Editor's Note: This series examines the Heritage Foundation's effort to transform the government through a process called Project 2025. Lean to the Left writers CJ Waldron and V. Susan Hutchinson explore how allies of Donald Trump hope to increase the power of the presidency, eliminate career government positions, and cede regulatory responsibility to the individual states. Although Trump has criticized Project 2025 prompting its director, Paul Dans, to resign, it's critical for voters to understand key parts of this manifesto, in context with current and future GOP proposals. The statements in Project 2025 are, at best, misleading with outright lies, twisted interpretations of the Constitution, and personal opinions sprinkled throughout, and much of the document has been incorporated into the GOP Platform, virtually word for word. So, beware.
PROMISE #4 SECURE OUR GOD-GIVEN INDIVIDUAL RIGHT TO ENJOY “THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY.”
The fourth guiding principle of Project 2025, called the Conservative Promise, lays out the tenets of a White Christian Nationalist country. It swaps out the statement from the Declaration of Independence, that we are entitled to “the Pursuit of Happiness” with “The Pursuit of Blessedness”. The implication is that only by being “blessed”, which is code for Christian hubris that you are somehow superior to others, can you enjoy the freedoms promised in the Constitution.
Understanding Project 2025
Liberty for All
It goes on to declare that the Founding Fathers wanted to bestow the “Blessings of Liberty” on all. Except when the Constitution was adopted, only landed White males were considered worthy of these “blessings”. Blacks were considered 3/5 of a person for the purposes of representation only. They were otherwise deemed as property, with no means of enjoying the “blessings” until 1865 when Lincoln enacted the Emancipation Proclamation. Even then, Blacks were denied basic rights until almost one hundred years later, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was written into law.
Project 2025 wants to roll back the protections granted by the Civil Rights Act. An ultra Conservative Supreme Court majority has already begun the process by gutting Affirmative Action along with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prevented discrimination of citizens’ right to vote based on prior servitude, race, belief, color, ethnicity, sex, and age of those who are at least 18 years old. Basically, if voting rights are extended to one group of people, they can not be denied to other groups of people.
When the 15th Amendment was passed in 1870, several US states activated stricter voting regulations such as literacy tests and a Poll Tax to prevent Blacks from exercising their newly granted right to vote. These were declared illegal by the Voting Rights Act and those states and counties that had enacted such policies were required to obtain preclearance from the Department of Justice before making any changes to their voting requirements.
Republicans sued to have the act repealed numerous times, but it wasn’t until 2013, in Shelby vs Holder, that the court declared the anti-discrimination clause of the act as being outdated. They claimed such targeted practices, such as a poll tax, were eradicated, and therefore the protections granted were unnecessary.
While it stopped short of declaring the act to be unconstitutional, the court opened the door for other types of restrictions to be enacted. Following Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020, several states passed more restrictive voting practices. They used the baseless claims of voter fraud and protecting election integrity to justify enacting these new regulations, which overwhelmingly favored Republican, particularly MAGA, candidates.
These voting restrictions that have been put in place in Red states could end up blowing up in their faces. In Florida, restrictions placed on drop off ballot boxes have made it more difficult for their substantial elderly population to vote. Many would be unwilling, or unable, to wait in long lines as Floridians continue to swelter in 90-degree heat, even in November. Other states are reporting similar issues.
Project 2025 wants to continue to create more obstacles to vote for people of color, thereby ensuring Conservatives will maintain their grip on the reins of power. It wants to control who gets to enjoy the “Blessings of Liberty”. Could such a strategy cost them the election?
From Sea to Shining Sea
Project 2025 declares that the Founding Fathers wanted to reject the practice of European colonialism “just as we rejected slavery, second-class citizenship for women, mercantilism, socialism, Wilsonian globalism, Fascism, Communism, and (today) wokeism.” It completely ignores the policy of Manifest Destiny that declared America was to expand from sea to shining sea, as ordained by our Creator, when government sponsored land grabs such as the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893 rejected established treaties made with Native Americans who had already occupied the territory.
