Towering over the beaches along the Alabaster Coast in France are the awe-inspiring Cliffs of Étretat. Impressionists, such as Claude Monet, captured the cliffs’ beauty and grandeur on canvas, prompting travelers, even today, to discover the cliffs for themselves.
Composed of chalk and flint, the cliffs stand at the edge of the town of Étretat in Normandy. Freshwater springs flowing underneath eroded the cliffs over time, creating three arches and a “needle” formation. The arches are particularly visible during low tide. Once a fishing village, today Étretat is primarily a quaint tourist town that caters to adventurers who wish to climb and hike the cliffs. One can spend a full day or more exploring the cliffs, tunnels, and caves. However, caution must be exercised and the tides must be taken into consideration. Despite signs warning of the dangers, often tourists become stranded along a tunnel when the tide rolls in. What if people just read and heeded the warning signs?
This election cycle has been full of adventure, too, with the last-minute changes in the Democratic ticket for president and vice president. With President Joe Biden’s selfless decision to step down as nominee, the new ticket of VP Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has energized the party.
Harris has stated that, if elected, her top priority on Day 1 of her term will be the middle class. She plans to address, among other issues, the rising costs of housing, groceries, and prescription drugs.
On the other side of the ballot, former President Donald Trump and his VP running mate Ohio Senator JD Vance embrace a burn-down-the-barn, white Christian nationalist agenda. Trump has stated that on Day 1, he will become a dictator.
Speaking at the Democratic National Convention of a possible Trump second term, former President Barack Obama said, “We’ve seen that movie and we all know the sequel’s usually worse!”
On July 26 of this year, Trump told attendees at the Turning Point Action Believers’ Summit to “[g]et out, you’ve got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.” Chillingly implicit in this statement is there will be no more elections if Trump wins in November. Earlier this week, he stated on Fox News that he had every right to interfere with the 2020 election. Furthermore, he has never said he will accept the results of this election if he loses.
In 2016, no one expected Trump to win the presidency and he had no transition plan. Over the course of Trump’s term in office, his appointees often deterred him from his worse impulses (like shooting peaceful protesters below the knees). By the end of his presidency, Trump had eliminated all the “adults in the room.” If Trump wins a second term, the chaos and craziness of his first term will pale in comparison.
What are Trump’s plans if he becomes president again? There are two documents that help us see how disastrous a second term will be. The first is Agenda 47 and the second one, known as Project 2025, has been making a recent media splash. But what is in these two documents and why should we be concerned?
Agenda 47 is Donald Trump’s manifesto of policies for a new term as the 47th president of the United States. Most of these policies would be implemented by executive order without requiring the approval of Congress. The manifesto outlines increasing the powers of the president by reducing power in other parts of the executive branch of government. It has been described as fascist or authoritarian.
Under Agenda 47, presidential powers would be expanded by firing up to two million career civil servants and replacing them with Trump loyalists. Independent regulatory agencies, such as the FCC, FTC, FDA, and EPA, would come under the president’s direct control. Trump plans to “clean house” in the Pentagon, the State Department, and in the intelligence agencies, including the CIA and FBI. Experts say this plan will upset the balance of powers between the branches of federal government, usurp the power of Congress, and violate the Constitution.
The policies detailed in Agenda 47 include implementing tariffs on imported goods which will create higher prices for US consumers and increase inflation. Trump would end US participation in the international treaty on climate change called the Paris Agreement and would roll back all the Biden-Harris administration’s regulations to fight climate change. The Department of Education would be abolished and states would be responsible instead. Federal funds would be terminated to any school that teaches critical race theory or gender ideology (meaning that transgender students will not be protected against discrimination). Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives would be abolished. K-12 teachers would no longer have tenure and would be certified based on their patriotism. Children born of illegal immigrants on US soil would no longer have the right to US citizenship and related benefits.
Not included in Agenda 47 but stated by Trump repeatedly, is the round up by the military of 11 million illegal immigrants who would be placed into detention camps before being deported. This will become a humanitarian crisis: 80% of illegal immigrants have been in the US for more than a decade; over one million are married to US citizens and many have children who are US citizens. Separating families and destroying their livelihoods is unconscionable. The economy will suffer greatly without these workers and it would cost billions of dollars over more than 20 years to accomplish this horrific policy.
Agenda 47 specifies that journalists, federal agencies, and universities that have called out Trump for disinformation would be severely punished. Federal officials would be fired and lose their right to vote. Any federal funding would be eliminated. Individuals would be prosecuted. Taking away free speech and the free press is what authoritarian dictators do.
