Happy 4th of July, where we celebrate our independence. Where we celebrate our freedoms. But what if those freedoms were under attack? What if “the second American Revolution” is underway?
Sorry to rain on the party, but have you heard of Project 2025?
I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have. I’ve met people who are on both sides of that spectrum.
Who I have yet to meet is someone who thinks it’s a good idea.
Well, whether you’re familiar with it or not, I’ve made a discovery about it that terrifies me beyond terrified. But whether you’re familiar with it or not, a recap might be nice.
If you haven’t heard of it (or even if you have), here’s the best summary I can come up with.
It is a plan to cause a fascist takeover of the United States.
I wish I was exaggerating. From what I have gathered, I am not. That is about it. There’s no point in downplaying it.
It is a list of policy proposals made by the Heritage Foundation that would reshape the American government if followed. It relies on a Republican candidate (not explicitly but fairly clearly Donald Trump) to be elected as president in the 2024 election, hence the name of the project.
The plan outlines how the government can be reshaped by the Republican president to fit conservative values better. That sounds bad, but not entirely bad since one has to ask: Isn’t that what political parties are trying to do anyway? Shape the government to fit their party better?
It’s when you get into what conservative values they want to push when it gets scary.
The plan is dependent on this theoretical Republican president to assume control using an interpretation of Article II of the Constitution of the United States. This interpretation, the unitary executive branch theory, is highly disputed for obvious reasons.
If this president is capable of employing that interpretation, the rest of the project will be set into motion.
Partisan control of agencies such as the DOJ, FBI, and FTC to name a few (yes, there’s more) would be implemented. The Department of Homeland Security would be dismantled. Yes, dismantled. The Department of Education would be “abolished.” Any education services would be transferred to private organizations (that’s totally not a bad idea).
Environmental restrictions would be slashed, allowing fossil fuel companies to get away with whatever they want. Climate research funding would also be cut. The National Institutes of Health would be “reformed” along “conservative principles,” as if COVID didn’t already prove that was a terrible idea.
What about the hot topic of abortion? Yeah, the project promotes abortion being completely rejected as a form of health care. It also eliminates coverage of emergency contraception under the Affordable Care Act. What wonderful ideas. Anyone with a uterus should be terrified of that in my opinion, but I digress.
What about separation of church and state? Well, the project aims to “infuse the government with elements of Christianity.” Um, call me a dumbass, but that sounds like the end of separation of church and state.
“Then he said to them, ‘So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.’”
-Matthew 22:21
Legal protections against gender identity discrimination? Gone. Equity, diversity, and inclusion programs? Gone. Affirmative action? Gone.
And if that wasn’t enough for you, do you know their policy on immigration? Illegal immigrants need to be arrested according to them. Sure. That makes sense. They did break the law. It goes on to say they need to be detained and deported. Okay, I guess that makes sense. Then it goes on to promote the “speedy finality” of legal cases against illegal immigrants and also promotes the use of CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
WOAH.
STOP. RIGHT. THERE.
Detain them, likely try them unfairly by doing it quickly (which goes against the constitution I believe—I’m not sure if constitutional rights extend to illegal immigrants), and then KILL THEM.
Call it what you want, but that sounds like persecution shit to me.
And if you’re still not convinced, one of the first acts as president the project urges the Republican candidate to do is the declaration of MARTIAL LAW to enforce this. Martial law? Mass executions? The complete reformation of the government? Replacing government positions with loyalists? Authoritarianism?
Yeah, this sounds like fascism to me.
I like to talk about things on my Substack when I can find a unique angle. The reason I wrote everything above, even though none of it is a particularly unique angle, is because I think the word needs to get out that the threat of fascism in this country actually exists. We can get into the nitty gritty about whether it’s realistic or not, but we need to acknowledge that the threat is there.
But I do offer you a unique angle, dear reader. I have found the most evil, despicable part of Project 2025.
The bombshell: Everything I just told you comes from a Wikipedia article.
Obviously, Wikipedia isn’t the most reliable source. It has more merit than a lot of people give it, but it still can be deceiving or flat out wrong. I usually like to find other sources to back up the information on the Wikipedia article. And where better to fact check than go to the source of the problem itself?
I went to the official Project 2025 website to find out more about their mission statement and whether or not this narrative was true. And what I found shocked me.
There’s nothing.
Absolutely. Nothing.
I’ll link it here so you can go check it out yourself.
Their website is about as blank as a high schooler’s essay two weeks from the due date.
Sure, it talks about their goals a little bit. It gives you a little taste of their opinions. It links their backing, talks about some of the people involved. What is there is common conservative brainwashing language. It preaches about “conservative glory” and “saving America” and all your favorite propaganda. Nothing on there disproves the claims the Wikipedia article made, but it also doesn’t confirm much either.
The only thing the website is consistent about is this detail. Every tab on it advertises the same thing. Yes, advertises. Their website isn’t a normal website. It is an advertisement for a book called Mandate For Leadership; The Conservative Promise (more like the “Conservative Apocalypse,” but whatever). It is within that 900 page book where the actual details of Project 2025 are fleshed out.
Think about it. You have to buy the book, thus supporting the cause, to even figure out what the cause is.
Not to mention hiding your intentions in a book makes it harder for the general public to figure out what your intentions are. I’m not buying a 900 page book likely filled to the brim with mind-numbing propaganda to find out what your website couldn’t tell me. A lot of the people who would be opposed to this project would never care to buy this book, especially when it sends money to the cause.
But wouldn’t the lack of public knowledge hurt the project? Not necessarily. Plenty of diehard Republicans probably have purchased it. And it’s not intended for the general public. It’s a proposal to politicians. Believe me, the people who the authors want to read their book will and probably have read it. The people they don’t want knowing about it won’t ever read it.
And wait a minute, a long book possibly promoting fascist ideas and extreme government reform? Is this a modern Mein Kampf?
So I honestly can’t tell you exactly what Project 2025 supports because of this deception. No matter what, if you try to learn about it from the source, you have to support the source. It’s for these reasons that I have decided to trust second hand sources. They might be exaggerating. They might be dumbing it down too much. But I won’t know without buying the book, and from everything I heard, I am not buying that damn book. So until Project 2025 can communicate their mission in a more accessible way, I will assume the worst and consider it one of the biggest threats to our democracy.
With that said, we need to get word about it out. This book proposes terrifying ideas that would undermine the free world. We need people to know that. They need to know how extreme the Republican Party has become.
And if you are still under the unfortunate belief that “it can’t happen here,” what about the Supreme Court giving the president immunity from the law under “official acts?” And have we all collectively forgotten about January 6th?
Open your eyes. It can and is actively happening here. On this July 4th, we need to fight for our freedom yet again.
I won’t be able to vote this upcoming November, but I am going to do what I can to fight against the threat of authoritarianism. To those of you who can vote, I want to think about something.
If you had the chance to stop Hitler, would you?
If you want to do more research on Project 2025, I’ll link some more resources (some likely more reliable than Wikipedia).
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c977njnvq2do
https://apnews.com/article/project-2025-trump-american-revolution-6e02a297fb91b55de01ba7e86615bb08
https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/what-is-project-2025-and-why-is-it-alarming/
This last link makes me feel kind of dumb for writing this Substack post because it may or may not be a PDF version of the entirety of Mandate For Leadership. I’m not sure; I’m not forcing my chromebook to load all 920 pages.
I agree! This whole thing is so scary! I am hoping that enough people care about the freedom of our country to not let any of this happen!
Thank you for sharing some extremely important information that all of us Americans should take seriously and be concerned about.