Project 2025: The Heritage Foundation Attack on America
Traditional Christian Family Values for All, China, Anti-"Woke", F*ck Diplomacy, States Rights!, Drill Baby Drill, and Projecting American Exceptionalism Everywhere
Background on The Heritage Foundation and Paul Weyrich
The Heritage Foundation was formed in February of 1973, and was founded by Paul Weyrich and Edwin Feulner. Paul Weyrich devoted most of his career to advocating for ultraconservative, socially-regressive ideas for America. He publicly said the quiet GOP policy outloud when he was recorded saying “I don't want everybody to vote... As a matter of fact, our leverage in the election quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.” Heritage and Heritage Action have been behind efforts to deny climate change, delay and obstruct climate action, suppress voters and weaken the Voting Rights Act, repeal the Affordable Care Act (despite many of the recommendations for a “free-market” insurance exchange stemmed from Heritage).
Paul Weyrich also co-founded the nefarious American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). They continue to provide draft legislation for local, State, and Federal government supporting initiatives such as “Right to Work” which weakens employee protections, “Stand Your Ground” which provides a defense for the murder of people of color when a white person is “afraid”. He was also connected to Jerry Falwell and the “Moral Majority” who have worked across generations to politicize religion in the United States and shatter the separation of church and state.
The Birth of Heritage, Americans for Prosperity, etc.
The 1960’s ushered in an era of widespread activism in the United States and around the world. Civil Rights, Voting Rights, Women’s Rights, Anti-war, LGBTQ, and AIM were all gaining momentum and questioning everything including blind hyperconsumerism and its impact upon the environment and world. The rise of people’s movements created fear and loathing among the ultrawealthy, and in reaction in August of 1971, Lewis Powell wrote a now famous memorandum to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce titled "Attack on the American Free Enterprise System”. The memo was a blueprint for the ultrawealthy in the United States to regain control and concentrate power.
One of the key points in Powell’s Memo called for the funding and formation of multiple right-wing think tanks to promote conservative concepts intended to shift power away from the people and to therefore concentrate power and wealth to the top. The Heritage Foundation was one of several so-called think tanks stemming from Powell’s blueprint. Also funded and formed post-Powell Memo were the CATO Institute, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Americans for Prosperity, Heartland Institute, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. When someone considers a think tank, you might imagine groups of incredibly smart, well-educated analysts evolving society to benefit its people in highly-specific areas. These conservative “think-tanks” operate differently. They are funded and given the outcome desired by their wealthy benefactors, and are then tasked with providing studies, reports, and official looking analysis to support conclusions such as clean coal is safe and delicious on breakfast cereal, more assault rifles means a more civil and polite society, why affordable high-quality healthcare is bad for America, and why voting is harmful for democracy (and why democracy is harmful for democracy).
Deconstructing Project 2025, “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise”
The object set forth is “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.”
The publicly-stated objective is a small government. The “free market” will take care of EVERYTHING. Remember that Reagan bestie and Heritage pal Grover Norquist called for “a government so small it can be drowned in a bathtub”. This reduces bloat, and therefore tremendous tax savings for individuals and working families. Suddenly every American citizen (at least white males) will be magically living like Elon Musk. No, you won’t be buying companies and turning them into empty, valueless husks of themselves. However, you’ll have your own internet activist publishing your private jet comings and goings. And ladies, you’ll be barefoot in the kitchen baking cookies and cranking out young Republicans.
Some of the preamble is laughable marketing hype better suited to a third-rate disaster film as opposed to a “bringing together” of the best minds to solve the significant challenges confronting America today. The premise that since Reagan, the United States has fallen into a deep hole of cultural “Marxism” (I’m guessing they mean Groucho or Harpo as opposed to Karl) is preposterous. Armed with an extremist, highly-partisan Supreme Court hellbent on reversing Women’s rights, racial equality, erasing the vital line between church and State, and eviscerating years of Federal regulation and enforcement of environmental protections (which has demonstrably cleared air pollution in former smog farms like Los Angeles), a House led by a religious zealot who unapologetically publicly stated the bible is his worldview. Sorry ladies: "I permit no woman to teach or have authority over men; she is to keep silent." Timothy 2:11
And in terms of wealth (and thus power) concentration, the top 10% of the United States, in 2023, enjoy over two-thirds of the the accumulated wealth. The top 1% controls 31% (nearly one-third) of the wealth, and the top 0.1% have accumulated $20 Trillion dollars representing 14% of the wealth in the United States. So yes, the “Marxist” takeover.