All types of gender-affirming care would be stopped for people of all ages. Hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, or other individuals who participate in gender-affirming care (even suggesting to a child they might be transgender) would be sued and any federal funding (including under Medicaid and Medicare) would be terminated. Agenda 47 recommends passing a federal law that says there are only two genders, male and female, and they are assigned at birth.
And those are just some of the details of Agenda 47!
What is Project 2025 and how does it fit with Agenda 47? Project 2025 is a 900+-page authoritarian handbook crafted by a group of conservative Christian nationalist allies of Trump led by the Heritage Foundation (see footnote 1) that will serve as a transition plan for Trump’s first 180 days in office, if he is elected. Although Trump’s “official” plan is Agenda 47, his campaign has said it and Project 2025 are aligned.
Like Agenda 47, Project 2025 is essentially the plan for Trump to take over the entire executive branch of the federal government by consolidating power into the office of the president, dismantling federal agencies, undoing popular policies, and implementing various draconian measures. After details of Project 2025 leaked, Trump realized these actions and policies are grossly unpopular and has tried to distance himself from Project 2025. However, numerous Trump allies and former staffers have worked on this document and Trump’s name is threaded throughout it. It is not possible for him to disavow Project 2025.
Project 2025 contains numerous plans and policies based on four promises found in its foreword:
1 – “Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children”
2 – “Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people”
3 – “Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats”
4 - “Secure our God-given individual rights to live freely – what our Constitution calls ‘the Blessings of Liberty’.”
According to Project 2025, “restore the family” defines a family as “a married mother, father, and their children” (presumably heterosexual and cisgendered) who are the “ideal” family. “Protect our children” is a dog whistle for banning transgenderism. Project 2025 seeks to eliminate protections and rights of LGBTQIA+ families, including criminally punishing transgenderism as pornography. It stops short of calling for a ban on same-sex marriage. Neither does Project 2025 specify a national abortion ban, but it does severely restrict abortion (and miscarriage care) and contraception access and funding (see footnote 2). The Heritage Foundation opposes in vitro fertilization (IVF) and while Project 2025 does not specifically mention IVF, it does include language that supports fetal personhood, leaving open the possibility of a ban on IVF with simply an executive order. Other provisions include eliminating the federal Head Start program, reducing Medicare benefits by eliminating the new $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket annual prescription drug costs and eliminating government negotiations of drug prices.
Similar to language in Agenda 47, “dismantle the administrative state” means to consolidate the president’s powers from within the executive branch by placing all agencies, even those currently independent, under the president’s direct control. By controlling the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI, Trump can carry out his vow to seek retribution from his political enemies with impunity. Trump would force the DOJ to drop his criminal trials. Both prospects are chilling.
As in Agenda 47, as many as two million government workers could be fired and replaced with Trump allies whose sole qualification would be loyalty to Trump, not job competency or experience. Project 2025 provides a data base of Trump loyalists who would replace current workers. As under Agenda 47, the Department of Education would be completely abolished.
“Defend our nation’s sovereignty” means to promote US isolationism by gutting American involvement in NATO and no longer supporting our allies around the world. Project 2025 also includes funding the construction of the US southern border wall, eliminating visas for victims of crime and human trafficking, and allowing the use of the military against immigrants at the southern border and peaceful protesters anywhere in the US.
The fourth promise of Project 2025 redefines the pursuit of happiness as “blessedness.” It states: "an individual must be free to live as his Creator ordained – to flourish. Our Constitution grants each of us the liberty to do not what we want, but what we ought. This pursuit of the good life is found primarily in family - marriage, children, Thanksgiving dinners, and the like.” This may sound as idyllic as a Normal Rockwell painting, but it is a way to control people in this country and to exclude those who are not white, conservative, Christian, cisgendered, heterosexual, and married with children. Project 2025 includes striking any language related to sexual orientation, gender identity, reproductive rights, diversity, equity, and inclusion out of all government rules, regulations, documents, contracts, and laws. Protections regarding discrimination against LGBTQIA+ would be eliminated.
The word “order” appears numerous times in Project 2025. Under these policies, the government would have the power to control what we do, how we worship, who we love, and when we have children while taking away our rights to free speech and peaceful protest. À la The Handmaid’s Tale.
While it is not possible to delineate all the provisions of Project 2025 here, other key provisions include eliminating federal funds for climate change research as well as eliminating the underpinnings of the US central banking system known as the Federal Reserve System.
