A Brief History of Project 2025
Also known as the 1000-page Republican Fascist Manifesto (No time to read? Scroll to the end to listen.)
Imagine what might happen if the Kansas City Chiefs leaked their Super Bowl playbook online over a week before the game.
Bookies would have a field day. Talking heads would devote newscasts to every squiggle and code word. Conspiracy forums would melt down. Discussion would break the internet. The far-right would blame Taylor Swift.
American society would grind to a halt over what it means.
Yet one of our major political parties publishes the equivalent of its Super Bowl playbook online, and Americans can’t be bothered to read it, let alone care.
I get it. Policy documents are dense. Riddled with legalese and wonk-speak. During the most eye-bleeding parts of Project 2025, I remembered what it felt like to be forced to read the Old Testament book of Leviticus.
B-O-R-I-N-G.
Project 2025 is a detailed outline for a Republican fascist takeover of our government.
It’s not their first rodeo. But let’s read a bit of it, shall we?
The idea was first conceived in the fall of 1979 at a Heritage Foundation board of trustees meeting…Our discussion became quite animated as Heritage board members recalled transition to government positions from their former lives in the private sector.
Former Navy Secretary and Ambassador Bill Middendorf said there must be a better way to prepare for real change in a more conservative direction in Washington. If a conservative candidate were to become President-elect in just 16 months, what could be done by an outside group to prepare for these new opportunities?
First published in 1981 by the Heritage Foundation, the original Mandate served as a conservative plan of action for the Reagan Administration, providing much of the blueprint for the Reagan Revolution. It contained more than 2,000 detailed, actionable policy recommendations to move the federal government in a conservative direction.
Project 2025, pages 883 - 884
According to Edwin J Feulner, founder of Heritage and this section’s author, Reagan implemented almost HALF of the Heritage Foundation’s recommendations by the end of his first year in office. Heritage committed to assembling a team to craft a new Mandate EVERY FOUR YEARS.
Far-right Republicans have been publishing their blueprint for a gradual, complete takeover of our democracy EVERY FOUR YEARS SINCE 1981.
Meanwhile, Americans cared about football. Or Taylor Swift. Or the convergence of football and Taylor Swift. Most liberals couldn’t even give a damn about these very detailed statements of strategy and intent, confident the far-right would never be able to do much of this stuff because of rule of law and guardrails. Why give mental space to so much hyperbole?
Their 2016 edition became especially popular with one person: He Who Shall Not Be Named. No, not Voldemort. I call him 45, but readers know who I mean.
By the end of 45’s first year in office, he and his enablers implemented 64 percent of Mandate’s policy recommendations.
He was on his way to installing 3 Federalist Society-approved Supreme Court justices. Starting a trade war with China via the aggressive use of tariffs. Remaking the lower federal courts, including the vile Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Attacking the hard-won rights of LGBTQ+ and trans people. Returning women to their “proper” roles of barefoot and pregnant. Putting humans in animal cages. Separating kids from their parents.
None of this should’ve been a surprise. Yet, I’m ashamed to admit I never heard of this nasty business until I read a short article about Project 2025. When I bring it up to most Americans, even politically engaged ones, the most common response is, “What?”
I don’t want to link to them, but hundreds of people from far-right organizations were involved in its creation: The Heritage Foundation, Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America, Liberty University and Alliance Defending Freedom among many others. Noted authors include Jeffrey Clark, who is now charged in the Georgia racketeering case to overturn the 2020 election; Stephen Miller, whom readers might know as the architect of people in cages and children separated from parents; and Peter Navarro, who was just sentenced to jail for contempt of Congress.
Since 1981, far-right Republicans have shared more than 10 playbooks. Every time they scored a first down with receptive Republican administrations and gerrymandered statehouses, the next edition marched further to the right. Project 2025 is their playbook for a championship-winning touchdown. If they succeed, they will spike the ball in our faces and never relinquish power.
I started this Substack with a random comment about pornography because I hoped to demonstrate how my Project 2025 reporting will be different from the mainstream media.
My upbringing in Christian Nationalism and my former days as a conservative Republican give me unique insight into what this document really means. Our brief dive into how they define pornography is one of many ways I’ll explain how Project 2025 will impact YOU.
But it is vital that readers understand
How long they have been planning
How much they’ve already accomplished
WHAT IS IN PROJECT 2025
What it means for every American, for freedom and for democracy
Thank you for making time for this space. Thank you for investing money to help it reach more eyeballs. Thank you for sharing it within your spheres of influence. YOU may be the difference between the government I believe we deserve - freedom and democracy - and the government many Americans may settle for - a Christo-fascist state.
I had no idea it went back this far..... in terms of formality and organization. Thank you for the history. The road map is scarey and I clearly see it obviously in last 15 years... Since I woke up. He's right..... Play up base fears..... Play on their hopes and fears. I worry not just about the election but the role of AI in politics in say 30 years. As in FAKE interviews that look perfect.