Project 2025 was supposed to boost Donald Trump's campaign — but now it may be backfiring

UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 511 points –
Project 2025 was supposed to boost Donald Trump's campaign — but now it may be backfiring
salon.com

The over 900-page document, commissioned by the people expected to run another Trump White House, is a laundry list of the far-right's most politically toxic ideas, from banning abortion nationwide to mass firing federal officials who believe in protecting public health and safety. One would think that Trump and his allies would try to keep their sinister plans out of public view. Instead, Team Trump published their fascistic blueprint on a website for anyone to read,. They even proudly display the menacing "Project 2025" label on the front page.

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On Sunday, actress Taraji P. Henson took a break during the BET Awards, which she was hosting, to speak out about Project 2025. "The Project 2025 plan is not a game. Look it up!" she told viewers. "I’m talking to all the mad people that don’t want to vote. You’re going to be mad about a lot of things if you don’t vote."

The clip went viral, amplified by other celebrities like Mark Ruffalo. So the MAGA forces swung into action on social media, accusing Henson and Ruffalo and other progressives of making it all up. "Is Project 2025 in the room with you?" a blue-checked user sneered under Ruffalo's tweet. These efforts at gaslighting people run against a real problem, however: The drafters of Project 2025 seek to promote their authoritarian playbook. Thus, a simple Google search generates a slew of explainers from various news organizations, with even more coming out rapidly, as a response to the rising number of people asking, "What's Project 2025?"

"We received a flood of reader inquiries asking if Project 2025 was a real effort," the fact-checking team at Snopes wrote in their lengthy explainer published Tuesday. Google Trends confirms that the number of searches for "project 2025" has grown dramatically in recent days.

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And, here's the thing: If they lose this one, they will keep trying every election from now until they win or are found to be breaking the law and sentenced to heavy time or death. So, it's not just this election folks need to vote--it's every election. This hasn't been stated, but the natural direction is that they will try to get folks into any position of power where they can further disenfranchise anyone who doesn't vote their way. I know that has been happening, but Project 2025 hasn't focused on that yet (to my knowledge).

And, here’s the thing: If they lose this one, they will keep trying every election from now until they win or are found to be breaking the law and sentenced to heavy time or death. So, it’s not just this election folks need to vote–it’s every election.

And the reason they keep not getting sentenced to heavy time or death is that enlightened-centrist liberals keep refusing to vigorously apply consequences (see also: Biden refusing to even consider SCOTUS reform, despite them literally just handing him the power to do anything he could possibly think of, up to and including having the fascist justices killed off and replaced). It's almost like they get off on edging fascism.

I think more dems are seeing that reforms need to be made. If democracy is expanded -especially in some way that abolishes gerrymandering or the two party system - the funds tying all these republicans into a single party will collapse for a time.

You see people like AOC willing to create consequences for the supreme court and people pushing constitutiomal amendments again. I expect if Biden wins again the next dem primary will be interesting. If he loses well, there's a good chance we'll become a one party system like russia at the federal level.

Sure, progressives/leftists see it, but they've been seeing it the whole time.

The trick is getting liberals to see it, and that shows pretty much no indication of happening despite the fact that the fascists are now even going so far as directly threatening to persecute them.

I wouldn't be so sure. I think the calls for Biden to step down are evidence that DNC-types (at least some of them) are realizing the gravity of this situation.

WHICH, my dear potential voters, is why we need to stop fucking arguing with one another and come together, dammit.

It's REALLY easy:

  1. Stop being idiots.

  2. Pressure Biden to use the recent Supreme Court decision to OUR advantage.

  3. Vote Biden into office for another 4-years.

  4. Continue to be fucking geniuses by holding hands and using those 4 years to fix shit.

If those on the Left actually stopped verbally measuring one another's dicks and stood united, they would be a force that the Right could not reckon with. The problem is so many of you keep strutting around, beaks in the air, making damned goose calls while collectively peeing into the wind and complaining that your pants keep getting wet.

Pressure him with what?

Your voice. You can literally call your representatives.

Agreed. We don't have to agree on everything. We could get away with blocking this fascist shit and fixing some underlying problems that are preventing the majority of Americans from what they want--living comfortably (rights, wages, etc.). I know it's not necessarily simple, but it's surmountable.

If by using the scotius decision to our advantage, you really mean that we should become the authoritarian fascists we hope to defeat, then no - that's not what we should do.

Keep turning your nose up just like Democrats have been doing for 40 years.

There is a point we shouldn't cross. This doesn't mean we should never take steps towards it. Controlled. Planned. Done with cause. For a better tomorrow. We are at that cusp.

Biden's cooked, he needs to step down and let Literally Anyone Else take the nomination. Other than that, I agree completely

Isn't this like leaving your team playbook on the hood of your car before the big game? Why can't or don't the parties opposing this use it to construct their game plan to systematically remove all the loopholes and methods that this "project" is using to promote their agenda? I'm the furthest thing from a politician, so ELI5.

To fully prevent most of what's laid out there would require supreme court rulings, which isn't going to happen under a conservative court. The only way to prevent it is for Democrats to win (Biden needs to step down imo) and then pack the court and/or impeach a couple of conservative justices.

Exactly this. There is infrastructure to these kinds of moves. The right has been moving on it and the left has mostly not. However, there are some things the left could do, and they should get on that ASAP.

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