Project 2025 reaches into every aspect of American life. Legal experts believe that Project 2025 will undermine the rule of law, blur the lines between church and state, and destroy our civil liberties. Even implementation of just a few of Project 2025’s ideas could have far-reaching and disastrous consequences.
Can Trump legally implement any of Agenda 47 or Project 2025? Most of the changes would be implemented by executive order which does not require congressional approval. Any executive order could be challenged in the courts, but with a conservative majority on the US Supreme Court, it is unlikely they would strike down many of Trump’s orders. Congress could possibly serve as a check on the president. (See footnote 3).
The bottom line is both Agenda 47 and Project 2025 lay out plans to consolidate power into the hands of Trump and replace the rule of law by making Trump an authoritarian dictator, just like his idols Viktor Orbán, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un. Both documents call for firing federal employees and replacing them with Trump loyalists. Both documents attack our civil liberties and individual freedoms.
There is a lot riding on this election. While I have previously stated that democracy is on the ballot this year, our rights and freedoms are being threatened by a political party that wants to control us – at the ballot box, in our jobs, in our relationships, and in our doctors’ offices, all in the name of power. Theirs.
A second Trump term will be significantly worse than his first term and inherently dangerous to our country, our democracy, and our individual freedoms. If Trump wins, Agenda 47 and Project 2025 are what he will do. Fortunately for us, Trump and the Heritage Foundation have written down their policies in plain sight. I just wonder if we can heed the warning signs.
FOOTNOTES:
1-The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank that opposes “abortion and reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrants’ rights, and racial equity” (per the ACLU). The Heritage Foundation published Project 2025 with assistance from other far-right organizations, including Alliance Defending Freedom and Family Research Council. As an aside, Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance wrote the forward to the book entitled Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America, written by Kevin Roberts who is CEO of the Heritage Foundation and a major architect of Project 2025. This book calls for a second American Revolution. It is interesting that suddenly this book’s debut has been delayed until after the election. On an episode of Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Kevin Roberts stated, “we are in the process of a second American Revolution which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” Roberts has also aligned the Heritage Foundation with the Danube Institute, a front for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s far-right policies, which has funded members of the American far right. Roberts has called the Hungarian “democracy” THE model of conservatism as Orbán has rejected immigration and a diverse society and redefined “family” only to mean a heterosexual, cisgendered, married mother, father, and their children. Orbán is also in Trump’s orbit and someone Trump admires as a dictator in a government that is democratic in name only.
2- Some of Project 2025’s reproductive health policies call for:
- Banning the drug mifepristone (which is also used in miscarriage care)
- Eliminating funding of Planned Parenthood (see footnote 4)
- Surveillance of all miscarriages and abortions by the federal government
- Enforcing the 1873 Comstock Act that prohibits mailing abortion medications and imprisons violators, including health care providers
- Eliminating contraception from Medicaid and allowing employers to remove coverage from their health plans.
3- The US Supreme Court’s July 1, 2024 decision in Donald J. Trump v. United States giving Trump immunity from criminal conviction for “official” acts is obviously very concerning. However, that judicial decision would not need to be invoked since issuing executive orders is not typically a criminal offense.
4- Planned Parenthood is the largest reproductive health provider in the US. Eliminating it would mean that many lower-income women will not be able to get health exams, mammograms, and contraception at no cost. Currently, Planned Parenthood provides contraception to 2 million people every year, including vasectomies.
NOTE: If you are interested in reading books on democracy and how easily a democracy can fail, I highly recommend: How Democracies Die and Tyranny of the Minority, both by Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, and Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson. I also recommend Heather Cox Richardson's daily email on Substack.com called Letters from an American.
Text and photograph copyright © 2024 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of L’Aiguille (“Needle”) as seen through La Manneporte arch at Étretat, France.
Not a subscriber to the monthly blog posts? Click here to subscribe. Subscribers receive an email each month that includes the post with the lead photo as well as bonus photos not posted on the website. Email addresses are never sold or shared.
A NOTE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE:
Jesus says the greatest commandments are to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:37-40). The Christian faith boils down to these two precepts.
Social justice puts that love into action by helping individuals who are oppressed, mistreated, or suffering, and by pursuing ways to dismantle systems of oppression. How we treat others, particularly those less powerful in society than ourselves, matters (Matthew 25:31-46).
