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King chess piece on pile of money
Project 2025 is the product of the Heritage Foundation, a very wealthy right-wing think tank that hired 80 writers to put together a play-by-play handbook for taking over the federal government when a popular Republican candidate wins the presidency. This election in 2024 is the target for implementing this strategy and changing how our government operates—new boss, new rules.
These new rules are based on a takeover of the levers of decision-making large and small. Most of these levers are operated by Civil Service employees who test into their positions and are protected by law from random firing. One of the first major changes is to eliminate the civil service worker protection and replace 50,000 of the current staff with MAGA loyalists who are being recruited and trained as we speak. This allows the administration to make policy changes without interference from independent experts.
With this smooth running MAGA machine, the president can mandate action on a number of fronts including:
Healthcare: Repeal Obamacare/ACA, cut medical care support for the poor, the old and people with disabilities and let insurance companies run the healthcare system.
Education: privatize public education, push for Christian schools, ban books that describe slavery and other negative aspects of American history. Stop all loan forgiveness for college students.
Reproduction: No abortion, no birth control, no invitro fertilization, no surrogacy, no adoption by single people or LGBTQ couples.
Sexuality: No gay marriage, no protection from discrimination, no recognition of trans reality, punishing doctors, hospitals and clinic that assist trans people.
Environment: Stop all Climate Change efforts. Give fossil fuel corporations control over US energy policies.
Immigration: Expel one million people per year from the U.S. using local police. Stop worker visas, refugee status for those at-risk of harm, no DACA protection, eliminate the policy that allows babies born in the U.S. to be citizens. Reinstate the fenced holding camps inside empty buildings, separate kids from parents and more.
The List of Destructive Changes Goes On
What is the point? Why do billionaires pay for these proposals? Why do politicians act as eager spokespersons for such undemocratic policies? Why do national leaders care about who sleeps with whom?
It’s a pyramid scheme. Rich people want to get richer which requires tax cuts, no laws to mandate worker welfare or environmental parameters and the freedom to drill, frack, dump and poison as needed to boost profits. Politicians need votes to maintain or grow their power and influence. Getting votes is expensive. Rich people have money so politicians act as megaphones for the desires of their donors.
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Votes also have a price. The Christian nationalist movement has been a force since before the Civil War in different forms and under different names—the Ku Klux Klan, the Joe McCarthy supporters, the Reagan fans, George Wallace voters. The Christian nationalist forces re-emerged when Obama was elected as the Tea Party and the Heritage Foundation has been working this constituency for many years. This power base wants a return to a mythical 1950s when men were men, women stayed home, sex before marriage was a scandal and our vision of America was bright and shiny white.
Leonard Leo, Richard Uihlein, Charles Koch, Elon Musk and their allies need an army to win the election. They are willing to throw this army some policy bones. No sex, drugs or rock ‘n roll. No drag queens or dirty books. These cultural tidbits are a small price to pay for power over the means of production.
Project 2025 is a super bonus to the 1%. All the money saved by cutting resources for schools, hospitals, green investments and support for the elderly is a pot of gold to cover the cost of tax cuts, investments in Arctic drilling and so many private trips to the moon. The pyramid operates with the Christian nationalists on the wide bottom with their votes and donations.
The conservative politicians and operatives are in the middle massaging the Christians and translating the desires of the wealthy into legislative actions. The top are the billionaires pulling the strings from their mansions and yachts. Donald Trump is a widget who makes the MAGA masses want to eat their young and lose their country. Project 2025 is his script for this dangerous piece of political theater.
