use, in today’s piece in The Big Picture, out this afternoon. If you’d like to receive it in your inbox and are not yet subscribed, I’ll drop a link in the comments.
I’m off to the Human Rights Campaign summer board meeting for this weekend, so I’ll be off tomorrow from my usual piece, but will have an abbreviated Xeets and Giggles on Saturday!
Jay
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I look forward to your "talking points" post.
I have already seen postings from right-leaning high school classmates expressing alarm over Project 2025. The Lincoln Project has a great set of slides on it.
What follows is on my own FB page.
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I am trying to envision MAGA four-plus years from now after a Trump victory in November. They will be happy about the deportation of the immigrants, but that will be about all. After this November when he becomes a dictator, Trump will no longer have to pretend that he cares anything about what his supporters think. They will be unhappy with the consequences.
They will be unhappy because of the recession.
They will be unhappy because collective bargaining will have been outlawed.
They will be unhappy because Social Security and Medicare, if not already entirely abolished, will be diminished nearly to uselessness.
They will be unhappy because the Affordable Care Act will have been repealed and they won't be able to afford healthcare insurance.
They will be unhappy because not only abortion, but contraception will be illegal.
They will be unhappy because Trump's trade wars will have disrupted supply chains and spiked inflation, just like they did the first time.
All but the top one percent will be unhappy because their taxes will increase to pay for tax cuts on the wealthy and corporations.
They will be unhappy with the acceleration of climate change and the incredibly destructive forces it unleashes.
They will be very unhappy to learn that they now live in an illiberal theocratic police state; one that they chose for themselves.
Finally, they will be incredulous to discover that when they try to vote the Republicans out of office they will have no power to do so; that victory is always declared before the votes are even tallied.