If you intend to vote for Donald Trump next November, you are doing so either because you want to destroy America\u2019s democracy and your own civil rights, or you have been duped.<\/p>\n
But either way, a vote for Trump is a vote for the so-called Project 25, a blueprint for Trump\u2019s second term as president.\u00a0 Designed by the far-right Heritage Foundation in cooperation with a hundred or so other far-right organizations, it would:<\/p>\n
During a recent segment on MSNBC, New York University history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an authority on fascism and dictatorial leaders, said the project would effectively transform American government into a regime resembling Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe essence of authoritarianism is removing restraints on the leader and making him immune from prosecution by domesticating government,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cAnd so some of what Project 2025 proposes, like abolishing the DOJ and the FBI, is designed for that end, to make it impossible to prosecute Trump and allow him to commit crimes with impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the adoption of Project 2025 would result in entire departments coming under the control of \u201ca band of criminals supported by oligarchs.\u00a0 You need corrupt people to come into power to sustain an autocracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben-Ghiat is far from alone in warning us about the prospects facing us.<\/p>\n
Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, author of\u00a0Just Faith: Reclaiming Progressive Christianity<\/em>, criticized Project 2025\u2019s opposition to the\u00a0Respect for Marriage Act<\/a>, a landmark law that codified the federal definition of marriage to recognize\u00a0same-sex and\u00a0interracial<\/a>\u00a0marriage.<\/p>\n LGBTQ <\/a>writers and journalists have blasted it for its intended removal of protections for LGBTQ people, and for declarations to outlaw pornography by claiming it is an “omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children.\u201d<\/p>\n Writing for\u00a0Dame<\/em>\u00a0magazine, Brynn Tannehill argued that the 902-page document \u201cThe Mandate for Leadership\u201d, which is a significant component of\u00a0<\/strong>Project 2025,<\/strong> “makes eradicating LGBTQ people from public life its top priority” and links “transgender ideology” to pornography.<\/p>\n Even many Republican leaders are expressing alarm.<\/p>\n Republican climate advocates have been especially virulent in opposing Project 2025’s climate policy.\u00a0 Several Republican-led states, including Vermont, New Hampshire and South Dakota, have gone against the tide and made significant strides in reducing their carbon footprint.<\/p>\n Sarah Hull, president of the non-aligned Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy, says she considers it crucial that Republicans\u00a0 support Biden\u2019s Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden described as \u201cthe biggest step forward on climate ever — ever!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah) said it is vital that Republicans “engage in supporting good energy and climate policy.”<\/p>\n Benjamin Backer, founder of the GOP-connected American Conservation Coalition<\/a>, noted that most young Republicans\u2019 believe that climate change is human-induced and called the Project 2025 \u201cwrongheaded.\u201d<\/sup>\u00a0 Backer seeks to persuade Republicans to address environmental challenges.<\/p>\n Do not think for one moment that the sorts of things Project 2025 proposes won\u2019t happen if Trump is elected.\u00a0 Listen to what Trump himself has said, on Truth Social and in public speeches across the nation, about how he will govern if elected.\u00a0 Among other things, he has promised to:<\/p>\n And yet, many people from greedy corporation executives to everyday citizens remain committed to the idea that a second Trump term will benefit them.\u00a0 They arrogantly insist that things will be fine in a second Trump term while somehow not seeing what history shows dictators throughout the\u00a0 world have always done.<\/p>\n Quoting Ben-Ghiat again: \u201cEvery country is unprepared for an authoritarian assault, and \u2026 even when one takes place, and certain groups are targeted, other groups think \u2018they\u2019ll never come after me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n And so I repeat: If you intend to vote for Donald Trump next November, you are doing so either because you want to destroy America\u2019s democracy and your own civil rights, or you have been duped.<\/p>\n What other conclusion can there be?<\/p>\n Skip Johnson writes an occasional newsletter on current events.\u00a0 If you like this post, please consider forwarding it to your contacts.\u00a0 If it has been forwarded to you, please consider subscribing by clicking here<\/strong><\/a>. It\u2019s free.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you intend to vote for Donald Trump next November, you are doing so either because you want to destroy America\u2019s democracy and your own civil rights, or you have been duped. But either way, a vote for Trump is a vote for the so-called Project 25, a blueprint for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":467,"href":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions\/467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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