Given their current views on women and people of color, it is with a tremendous amount of chutzpah that those involved with Project 2025 can claim credit for abolishing slavery and expanding rights for women. You only have to look at the current Republican presidential ticket to find that assertion laughable.
The Mexican-American War allowed the United States to annex Texas (They can have it back), as well as to purchase California for an amount less than the average major league ballplayer makes. Somehow this is ignored as the act of a colonial power.
Treaties made with the Native American population were routinely disregarded when gold, oil or other natural resources were discovered on land granted to our indigenous population. How is that not colonization?
Those on the Right will almost certainly argue that these things are in the past or are examples of Critical Race Theory. America no longer has any colonial policies.
Except….
There are currently at least 14 territories that are considered US Protectorates (read colonies). Their residents are considered US citizens, but they do not enjoy the same rights as states. They pay taxes, but are denied representation. This is the same argument that led to our own American Revolution.
One of the most well-known US territories, Puerto Rico, annexed in 1898 following the Spanish-American War, has repeatedly sought statehood. Donald Trump was mocked for his tactless behavior of throwing paper towels at those on the island recovering from a devastating hurricane. He further compounded his ignorance by claiming to have phoned the President of Puerto Rico following the disaster. Somehow, he was unaware that, at the time, HE was the ruler of the US held territory.
Following the January 6th insurrection, several Republicans pointed to the 1954 attack by Puerto Rican nationalists as justification for the attempted coup.
So, there are several examples of how the United States has not rejected colonialism, both by its past and current behavior. Despite this, Project 2025 continues to claim America’s refusal to be a colonial power is one of the reasons for its “blessed” status in the world.
Teach Your Children…Well?
One of the primary reasons Project 2025 is able to get their messaging out so effectively is the limited amount of information their base is willing to accept.Their lack of historical knowledge also makes them ripe for manipulation.
On any given day you can find a meme on social media expounding the virtues of going to trade school over getting a college education. According to the authors, government should “promote educational opportunities outside the woke-dominated system of public schools and universities, including trade schools, apprenticeship programs, and student-loan alternatives that fund students’ dreams instead of Marxist academics”.
While promoting trade schools is admirable, it is the hallmark of every authoritarian regime to belittle the intelligentsia in order to achieve their goals. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and other dictators have risen to power on the backs of the “poorly educated”. Which makes Donald Trump’s comment to a Las Vegas crowd during the 2016 primaries all the more chilling.
Those with less education are more likely to believe an authority figure. This makes them more susceptible to being convinced by conspiracy theories. The isolation of COVID gave these outlandish suggestions time to percolate in their minds, making them more like to believe one, then another, until they had gone so far down the rabbit hole of illogic, they were willing to believe anything their side wanted them to.
The comment about “woke public schools “has led to the demonization of educators as groomers of young children, making them easy prey for pedophiles due to their being sexualized by perverse teachers.
Yes, it all sounds ridiculous. Yet, the poorly educated that are the target of Project 2025’s propaganda campaign are more than willing to accept it as undeniable fact.
Public schools are also the breeding ground for indoctrination. The Woke agenda of Critical Race Theory is promoting a vision of America as lacking greatness. Therefore, it is the duty of every patriotic American to Make America Great Again.
There’s your REAL indoctrination for you.
As for colleges being Marxist institutions, it’s a fact that authoritarians do not like their actions questioned. Being challenged by those with critical thinking skills is an enormous threat. So, by belittling the educated, it is painting them as being unworthy of enjoying the “blessings of liberty”.
Project 2025 is a blueprint for the second Trump administration. It is the 2025 Presidential Transition Project. The four tenets of the project, called the Conservative Promise explicitly lay out how they will destroy our system of government.
They are showing us their playbook. Our job is to take action to prevent it from happening.
This is an excellent piece by CJ Waldron as part of our series on Project 2025 and what it would mean to America. It's the seventh in a series -- just check this site for the other articles, and watch for more. Remaining articles will discuss Civil Rights, the federal workforce, Social Security, and the environment.