Racial justice is one aspect of social justice. Check out my web page on “Justice Matters” to find resources and to connect with organizations engaging in the cause of racial justice. Click here to learn more.
Composed of chalk and flint, the cliffs stand at the edge of the town of Étretat in Normandy. Freshwater springs flowing underneath eroded the cliffs over time, creating three arches and a “needle” formation. The arches are particularly visible during low tide. Once a fishing village, today Étretat is primarily a quaint tourist town that caters to adventurers who wish to climb and hike the cliffs. One can spend a full day or more exploring the cliffs, tunnels, and caves. However, caution must be exercised and the tides must be taken into consideration. Despite signs warning of the dangers, often tourists become stranded along a tunnel when the tide rolls in. What if people just read and heeded the warning signs?
This election cycle has been full of adventure, too, with the last-minute changes in the Democratic ticket for president and vice president. With President Joe Biden’s selfless decision to step down as nominee, the new ticket of VP Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has energized the party.
Harris has stated that, if elected, her top priority on Day 1 of her term will be the middle class. She plans to address, among other issues, the rising costs of housing, groceries, and prescription drugs.
On the other side of the ballot, former President Donald Trump and his VP running mate Ohio Senator JD Vance embrace a burn-down-the-barn, white Christian nationalist agenda. Trump has stated that on Day 1, he will become a dictator.
Speaking at the Democratic National Convention of a possible Trump second term, former President Barack Obama said, “We’ve seen that movie and we all know the sequel’s usually worse!”
On July 26 of this year, Trump told attendees at the Turning Point Action Believers’ Summit to “[g]et out, you’ve got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.” Chillingly implicit in this statement is there will be no more elections if Trump wins in November. Earlier this week, he stated on Fox News that he had every right to interfere with the 2020 election. Furthermore, he has never said he will accept the results of this election if he loses.
In 2016, no one expected Trump to win the presidency and he had no transition plan. Over the course of Trump’s term in office, his appointees often deterred him from his worse impulses (like shooting peaceful protesters below the knees). By the end of his presidency, Trump had eliminated all the “adults in the room.” If Trump wins a second term, the chaos and craziness of his first term will pale in comparison.
What are Trump’s plans if he becomes president again? There are two documents that help us see how disastrous a second term will be. The first is Agenda 47 and the second one, known as Project 2025, has been making a recent media splash. But what is in these two documents and why should we be concerned?
Agenda 47 is Donald Trump’s manifesto of policies for a new term as the 47th president of the United States. Most of these policies would be implemented by executive order without requiring the approval of Congress. The manifesto outlines increasing the powers of the president by reducing power in other parts of the executive branch of government. It has been described as fascist or authoritarian.
Under Agenda 47, presidential powers would be expanded by firing up to two million career civil servants and replacing them with Trump loyalists. Independent regulatory agencies, such as the FCC, FTC, FDA, and EPA, would come under the president’s direct control. Trump plans to “clean house” in the Pentagon, the State Department, and in the intelligence agencies, including the CIA and FBI. Experts say this plan will upset the balance of powers between the branches of federal government, usurp the power of Congress, and violate the Constitution.
The policies detailed in Agenda 47 include implementing tariffs on imported goods which will create higher prices for US consumers and increase inflation. Trump would end US participation in the international treaty on climate change called the Paris Agreement and would roll back all the Biden-Harris administration’s regulations to fight climate change. The Department of Education would be abolished and states would be responsible instead. Federal funds would be terminated to any school that teaches critical race theory or gender ideology (meaning that transgender students will not be protected against discrimination). Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives would be abolished. K-12 teachers would no longer have tenure and would be certified based on their patriotism. Children born of illegal immigrants on US soil would no longer have the right to US citizenship and related benefits.
Not included in Agenda 47 but stated by Trump repeatedly, is the round up by the military of 11 million illegal immigrants who would be placed into detention camps before being deported. This will become a humanitarian crisis: 80% of illegal immigrants have been in the US for more than a decade; over one million are married to US citizens and many have children who are US citizens. Separating families and destroying their livelihoods is unconscionable. The economy will suffer greatly without these workers and it would cost billions of dollars over more than 20 years to accomplish this horrific policy.
Agenda 47 specifies that journalists, federal agencies, and universities that have called out Trump for disinformation would be severely punished. Federal officials would be fired and lose their right to vote. Any federal funding would be eliminated. Individuals would be prosecuted. Taking away free speech and the free press is what authoritarian dictators do.
