By Kai Curry
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
As more attention is paid to “Project 2025,” you will hear people say, “Just read it.” “It’s not what you think.” “It’s not all bad.” Of course, it’s not all bad. Several hundred pages, there have to be some acceptable points in there. However, for the most part, the Democratic Party has weighed in against it, alarmed at its promises to reverse Democratic presidential progress and revive mandates Trump implemented when he was in office. In an Aug. 13 town hall meeting, Rep. Pramila Jayapal gave the audience a rundown on the document’s policies.
It is helpful to know this goes way back. The “Presidential Transition Project,” or as the 2025 cover reads, “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” has been produced by the Heritage Foundation since Ronald Reagan’s presidency in 1980. It’s not so much a brand new 2025 thing, as a continuous conservative thing. As Jayapal pointed out, it’s better to call it (at least) the 2024 Project, because these guidelines are already part of the Republican Party.
In large part, the document, which is readily available to the public, follows a value system firmly intact for many Republicans and conservatives—less federal power and less federal regulation; more state power, meaning more power to the CEOs and politicians in those states; more power to people to educate their kids how they want (say goodbye to the Department of Education) and to follow their (Christian) faith (including if that means businesses restricting access to birth control); keeping an eye on the environment, sure, in order to remove waste and inefficiencies, but being okay with increased mining and fossil fuel extraction on federal lands.
None of this is new, and if you delve through “Project 2025,” you will no doubt discover some things with which you can agree. The bulk of the dramatic rhetoric comes in the introductory sections, where We the People are warned that “the long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass” and “freedom and liberty [is] under siege as never before.” Trump is the conservative person’s last chance to put things back right (and to the right), they suggest. So who is the Heritage Foundation? It’s a large group of volunteers who meet with members of Congress and the administration all year long (FYI). Paul Dans, the director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, is a former Trump administration chief of staff and an attorney. Other writers of the document include Lindsey Burke, the director of the Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, who wrote “Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated,” or Mandy M. Gunasekara, chief of staff of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Trump administration, who railed against the Biden administration’s “assault on the energy sector.”
There is plenty to be alarmed about if you like the progress that Democrats have made under Biden and Obama, and other progressive leaders before them, and this alarming content shows very obviously in the fiery rhetoric of “Project 2025,” but also in the details. Like the slogan of presidential hopeful Kamala Harris’ and her running mate, Tim Walz, Democrats don’t want to go back. Under “Project 2025,” which is tailored for the eyes of Trump, abortion will continue to be criminalized, the push for the “wall” between the U.S. and Mexico will continue, immigration reform will languish, and anti-Asian and anti-LGBTQIA+ agendas will return in full force.
Pramila Jayapal
“Trump’s Project 2025 is an extreme agenda to strip away rights from Americans and install MAGA officials in every corner of government,” says Jayapal. Worker’s rights will be attacked as overtime protections will be reduced or nonexistent. Civil rights will be attacked as diversity programs are cut. Nonpartisan career civil servants will be let go under the guise of cleaning up “red tape” and the federal budget. Child labor laws protection will be weakened and small businesses will be exempt from OSHA requirements under the guise of helping the little guy.
The list goes on, as was explained at the town hall meeting. Just keep thinking of the words “roll back,” “reduce,” “weaken,” and “lessen” when it comes to the improvements Democrats have fought for the last four years and beyond. As was attempted when Trump was in office, the NOAA will be disbanded. Negotiations to keep the cost of prescription drugs down will no longer be a priority. Government programs like Head Start will disappear. These were all points on Jayapal’s PowerPoint slides. Many, if not all, of these outcomes would affect Washington state directly, such as increasing the Social Security retirement age and firing teachers.
“Be horrified. Let’s not normalize any of this,” said Jayapal.
What can we do? First, educate. Second, vote, Third, win—and win big. Big enough that no one can dispute the results. Big enough (hopefully) to prevent another insurrection. As was evidenced amongst the audience, people are scared. People don’t want to help at polling sites for fear of being harassed by Trump supporters, for instance.
As the audience was largely older, worries over access to Social Security were brought up, including the backlog it takes just to get what you are already owed. And one person asked,
“How do you stay passionate?” about the Democratic cause? How do you not get hopeless? Some might say attending this type of event, staying engaged, is one way. Jayapal also suggested finding a comforting hobby, such as gardening, staying close to loved ones—and thereby reaffirming our connectedness, not our isolation—and the art of meditation.
As was evidenced in the audience, people are scared. People don’t want to help at polling sites for fear of being harassed by Trump supporters, for instance.
Jayapal said, “Cynicism and hopelessness is the best tool for the oppressors that want to destroy our system of government.”
Kai can be reached at newstips@nwasianweekly.com.