The reality is Heritage and those participating in this “friendly” new attempt at overthrowing democracy want to eviscerate laws, regulation, and enforcement of environmental protections, drinking water safety, food safety, consumer safety, worker protections, and shift many government functions to private industry. In spite of a declining life expectancy in the United States, they want you to work longer -ideally until you die on your feet at work and then are simply carted off to the morgue -because this will properly balance the Social Security system -instead of making those with incomes over $150,000 per year contribute the same percentage into the system as average American workers.
Public education led by experienced and degreed educators ensuring that every child has an academic foundation that includes reading comprehension, mathematics, science, the humanities, and critical thinking skills?
F*ck that! Governor DeSantis, mom, and dad know best. Besides, an educated citizen is much harder to manipulate and control. Remember, Heritage just wants to produce obedient hyper-consumers.
In this abstract I’ve provided some of the key points raised in the 920 pages of toxic garbage produced by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. My comments, when necessitated by lies, fairy tales, and breathtaking stupidity of the Project 2025 authors are italicized and sometimes embodied in parenthesis for additional emphasis ().
Project 2025
Foreword -A Promise to America
The foreword is written by Kevin Roberts and begins with not taking accountability for Nixon and Watergate. While “accountability” appears in the document, it is largely absent from MAGA extremists like those contributing to this toxic document dump. The opening paragraph states that the United States and the conservative movement were in dire straits, betrayed by “the Washington establishment”. It goes on to claim that America is at a “low point” today due to the “ruling and cultural elite”. Furthermore it states that inflation is ravaging families, already torn apart by drugs, rampant pornography in schools and libraries, and it claims “the toxic normalization of transgenderism and drag queens”. Low-income communities (GOP/MAGA code for BIPOC) are drowning in addiction and government dependence (perhaps a “tip of the hat” to Reagan’s quote: Cadillac-driving Welfare Queens).
(It’s notable that Heritage is clearly more concerned with books leading children astray, as opposed to bulletproof backpacks, active shooter drills, Uvalde and Sandy Hook -but more about that later).
It’s also important that Heritage claims their initial “Mandate for Leadership” was produced in 1981 and more than 60 percent of its recommendations were implemented by Reagan. This explains a great deal of the dysfunction of U.S. Government today, the extreme concentration of wealth, the consolidation of news media -making the manufacturing of consent much easier, and the GOP assault on civic participation -voter suppression, gerrymandering, toxic political campaigns, even down to the intentionally confusing design of voter ballots.
The foreword discusses four “broad fronts” instrumental in determining America’s future:
1. Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children.
Translated: Restore the white family … and protect our children right up until when they are forced to be born.
2. Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people.
We don’t need the Federal government. Just let each state operate independently -because that works so well. Like it did before the ‘Civil’ War.
3. Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats.
Okay, so we’ve meddled in Latin and South America, our foreign policy under Reagan decimated El Salvador. But we must protect our southern border from people fleeing the violence and poverty we helped create.
4. Secure our God-given individual rights to live freely—what our Constitution calls “the blessings of Liberty.”
God-given in the same manner as “The Inquisition?” The Salem Witch Trials? I may be in the minority, however I think it is historical experience and intellectual evolution that yields the concept of liberty -fundamental freedom from exploitation and abuse by those in power.
SECTION 1: the White House, the Executive Office, and Personnel
In the foreword titled “A Promise to America” by Heritage’s Kevin Roberts, Roberts decries what he calls “The Great ‘Awokening’” of the people and what you and I might call vital institutions for a functioning democracy, and what Kevin calls “The Administrative State.” What he doesn’t talk about is that American society went through another ‘Awokening’ in the 1960’s -when various people’s movements started to intersect. Civil Rights, race and gender equality, Labor rights, the environmental movement, the antiwar movement, and OMG -hippies started to question societal values which prioritized greed, consumerism, and war instead of life, nature, and planet. Out of fear for this era in which political and economic power was shifting to people, Lewis Powell wrote his famous Memorandum to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called “Attack on American Free Enterprise System”.