All types of gender-affirming care would be stopped for people of all ages. Hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, or other individuals who participate in gender-affirming care (even suggesting to a child they might be transgender) would be sued and any federal funding (including under Medicaid and Medicare) would be terminated. Agenda 47 recommends passing a federal law that says there are only two genders, male and female, and they are assigned at birth.
And those are just some of the details of Agenda 47!
What is Project 2025 and how does it fit with Agenda 47? Project 2025 is a 900+-page authoritarian handbook crafted by a group of conservative Christian nationalist allies of Trump led by the Heritage Foundation (see footnote 1) that will serve as a transition plan for Trump’s first 180 days in office, if he is elected. Although Trump’s “official” plan is Agenda 47, his campaign has said it and Project 2025 are aligned.
Like Agenda 47, Project 2025 is essentially the plan for Trump to take over the entire executive branch of the federal government by consolidating power into the office of the president, dismantling federal agencies, undoing popular policies, and implementing various draconian measures. After details of Project 2025 leaked, Trump realized these actions and policies are grossly unpopular and has tried to distance himself from Project 2025. However, numerous Trump allies and former staffers have worked on this document and Trump’s name is threaded throughout it. It is not possible for him to disavow Project 2025.
Project 2025 contains numerous plans and policies based on four promises found in its foreword:
1 – “Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children”
2 – “Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people”
3 – “Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats”
4 - “Secure our God-given individual rights to live freely – what our Constitution calls ‘the Blessings of Liberty’.”
According to Project 2025, “restore the family” defines a family as “a married mother, father, and their children” (presumably heterosexual and cisgendered) who are the “ideal” family. “Protect our children” is a dog whistle for banning transgenderism. Project 2025 seeks to eliminate protections and rights of LGBTQIA+ families, including criminally punishing transgenderism as pornography. It stops short of calling for a ban on same-sex marriage. Neither does Project 2025 specify a national abortion ban, but it does severely restrict abortion (and miscarriage care) and contraception access and funding (see footnote 2). The Heritage Foundation opposes in vitro fertilization (IVF) and while Project 2025 does not specifically mention IVF, it does include language that supports fetal personhood, leaving open the possibility of a ban on IVF with simply an executive order. Other provisions include eliminating the federal Head Start program, reducing Medicare benefits by eliminating the new $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket annual prescription drug costs and eliminating government negotiations of drug prices.
Similar to language in Agenda 47, “dismantle the administrative state” means to consolidate the president’s powers from within the executive branch by placing all agencies, even those currently independent, under the president’s direct control. By controlling the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI, Trump can carry out his vow to seek retribution from his political enemies with impunity. Trump would force the DOJ to drop his criminal trials. Both prospects are chilling.
As in Agenda 47, as many as two million government workers could be fired and replaced with Trump allies whose sole qualification would be loyalty to Trump, not job competency or experience. Project 2025 provides a data base of Trump loyalists who would replace current workers. As under Agenda 47, the Department of Education would be completely abolished.
“Defend our nation’s sovereignty” means to promote US isolationism by gutting American involvement in NATO and no longer supporting our allies around the world. Project 2025 also includes funding the construction of the US southern border wall, eliminating visas for victims of crime and human trafficking, and allowing the use of the military against immigrants at the southern border and peaceful protesters anywhere in the US.
The fourth promise of Project 2025 redefines the pursuit of happiness as “blessedness.” It states: "an individual must be free to live as his Creator ordained – to flourish. Our Constitution grants each of us the liberty to do not what we want, but what we ought. This pursuit of the good life is found primarily in family - marriage, children, Thanksgiving dinners, and the like.” This may sound as idyllic as a Normal Rockwell painting, but it is a way to control people in this country and to exclude those who are not white, conservative, Christian, cisgendered, heterosexual, and married with children. Project 2025 includes striking any language related to sexual orientation, gender identity, reproductive rights, diversity, equity, and inclusion out of all government rules, regulations, documents, contracts, and laws. Protections regarding discrimination against LGBTQIA+ would be eliminated.
The word “order” appears numerous times in Project 2025. Under these policies, the government would have the power to control what we do, how we worship, who we love, and when we have children while taking away our rights to free speech and peaceful protest. À la The Handmaid’s Tale.
While it is not possible to delineate all the provisions of Project 2025 here, other key provisions include eliminating federal funds for climate change research as well as eliminating the underpinnings of the US central banking system known as the Federal Reserve System.
