Meanwhile, What little I know of Project 25 I like very much. But I've not done a deep dive. Further, I consider it nothing more than a collection of opinions with no actual teeth. It's main use for me is to disover the thoughts and ideas of its authors that I may agree or disagree with.
You like the idea of mass firings of ordinary 'unvetted' DOJ employees with Trump loyalists? That is - people sworn NOT to protect the Constitution of the United States - but sworn in as protecting the President's Agenda? Government keeps things going in the free market. The idea of there being a 'free market' and then the next stop is Communist Dictatorship is just laughable. Some of the best American initiatives in the free market have their origins in government funding or DARPA research. Why did I mention Communism? Because the mass firing of whole parts of government departments serving the people can often be an unevaluated, knee-jerk reaction to an alt-right fear of government. As the wiki says:
Project 2025 is
aligned with Trump's plans to fire more government employees than allocated to the president using
Schedule F, a job classification Trump established in an October 2020 executive order.
[143] Biden rescinded the classification in January 2021; Trump has said he would restore it. The Heritage Foundation plans to have 20,000 personnel in its database by the end of 2024.
[67] Vought said that the project's goal to remove federal workers would be "a wrecking ball for the administrative state".
[5]
As of 2024, only about 4,000 government positions are deemed political appointments. That could change with each administration.
[5][67] Schedule F would affect tens of thousands of professional federal civil servants,
[5] who have spent many years working under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
[67] According to
Donald Moynihan, a professor of public policy at
Georgetown University, while the apolitical and meritocratic selection of public servants is vital to administrative functioning, the Republican Party increasingly views them and
public sector unions as threats, or resources to be controlled.
[144] In February 2024, Kevin Roberts said: "People will lose their jobs. Hopefully their lives are able to flourish in spite of that. Buildings will be shut down. Hopefully they can be repurposed for private industry."
[145]
Project 2025 encourages the U.S. Congress to require federal contractors to be 70% American citizens, ultimately raising the limit to 95%.
[100]
By June 2024, the
American Accountability Foundation, a conservative
opposition research organization led by former aide to Republican senators Tom Jones, was researching certain key high-ranking federal civil servants' backgrounds. Called Project Sovereignty 2025, the undertaking received a $100,000 grant from Heritage, with the objective of posting names on a website of 100 people who might oppose Trump's agenda. Announcing the grant in May 2024, Heritage wrote that the research's purpose was "to alert Congress, a conservative administration, and the American people to the presence of anti-American bad actors burrowed into the administrative state and ensure appropriate action is taken." Some found Project Sovereignty 2025 reminiscent of
McCarthyism, when many Americans were persecuted and
blacklisted as alleged communists.
[146][147][148]
Political scientist
Francis Fukuyama has said that while the federal bureaucracy is in dire need of reform, Schedule F would "dangerously undermine" the functionality of the government.
[149]
So certain sectors are going to be gutted, and others transformed with Trump loyalists. These are functionaries, not members of the House or Senate. They don't have to be passionately supporting Trump to carry out their job. EG: I've been in child welfare work before - under different governments - some I voted for - some I did not. Imagine my being fired for not having voted for the winner at the last election? Sometimes having an 'opposition' employee on the inside is good for society. It's another check and balance. Being 'oppositional' to the government in power means they might be more likely to report to the media some unanticipated side-effect of a policy - like the harms done under Trump's harsh treatment of immigrants on the southern border when children were being separated from their parents. Whatever the legal status of their immigration attempt, and eventual outcome, you do NOT unnecessarily split parents from their children. That's a breach of human rights!
Democratic checks and balances ultimately emerged from a Christian understanding of the fallenness of humankind - that we are selfish and sinful and not that objective. I'm amazed that the Christian-right are so willing to undermine these checks and balances.
Former CIA director Leon Panetta says countries are governed either by leadership or by crisis. He tells Four Corners that democracy would be threatened if Trump was to be re-elected as President of the United States and says, ‘it was bad enough the first time’. Panetta speaks about what he sees as Trump’s disregard for intelligence, focus on power, desire to mobilise the military and what that would mean for the United States. In this interview, Panetta shares his fears about America’s future and exposes the troubles of the first Trump administration.
CHAPTERS
00:00 - What would a second Trump presidency mean?
03:15 - 'It’s a prescription for chaos’
04:30 - Why is Donald Trump so popular?
05:24 - How could Trump use the military?
06:48 - ‘Donald Trump is a bully’
07:50 - Intelligence briefs
08:50 - ‘Guaranteed failure’
10:06 - Dangerous world
11:19 - What will happen to the NATO alliance?
12:45 - ‘Borders on being a traitor’
13:55 - Trump, Russia and Ukraine
16:02 - ‘Nobody is above the law’
17:02 - The Trump election
18:40 - Autocracy
The document is pretty well organized, though, so one can skim to see proposed policies on particular topics.