The Powell Memo outlined a comprehensive framework necessary to shift power back to the wealthiest Americans. The memo called for the founding and funding of conservative “think” tanks like Heritage, and the promotion of conservative thought and ideas in the academic community (Powell was concerned that well-educated faculty tended to lean liberal, while the institutions were funded by tax dollars from the wealthy), the media should amplify conservative thought, etc. (I wrote about the Powell Memorandum, most recently in August, 2022). Ironically, when I consider the Powell memo it called for the weakening of labor unions in the United States by calling for a union … of the wealthy. The Powell memo, and subsequently the Heritage Foundation guided policies of the Reagan Administration. Those policies as implemented were the beginning of a major assault on democracy in the United States. The policies related to tax cuts for the wealthy, privatization, laws weakening labor unions, attacks on government by characterizing it as bloated and inefficient, the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine in media, and more led to extreme wealth concentration (and thus concentrated political power -antithetical to democracy.
Project 2025 claims that while Congress has the power to make laws (as the legislative branch), it then cedes regulatory and enforcement control to the “Administrative State.” For example, legislation might be passed with the intent to preclude industry from poisoning rivers by dumping toxic chemicals, or might pass legislation minimizing the release of toxic gases by refineries when close to residential areas. Congress provides a framework and the intent of the law. The law, through delegation by the President, is then reviewed by subject matter experts at a federal agency (such as the Environmental Protection Agency) who are best equipped to understand the intent of the law, and provide the specific regulations necessary to implement it. The law could represent 500 pages of information guiding the intent. The regulations drafted by the agency could represent tens of thousands of pages, each section specific to a particular hazardous chemical.
Kevin, Heritage, and the band of criminals they represent want to effectively eliminate the ability of federal government to regulate industry. By their commitment to destroy the “Administrative State” they claim they are only seeking to ensure Congress fully articulates law and regulations necessary to implement the law. Heritage is seeking the support of a corrupt, ethically-challenged Supreme Court to help them in the quest to eliminate federal regulations necessary to protect public health, public safety, labor rights, and more. While they claim it is a fanatical push toward a “free market” economy (which, like Unicorns, doesn’t exist), it is really about externalizing costs of industry to society in order to concentrate additional wealth to the top.
Project 2025 slams the establishment of LGBTQ rights and calls the recognition and expansion of rights part of a decline in moral and social standards. It characterizes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as divisive and harmful. Environmental protection and climate action is termed “anti-human” because they prioritize nature over economic growth. Heritage expresses a need for a “reassessment” of our policies toward China and prefers isolationist nationalism (which is great if you are a fan of massive world war) over diplomacy and competitive cooperation. Heritage calls for the elimination of “noxious” race and gender discussions from the public education system. Heritage wants strict immigration controls and attempts to connect immigration with an array of economic problems (they are coming here and taking all the high-paying CEO jobs!)
And liberals are not liberals according to Heritage. We are “Marxist Elites!”
According to Heritage, America is at war between “Woke” and anti-Woke elements. They call for the next or future Presidential administration to flex their authority to undertake significant personnel “reform” to eliminate any “Woke” element in federal government. These woke people, sometimes called “the deep state” are why government can’t get anything done. Political appointees (presumably like Lara Trump -now ‘running’ the RNC or Christina Bobb -now under criminal indictment in Arizona) are best suited to implement Presidential policy as opposed to career bureaucrats who actually have experience with the federal government. Furthermore Project 2025 calls for the “shrinking” of government -which is just more thinly-veiled code for eliminating federal regulation and enforcement. Because who needs food safety, right?
SECTION 2: Department of Defense and Homeland Security
In this section Heritage again attacks Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Christopher Miller complains that the DoD is deeply troubled due to DEI and vaccine mandates! Because nothing toughens up the military like a good, highly-contagious case of the measles. Again, Heritage here calls out China as the most significant danger to America’s security and freedom.
Miller calls for the expansion and modernization of our Nuclear arsenal, probably because catastrophic climate change isn’t threatening the survival of humanity fast enough to satisfy the ultra-wealthy like the surviving Koch brother.
Miller advocates for the politicization of the military, contending that progressive policies related to environmental protections, climate change, non-discrimination weaken the security and defense of the United States. Presumably nothing would make us more secure than a large, well-equipped army of Republicans because that shouldn’t alarm anyone.