Project 2025 reaches into every aspect of American life. Legal experts believe that Project 2025 will undermine the rule of law, blur the lines between church and state, and destroy our civil liberties. Even implementation of just a few of Project 2025’s ideas could have far-reaching and disastrous consequences.
Can Trump legally implement any of Agenda 47 or Project 2025? Most of the changes would be implemented by executive order which does not require congressional approval. Any executive order could be challenged in the courts, but with a conservative majority on the US Supreme Court, it is unlikely they would strike down many of Trump’s orders. Congress could possibly serve as a check on the president. (See footnote 3).
The bottom line is both Agenda 47 and Project 2025 lay out plans to consolidate power into the hands of Trump and replace the rule of law by making Trump an authoritarian dictator, just like his idols Viktor Orbán, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un. Both documents call for firing federal employees and replacing them with Trump loyalists. Both documents attack our civil liberties and individual freedoms.
There is a lot riding on this election. While I have previously stated that democracy is on the ballot this year, our rights and freedoms are being threatened by a political party that wants to control us – at the ballot box, in our jobs, in our relationships, and in our doctors’ offices, all in the name of power. Theirs.
A second Trump term will be significantly worse than his first term and inherently dangerous to our country, our democracy, and our individual freedoms. If Trump wins, Agenda 47 and Project 2025 are what he will do. Fortunately for us, Trump and the Heritage Foundation have written down their policies in plain sight. I just wonder if we can heed the warning signs.
FOOTNOTES:
1-The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank that opposes “abortion and reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrants’ rights, and racial equity” (per the ACLU). The Heritage Foundation published Project 2025 with assistance from other far-right organizations, including Alliance Defending Freedom and Family Research Council. As an aside, Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance wrote the forward to the book entitled Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America, written by Kevin Roberts who is CEO of the Heritage Foundation and a major architect of Project 2025. This book calls for a second American Revolution. It is interesting that suddenly this book’s debut has been delayed until after the election. On an episode of Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Kevin Roberts stated, “we are in the process of a second American Revolution which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” Roberts has also aligned the Heritage Foundation with the Danube Institute, a front for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s far-right policies, which has funded members of the American far right. Roberts has called the Hungarian “democracy” THE model of conservatism as Orbán has rejected immigration and a diverse society and redefined “family” only to mean a heterosexual, cisgendered, married mother, father, and their children. Orbán is also in Trump’s orbit and someone Trump admires as a dictator in a government that is democratic in name only.
2- Some of Project 2025’s reproductive health policies call for:
- Banning the drug mifepristone (which is also used in miscarriage care)
- Eliminating funding of Planned Parenthood (see footnote 4)
- Surveillance of all miscarriages and abortions by the federal government
- Enforcing the 1873 Comstock Act that prohibits mailing abortion medications and imprisons violators, including health care providers
- Eliminating contraception from Medicaid and allowing employers to remove coverage from their health plans.
3- The US Supreme Court’s July 1, 2024 decision in Donald J. Trump v. United States giving Trump immunity from criminal conviction for “official” acts is obviously very concerning. However, that judicial decision would not need to be invoked since issuing executive orders is not typically a criminal offense.
4- Planned Parenthood is the largest reproductive health provider in the US. Eliminating it would mean that many lower-income women will not be able to get health exams, mammograms, and contraception at no cost. Currently, Planned Parenthood provides contraception to 2 million people every year, including vasectomies.
NOTE: If you are interested in reading books on democracy and how easily a democracy can fail, I highly recommend: How Democracies Die and Tyranny of the Minority, both by Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, and Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson. I also recommend Heather Cox Richardson's daily email on Substack.com called Letters from an American.
Text and photograph copyright © 2024 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of L’Aiguille (“Needle”) as seen through La Manneporte arch at Étretat, France.
Not a subscriber to the monthly blog posts? Click here to subscribe. Subscribers receive an email each month that includes the post with the lead photo as well as bonus photos not posted on the website. Email addresses are never sold or shared.
A NOTE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE:
Jesus says the greatest commandments are to love God and to love people (Matthew 22:37-40). The Christian faith boils down to these two precepts.
Social justice puts that love into action by helping individuals who are oppressed, mistreated, or suffering, and by pursuing ways to dismantle systems of oppression. How we treat others, particularly those less powerful in society than ourselves, matters (Matthew 25:31-46).
Racial justice is one aspect of social justice. Check out my web page on “Justice Matters” to find resources and to connect with organizations engaging in the cause of racial justice. Click here to learn more.
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