Those of us who have taken the American Idea seriously have to face what has previously been unthinkable: the racism, anti-Semitism and misogyny weren’t bugs–they were features. As sick as it makes me to confront that truth, it’s inescapable: the bigotry (and the accompanying ignorance) were what most Trump voters were endorsing.
In case there is any doubt, Project 2025 will be the roadmap to a second Trump administration. In addition to what that will mean for women’s rights, for LGBTQ+ people and people of color, let me remind readers of its major “promises”–promises that will affect the entire world, not just the United States.
A Trump administration will ” Restore warfighting as the military’s sole mission” and end what it calls “the Left’s social experimentation in the military” by halting the admission of transgender individuals. It will increase the Army by 50,000, bring overseas troops home, grow the Navy and Air Force, and triple the number of nuclear weapons—while withdrawing America from all arms reduction treaties, and from NATO.
In other words, Trump will make the entire world unsafe (except, of course, for Putin and other autocrats).
USAID will defund women’s rights provisions in foreign aid initiatives, withdraw from all multi-lateral trade agreements, and stop providing financial aid to Ukraine, which will be gift-wrapped for Putin.
Trump wants to institute 60% tariffs on Chinese goods and 10% on all other imports. (Every reputable economist—conservative and liberal—has pointed out that tariffs are a tax on Americans, and that imposing them would cost American families thousands of dollars a year and throw the country into recession. The economy that President Biden has made the envy of the world will tank.
In order to destroy America’s fidelity to the rule of law, Trump plans to replace 50 thousand civil service employees with Trump loyalists. The Heritage Foundation is currently “vetting” individuals in order to facilitate that replacement.
The media has reported on the proposal to eliminate the Department of Education, Head Start, Title 1, & school lunch programs. The less-reported portions of their “education” policies are equally regressive: they would eliminate all diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, post the Ten Commandments in all school classrooms and eliminate any books addressing race or gender from the nation’s classrooms.
JFK, Jr isn’t the only medical moron likely to be dictating “health” measures; Project 2025 proposes to withdraw federal funding from any school requiring vaccinations. (Not sure how they’re going to remove flouride from the nation’s water supply, but reality hasn’t been a big part of Rightwing ideology.)
Kiss goodby to Medicare (they’d privatize it), the EPA, OSHA, the EEOC and the FDIC.
But it’s with the bigotries that we really see the animating message of the worldview.
Trump has echoed the Project’s promise of immediate mass deportation of (dark-skinned) undocumented persons, a massive effort that would wreak havoc with the economy. (Think groceries are high now? Watch what happens when there’s no one to pick crops.) The Project proposes internment camps and limiting lawful immigration to 20,000 annually. They’d also deport all the Dreamers (who came as children with their parents, and most of whom have never known another country. They want to ban Muslims and Haitians from entering the country, roll back gay rights, invalidate same-sex marriages, and outlaw both transgender rights and no-fault divorce.
Then there’s the effect on the already precarious environment.
Authors of the Project say—and I quote– the “climate is not changing and schools are not to teach that it is.” Since climate change is just a liberal myth, they would eliminate climate and environmental protections, eliminate the regulation of greenhouse gases, and defund FEMA. They’d dismantle the National Hurricane Center and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, halt all climate research, revoke the Global Change Research Act of 1990, withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Accords, halt research into electrical vehicles and revoke tax incentives for clean energy.
That’s just a small part of what the bigots have voted for. Of course, courts would once have declared much of that roadmap blatantly unconstitutional, but Trump’s appointment of rogue Justices has removed that pesky impediment.
And of course, his election will allow the first convicted felon to be elected President to escape accountability for his crimes.
Welcome to the new Dark Ages.
My big fear is that Trump will delegate the work of governing to Vance and other competent cronies who will see Project 2025 implemented. I think this is a reasonable possibility because Trump doesn’t like doing the actual work, but is in it for the grift, protection from jail, and public glory. Mainly, he likes being in front of the cameras, and ranting.
The main hope I cling to is that Trump is such a narcissist that he may keep himself involved, and then his stupidity and incompetence can throw a wrench into the project 2025 plans. In other words, the best case scenario is a repeat of his previous tenure. Fingers crossed….
P.S. It’s RFK Jr, not JFK Jr. (This is not the first use of JFK Jr instead of RFK Jr. Someone is clearly caught up in the QAnon-inspired “return of JFK Jr” conspiracy. :P) In case you are unaware, the province of Alberta is Canada’s Florida/Texas. The city of Calgary tried eliminating flouride from the water a bit ago. Incidence of quite serious tooth and mouth problems rose by 700% very quickly. They reversed track.
Sheer insanity ahead in the Trump administration.
No matter what any pundits may tell us, this election was lost because about 1/3 of those who could vote (mostly sympathetic and supportive of Kamala’s candidacy) simply did not show up at the polls and vote. It was not lost over concerns about inflation (like the price for a loaf of bread or a sack of groceries) or concerns over immigrants flooding our borders. The loss came from a band of voters who were motivated by fear as well as stoked by hatred and driven by racism, misogyny and white supremacy. Without any hope of viable guardrails in the new Trump administration, protection of the rule of law and of our democracy will of necessity have to fall to ourselves, a responsible press, the courts, and to those who conscientiously serve in federal and state governments. That will be a tall order in the scheme of things in holding the Trump administration accountable for its actions.
The times will likely get much darker before they get brighter.