SECTION 2 continued: State Department, Intelligence, Media Agencies, and International Development
Project 2025 defines the role of the State Department is implementing the President’s foreign policy priorities. The document is intentionally silent on what should occur when the interests of the United States is in conflict with a President who seeks to misuse resources to advance a personal agenda. For example, a President who seeks to use foreign allies and/or adversaries to smear political opponents, undermine international law, and withdraw from American commitments.
Project 2025 advocates that all ambassadors resign at the beginning of a new administration. Since diplomacy can be complex and success can be predicated upon relationships and trust carefully built over years, this particular point would lead to less diplomacy, security, and peace -and more conflict. So if you are the military industrial complex seeking an even larger piece of taxpayer revenue, this point is for you. The document calls for a State Department that is driven by political appointees instead of those who have dedicated their experience and career toward diplomacy, peace, and security globally. Heritage attempts to make the case that the State Department should cultivate relationships to exclusively project American ideology around the world instead of a respectful exchange leading to greater cooperation and stronger relationships with other sovereign nations and regions of the world.
Project 2025 also calls for more political appointees in senior roles. Nothing says America is serious about diplomacy than people like Rudy Giuliani, Erik Prince, or ‘climate champion’ Rex Tillerson leading the charge and representing GOP, whoops, I mean America’s interests around the world.
This section again (and throughout much of the document) calls for a provocative position with China. Coupled with the call for inexperienced political donors to be appointed to key roles instead of career diplomats, this section could readily be called “Fumbling our Way Toward War with China”.
Project 2025 calls for a withdrawal of all international treaties not ratified by the U.S. Senate, and the reassessment of all international treaties for consideration of withdrawal. This is intended to drive more isolation and nationalism into the “DNA” of America -and isolation and nationalism (instead of global cooperation and international law) is what threatened the entire world in the 1930’s. Again, anything that stokes tension and conflict is great for defense budgets and spending. It just isn’t good for humanity.
SECTION 3: Agriculture and Education
From federal budget perspective, if you are creating more tension and uncertainty globally, withdrawing from international treaties, replacing experienced diplomats at State Department with inexperienced political donors and political appointees (again think Rudy Giuliani, Erik Prince, etc.) -you will need a larger military budget. This leaves less room for ridiculous programs like Medicare and Medicaid. From the Project 2025 perspective, providing fundamental healthcare to the elderly is just going to cause them to live longer. Let’s face it, Wal*Mart can only employ so many greeters. This aging population ceased to contribute to the bottom line for wealthy narcissist Elon Musk or insurrectionist Julie Fancelli.
Project 2025 rails against public health. Making people wear masks and be vaccinated against highly-contagious and deadly disease is clearly an infringement on people’s “God-given” rights to infect their families, neighbors, and communities with measles, COVID-19 (or whatever COVID comes next). In fact, Heritage is clearly upset that people didn’t follow Trump guidance for COVID -and that if you just drink bleach and shove a UV light up your -well, insides, you’d be cured. Because what do scientists and public health officials know? An outside political opinion is always best when it comes to managing individual health, just ask any woman trying to get emergency pregnancy care in Texas or Florida.
Project 2025 is deeply concerned that Health & Human Services is anti-American and embraces ‘woke transgender activism’ over promoting traditional family values and structures (code for a white Christian family, dad is working, mom is in the kitchen, the children are in school learning about ‘apprenticeship programs’ for BIPOC people that America generously sponsored until Lincoln and the Feds put a stop to it).
SECTION 3a: Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency
The Heritage perspective on climate and the environment is very clear. The Earth is here for us to simply extract infinite resources regardless of the mountaintops we must remove, the rivers we must poison, and the impact to air, water, and climate. God won’t let anything bad happen to us. If it does it is because we aren’t praying hard enough and due to ‘woke’ liberal policies like women making their own healthcare decisions with their physicians, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and gun violence prevention. We must ‘drill baby drill’ to maintain energy independence, economic growth, and national security. Besides, how do you generate a profit from the sun or the wind? And if you use up all the sunshine it will just be dark and cold all the time, forcing you to turn on the lights and your heater -which uses more energy! So oil, gas, and coal are the keys to America’s future. Just ask people twenty-five years from now who live in that great underwater State of Florida.
This means the Department of Energy must focus on oil, gas, and coal. Furthermore there must be less Federal influence and regulation in energy markets. The private sector is incredibly efficient in regulating itself. Just ask all those who invested in Enron. A more recent example of a ‘hands-off’ approach is the energy grid in Texas.
