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July 30, 2024
By Laurie Hanson
Imagine the USA governed under a dictatorship, without educational access, no right to vote or no free speech, no freedom of religion, and other civil liberties abolished.
This potential nightmare is what is being proposed in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a 922-page document written by Trump supporters and backed by more than 100 conservative organizations that would fundamentally alter our government as we know it.
Ideas behind it began during the Reagan Era and speak of a Republican conservative utopia where women’s reproductive rights, including abortion, would exist no more, where LGBTQ+ rights would be abolished, and immigrants and others would be detained in what amounts to concentration camps.
It would radically alter the democracy we have known for more than 240 years. The natural “checks and balances” generally in place by our Constitution for the Executive Branch would disappear. Under it, civil servants within all the various governmental agencies would be appointed and directly controlled by the President.
Other wide-reaching effects of it could include ending Social Security, Medicare, and MediCal as we know them, no access to abortion, birth control, or IVF, and a replacement of no-fault divorce with fault-based divorce controlled by the courts.
It would eliminate the Department of Education while pushing for the privatization of education. There would be no reasonable financial access to higher education and no federally funded Head Start preschool program.
By eliminating the Department of Education, Project 2025 aims to eliminate Title I (Every Student Succeeds Act) funding, which provides grants to schools with large populations of low-income students. The purpose of this funding is to reduce achievement gaps between higher-income and lower-income districts and ensure children have “a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education.”
In addition, technology funding for broadband connectivity and educational technology would be affected. Project 2025 also recommends ending educational programs related to LGBTQ+ programming and diversity initiatives.
Climate change policies would also be rolled back to enhance oil industry businesses at the expense of global warming. Project 2025 would cut into areas affecting science and research, including higher education. It proposes deep cuts or the elimination of federal funding for research and investment in renewable energy while calling to “stop the war on oil and natural gas.”
Among other things, Project 2025 would herald in a Christian nationalist religion with implications linked to education and schools throughout the entire country.
Furthermore, entire governmental cabinet departments would be eliminated. The Department of Homeland Security would disappear, and the FBI would be transformed into a political task force accountable to the President. The President would also have direct control of the Department of Justice.
With Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation strives to make the American government more conservative for decades. Whether or not it is heralded in with a Trump victory, the ideas behind it will not stop regardless of who is elected in November. This is why it has become more apparent in mainstream media over the last few weeks. It also seeks to end journalism as we know it today by allowing for lawsuits against media outlets and those who oppose the government. This would create a more authoritarian regime, as seen in other governments worldwide.
According to the Wall Street Journal and CBS News, Project 2025 has Four Pillars, including a policy guide for the next presidential administration that would dismantle the “Deep State” or Administrative State by replacing civil servants with appointed conservative pre-vetted picks.
The second pillar aims to create a LinkedIn-like personnel database of people who could serve the next administration. This would potentially foster loyalty and allow the President to pick conservative appointees more readily. Under it, civil servants would no longer work for the institution; they would work for the President.
The third pillar would institute an online training program for candidates called the Presidential Administrative Academy, which conservatives teach civil servants about how government should work.
By setting the standard, it would potentially allow for a national abortion ban and consolidate the Department of Immigration, thus preparing for a mass deportation of immigrants like nothing ever seen before.
The fourth pillar is the Presidential directive of actions to be taken within the first 180 days of office. It would be during this time that Schedule F would be reinstated by an executive order allowing the President to hire and fire all civil servants, more based on loyalty than competency, as seen in the previous Trump Administration. Based on Article 2 of the Constitution under the Unitary Executive Theory, the President could also be granted unprecedented absolute powers, supported by conservatives already on the Supreme Court.
There is more to Project 2025 than these things. It was undoubtedly written in a lengthy form to keep the average citizen from understanding it. It has been said, “It’s a fascist authoritarian’s dream, and we know Donald Trump would desire this.”
In fact, it was in 2022 that Trump said the Heritage Foundation is “a great group of people who would bring in a colossal mandate to save America.”
Project 2025 could potentially become a reality, especially if the Republican Party is in control of both Congress and the Presidency. Executive Orders would bring many of its critical components into existence, thus altering government in an earthshattering way and profoundly affecting all citizens. Whether or not it becomes reality depends on voters understanding its true meaning and implications while getting the word out to as many as possible and encouraging everyone to vote this coming November. If we do not exercise our right to vote, Project 2025 could take that right away, along with obliterating others.