Dear Sheila,
We wait with very heavy hearts whats in for us in Europe. We hope that for most americans it is still the economy that was deceicive for their votes and they blame Biden for their money problems. It always goes like that. Trump’s extreme program didn’t play a big role for them.
Interesting is to see how Trump is going to function as president now. The problem could be now that he has no enemies left “within”. What to do? His program is not future oriented, he is not interested in the reality. So reality will catch up with him. As long as he gets his applause every day, he will be happy, nothing else matters. He will have to create new enemies, e.g. the people around him, he can’t live without hate.
God bless America.
Proved beyond all doubt: WE BECOME THE MEDIA WE CONSUME
I saw some charts on Morning Joe today that showed how the white (and brown/black) working class people’s earning power has been in decline for about 40 years – or more. The pie chart showing which issues directed voters was the economy. Oh, and almost 50 million FEWER people voted since 2020 with males of all races trending toward Trump.
It would seem, therefore, that the hate messaging was used as a cudgel on those who feel aggrieved – and the economic trend lines validate it. Remember, Hitler used the Jews as his hate issue. Trump and the Republicans used every other bigoted messaging to stir up the aggrieved.
This election revealed who we are as a nation. These right-wing idiots are finally going to get their wish by eliminating public education. When/if they eliminate (privatize) Medicare, there will be a civic/cultural/political disaster to change our course completely. Oh, and this will probably kick off the next revolution – because that’s what it’s going to take to regain democracy after the coming years of political stupidity.
Trump is just their poster child. Now that they have all three branches of government, they’ll have no real use for Trump other than to parade him around to rally his loyalists and stroke his ego. His second presidency will be a scripted reality show like The Apprentice while the Heritage Foundation and JD Vance implement Project 2025 to dismantle our federal government and replace it with a theocratic autocracy that seriously undermines the health and wellbeing of women and children. The guardrails are off, but Trump won’t be driving the train. They’re as tired of him as we are.
And yet the stock market went through the roof yesterday. The world has gone mad.
Bizarrely low D turnout is to 2024 as the iceberg was to the Titanic. Everything else is just deck chairs.
Nothing can be relied upon until there’s an objective, fact-based analysis that explains the massive cratering in D turnout vs 2020 DESPITE record registrations, record fundraising, record endorsements, unprecedented party-crossing endorsements, and massive disparities in rally enthusiasm (Harris’s crowded, high energy events vs Trump’s half-empty, ramble-athons).
Here’s a model taught by history.
The history of the Republican Party started with Lincoln trying to hold the Union together, peaked, and ended with Trump breaking it apart again.
I am wrestling with the reality that the 74 million Americans who voted Trump back in as President DON’T KNOW ANY BETTER and see no reason to consider any unintended consequences of voting their prejudices, fears and moral indignations because they have been living in an information wasteland most likely for decades. I began worrying about this alternate information contracture in the 1980s when the evangelical Christians created their own separate music, book (including romance novels!), and “news” publishing sectors in addition to the homeschooling “textbook” publishers. Now we have cable broadcasters and the internet to further customize information delivery. It works great! Add that to the encultured attitudes Sheila writes about today, and you see the outcomes of the long game the regressive-conservatives have been playing while the liberal-progressives have been believing things naturally arc toward justice while sniping at each other about details of policy and process. No long game at all. Sitting ducks. Time for a reset. Let’s get real.
Sorry. Alternate information structure not contracture. No idea where that came from.
Or, the world is sane, and a few liberals are mad! 😉
Abandoning the left wing for Cheney and other Republican Neocons probably wasn’t the smartest move by the DNC. Running Biden in the primary was also a stupid move. Harris not separating herself from Biden – dumb.
Many lessons should be learned, but does the oligarch’s two-party rule really care? Based on the stock market response, I’d say they got what they wanted. They were going to win no matter what, but a Trump and Heritage Foundation victory only speeds things up. Don’t forget, in 2008, Obama implemented the Heritage Foundation’s health insurance plan and turned over the banking crisis to Citibank insiders – NOT very progressive for a “liberal” Illinois senator.
Genocide and unnecessary wars also aren’t very progressive. If Trump wants to bring home all troops, I’ll support that anti-Neocon move. When did Democrats become controlled by MIC?
I hoped that early voter turnout was a positive sign for Democrats, but I was wrong. It was mostly Republicans who were told there would be trouble at the precincts on election day.
While you may be dismayed by a Republican victory, know that the oligarchy got exactly what it wanted. Either the left returns to a worker’s party or losing will become more of a tradition than a blip. To get an idea, read the critique of the two parties by socialists. Clinton moved the DNC to the middle in the 90s, and Hillary and Obama have been running the party ever since. The party better make massive changes to the left, or the working class will become permanent Republican Party voters.
Our small county in East Central Indiana had a handful of no-contest victories for Republicans. In a very reliable Democratic district, only one Democrat won her election. All others lost. Red flag!!
Burt Bacharach’s Alfie comes to mind
And what’s it all about, Alfie?
Is it just for the moment we live?
What’s it all about when you sort it out, Alfie?
Are we meant to take more than we give?
Or are we meant to be kind?
And if only fools are kind, Alfie
Then I guess it’s wise to be cruel
And if life belongs only to the strong, Alfie
What will you lend on an old golden rule?
As sure as I believe there’s a Heaven above, Alfie
I know there’s something much more
Something even non-believers can believe in
And I believe in love, Alfie
Without true love we just exist, Alfie
Until you find the love you’ve missed you’re nothing, Alfie
When you walk, let your heart lead the way
And you’ll find love any day, Alfie
Alfie