We (apparently) need to eliminate incentives for clean, renewable energy because that only props up the clearly communist Big Solar and Big Wind industries.
We must reject so-called “scientific opinion*1” on climate change and redouble our oil, gas, and coal extraction efforts.
*1”scientific opinion” equals peer-reviewed research studied and confirmed across generations.
SECTION 3b: Health & Human Services, Housing & Urban Development, Interior
Heritage calls for the reduction of “Federal Overreach”. At present, State and local governments are constrained in their ability to discriminate. This, apparently is an outrage. A Federal (big nanny government) response to a pandemic limits freedom. There should be local control -because only a local government knows what is best for its people. Why have the Center for Disease Control or the National Institutes of Health weigh into a deadly contagious pandemic when Dr. Andy down the street from Mayor Bob can figure it out without Federal ‘overreach’.
Whether public health, gun rights, religious freedoms, choosing who to discriminate against and/or regulating what a woman can do with her body -there must be local freedom to choose.
The Interior Department should work closely with Big Oil and Coal, perhaps some advance scouting to help the extraction industries know which National Park or preserve to drill next.
SECTION 3c: Justice, Labor, Transportation, and Veteran Affairs
Heritage then goes after the Justice Department. According to Heritage DOJ is overtly political, first the Mueller investigation and report about Trump and his associates, their back channel involvement with Putin, and the what must be the clearly politicized liberal DOJ pursuing poor Mr. Trump simply because he took a few documents(*2) as souvenirs and kept them at his Mar-a-Lago home -where the front door is often locked and foreign agents must first shake Mr. Trump’s hand before having unfettered access to the sprawling estate.
(*2): Granted, there were boxes of documents related to vital national security interests of the United States and our allies. Subsequently Trump refused to return them. Then, after giving some back so they could be properly stored securely where they belong, Trump continued to hide many boxes and declared he returned them all. Then Trump had his counsel swear they were all returned. And now, as the case unfolds, thankfully an incompetent, corrupt (granted, redundant for a Trump appointee) is now acting as both judge as well as in an unofficial capacity as part of the Trump defense team.
Project 2025 also goes after the FBI -long viewed as simply an extension of the Marxist left. When not protesting the clear-cutting of forests by tree-sitting, marching against U.S. intervention in Latin America, smoking copious amounts of marijuana, dropping acid, going to Snoop Dogg concerts, the FBI, under the direction of the mean-spirited and political DOJ goes after people like Donald Trump simply for trying to Make America Great Again. Notably they arrested, indicted, and convicted many “passionate tourists” stemming from their peaceful tour of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The FBI has been considered a very liberal/progressive entity ever since they brought down President Nixon.
Project 2025 calls on the next President to re-establish integrity of the Justice Department to specifically act in a manner consistent with arresting and imprisoning anyone who says mean things about Mr. Trump, makes fun of James Comer and Jim Jordan (coming after you Jeff Tiedrich!), or supports efforts consistent with democracy, equality, and justice -clearly opposite “traditional conservative American values.”
Also, the DOJ must continue to investigate Hillary Clinton, Hunter Biden, and if the investigation uncovers evidence of criminality, like from a Russian agent, to work with the House Investigation Committee on falsifying additional evidence necessary to convict Clinton, Biden, and anyone else who does not pledge absolute loyalty to Donald Trump and the GOP.
SECTION 4: The Economy -Commerce, Treasury, Import/Export Bank, Federal Reserve, Small Business Administration
This section attempts to establish the reason an average working family in America isn’t struggling due to multiple generations subjected to “trickle-down” economic fraud implemented by the Reagan Administration which slashes taxes for the wealthy and corporations and favors shifting costs to society (externalities) through weakened government regulation and enforcement, attacked Labor Unions, and the embrace of privatization. The reason you are struggling is due to a porous border (they are entering illegally and are taking all of the high-paying executive positions!), the outsourcing of high-paying manufacturing jobs, and the constraints of federal regulation and State/Local regulation in big nanny liberal-leaning ‘woke’ blue government like the Marxist State of California.
This section continues the highlight on China as America’s enemy number one, consistent with every other section of this toxic garbage dump also known as Project 2025. And to add insult to the poor 1’s and 0’s comprising the digital version of the Heritage document, Peter Navarro is one of the authors of this section (I suppose his part was written before he was convicted and sent to prison).
Project 2025 calls for trade to be unburdened with worker protections, anti-discrimination protections, and environmental (climate change is a hoax, like COVID!) protections.
Furthermore, as in other sections throughout Project 2025, economists, finance experts, and international trade experts must be replaced by political appointees -because only political appointees like Lara Trump can be trusted to implement key programs (like let’s put a Trump hotel and resort in every major city around the world!)
Heritage calls for “Protectionist” trade because tariff wars are fun and raise the potential for conflict globally. And you know who won’t be fighting in future conflicts or wars with China or Russia? Heritage employees and contributors! As in other sections, withdrawing from, or renegotiating America’s commitments to trade partners is called for -as the United States becomes untrustworthy in honoring treaties -whether they be important military alliances, economic partnerships, environmental/climate related, or anything else -the U.S. can simply change course every four years. Heritage attacks the World Trade Organization, again China, and favors trade wars.
SECTION 5: Regulatory Agencies -SEC, CFPB, FCC, FEC, FTC
Section 5 related to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) attacks Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) programs, and calls to eliminate many regulatory protections such as the repeal of SEC climate change reporting rule, Dodd-Frank disclosures related to mining and extraction, oppose efforts to cause corporations to act as equitable societal partners with respect to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), ESG, sustainability, and ethics (which results in more economic burden on average Americans as costs are externalized to society -allowing more wealth to flow to the top). And they seek to limit SEC investigations.
Heritage goes on to attack the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and calls for it to be abolished. The CFPB was authorized by the Dodd-Frank Act as a result of the financial crisis of 2008. The CFPB has protected society from things like predatory lending practices, loan and banking discrimination, and more. Predatory loans and other predatory financial practices represent another mechanism to shift money from working families to the very wealthy, like Betsy DeVos, a beneficiary of student loan debt and interest payments.
The section goes on to attack content moderation (Of course Heritage embraces the free flow of propaganda, lies, and disinformation -it’s their core work!) It attacks China again (notably Chinese-owned entities such as Huawei, ZTE and TikTok).
When considering the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Heritage states that the free market (which doesn’t exist -if you believe it does, let me know what your thoughts are on the Wall Street and TARP bank bailout of 2008/2009 was about.) will magically take care of monopolies and other anti-competitive bad business behavior (just as the semi-free market led to economic disaster in 1929 and again in 2008/2009). They go on to quote wealth-shill economist Milton Friedman “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits” -because, apparently, that will automatically lead to excellent leadership in climate change action, environmental protections, ethics, out of control CEO pay ratios, and other supernatural magic.
SECTION 6: Conclusion
In the conclusion to this toxic dump from Heritage, Edwin J. Feulner is gleeful about Donald Trump. He is pleased that Trump (currently under criminal indictment) implemented more Heritage recommendations in his first year than Reagan did throughout his two terms in office. According to Feulner, Trump liked the comparison to Reagan (who was the worst President in modern U.S. history until the future “Prison Apprentice” replaced him at the bottom). Edwin goes on to whine about the Biden Administration and “America now being mired in economic, military, cultural, and foreign policy turmoil.” (Loosely translated this means workers pay is rising, labor unions are strengthening, the United States is investing in climate action -necessary for the survival of future generations, building stronger international alliances, trying to protect women’s rights, and broadening the thought of equality).
Edwin talks about Federal overreach and opines about the EPA (instead of being led by industry lobbyists, now led by Michael S. Regan -who has devoted his career to pragmatic environmental protection), and the Internal Revenue Service hiring 87,000 people to closely examine the financial position of every American (translated: going after wealthy tax evaders like Donald Trump and many of the donors who pay for the propaganda, lies, and disinformation flowing from Heritage like an oil rig catastrophe off of the formerly pristine central California coast). He worries about people being vaccinated against deadly contagious diseases when Heritage apparently would prefer widespread suffering and death as polio, measles and the next version of COVID begins killing people.
In my own conclusion, Heritage and all who contributed to Project 2025 (whether currently in prison, on their way to prison, or simply writing and rooting for the total collapse of the American experiment) can all G.F.Y. This is because 70,000 Americans died to declare independence from an authoritarian Monarchy, 360,000 Union soldiers died in so-called “Civil War” to begin to eradicate slavery (or States’ Rights as the cowards who celebrate the treasonous Confederates and defend hate, discrimination, and racism), and nearly half a million American soldiers died fighting against Hitler and the fascism promoted by Trump, Orban, Heritage, and other GOP/MAGA extremists today.
To say the American dream has died due to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, due to environmentalism and climate action, due to market pressure for companies to embrace social responsibility (ESG), due to regulatory overreach by the Federal Government is a lie so vast it can barely be contained by an expanding universe. The fact that many Americans believe that the concept of shifting more wealth to the already obscenely wealthy will help make every American prosperous, while undocumented workers who perform backbreaking effort, often for less than minimum wage to harvest crops, and put food on American dining tables are the reason you are not living in a big house in a gated community is beyond the pale.
I’ve often said that any meaningful form of democracy requires an educated, informed, and engaged society. The Heritage (and GOP) attacks on each pillar, while also implementing policy that has led to extreme wealth inequality are all direct attacks on the American system many have fought, sacrificed, and died for. While we speak of the continuing “Big Lie” -the bigger lie has been promoted by Heritage and implemented by Reagan, Bush, “Dubya”, and Trump -and it has been to siphon the quality of life from Americans and shift wealth to GOP/MAGA donors and benefactors.
The GOP has Fox ‘News’ and at their core they embrace Nazi propaganda. While their public-facing soundbite was “Fair and Balanced” -internally it was: “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” -Joseph Goebbels.
There was never a progressive/liberal response to the Lewis Powell memorandum. When you view the political and economic environment in the United States it can be simplified into organized wealth versus organized people. As the Powell memo provided the mechanism to organize wealth, “We the People” remain largely disorganized, with eroding education, consolidating media which, as Professor Noam Chomsky would say “Manufactures Consent”, and the vast flow of wealth into politics eliminates the political will to properly address societal imperatives such as public health and safety, climate action, environmental destruction, an economy that has been rigged to perpetuate the concentration of wealth, and effectively destroying the American dream for the majority, while facilitating the purchase of jets, yachts, and a portfolio of summer and wintering homes for the very few.
While I deplore much of what Heritage stands for, I cannot argue with their success. They have effectively produced a significant number of voters who truly believe that if they give their money to the already wealthy -Trump, DeVos, Musk, Seid, and others -that money will be returned to them tenfold or more. That their lives are greatly diminished becomes someone, somewhere is collecting unemployment or is on food stamps (without considering billions of dollars of subsidies paid to Big Oil). Americans are fearful of a system of healthcare that provides quality, cost-effective care for all, accepting a high-cost mediocre system that produces poor outcomes and can often lead to personal bankruptcy. People are taught to be cynical about “Big Solar and Big Wind” industries, as opposed to Big Oil, Big Coal, and extraction industries who have known about catastrophic climate change for generations and continually lied about it while continuing to produce quarter over quarter record profits. People want responsible gun ownership and sensible gun violence prevention. However, again, political will is shutdown by the flow of NRA (and Putin) money to continue to promote mass shootings, gun violence, and chaos. Attempts at understanding the egregious nature of discrimination and systemic racism is quashed as being “Woke” -instead of what it is -taking responsibility for our history and working toward a “more perfect union.”
While there must be short-term strategy and funding to ensure Project 2025 is simply added to the trash heap of history, there must be a long-term countervailing strategy that will evolve the American experiment, rebuild the American Dream, and lead to an America that truly is a beacon of democracy, equality, and justice for all. Our continuing failure to address long-term strategy will make Project 2029, or Project 2033 a reality. Generations before us spilled blood and sacrificed so we could work together toward something truly exceptional.
George, this is outstanding! Very thorough and devastingly descriptive.
I will restack and share.
My worry is that it might not get read thoroughly enough by the many with short attention spans. I wonder if there is a way to release this more widely in segments.
How to get this threat more widely understood? I am stunned daily by the people I know who have never heard of Project 2025 or the Heritage heretics.
Thanks so much for this background and history behind the 2025 Project. I had been interested in learning more about the backers and authors. Many of the morbidly wealthy are familiar names. With such antidemocratic plan, it had to be created by people with the desire to dominate and control the “unwashed masses”.
How did these people become so perverted and without any sense of what has made America great? This manifesto of hate and false christian conservatism really boils down to they need to go start their own all White old men country. I cannot imagine what type of women are in their lives but I know they are totally brainwashed.
The scariest part is how can so many people be so damned sold on this crap! No other way to say it.