Project 2025: Settling for Biden as Our Unwelcome Yet Necessary Choice to Counter Trump in 2024
NOTE: Gaza is never forgotten; there's no justification.
It's hard to be rah-rah Joe Biden right now as he continues to fund the genocide in Gaza. Our system is failed and flawed and horrible, and I'd be mad to try to defend it in any way.
But under no circumstances should anyone who cares about their fellow human even consider voting for Donald Trump in the 2024 election. For one thing, he's vowed to be worse on Israel. He doesn't think Joe Biden is going far enough.
Sure, people make the point that Amtrak Joe is actively fueling a genocide right now, and so that's what they're going to vote on. That’s valid! The thing is, we DO KNOW who Donald Trump is. We DO KNOW who Republicans are.
They are not better on Israel.
PLUS, they want to take away your rights and my rights and the rights of my children and your children and immigrants and destroy the planet and and and.
I'm not being hyperbolic.
I completely get the instinct to want to burn it all down. Everything is fucked. But we can't do that.
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There is a genocide in Gaza AND Trump will do everything he can to continue the genocide in Gaza AND make everything worse for millions of Americans and billions of people all over the world.
This is not conjecture. We don't have to guess.
Trump comes out and says these things over and over again.
Journalist Eric Cortellessa published a major interview with the former president in TIME today. It is absolutely horrifying and should scare you.
"Today, the [GOP] party's permanent class have either devoted themselves to the gospel of MAGA or given up." Eric Cortellessa for TIME
Some key takeaways from Eric's interview:
Trump Plans To:
Strengthen authoritarian control
Trump wants a government full of loyalists (his daughter-in-law has imposed loyalty tests on applicants to the RNC, and Trump has stated he would have difficulty hiring anyone who admits Biden won the 2020 election)
Make judicial and bureaucratic overhauls.
Trump wants to challenge a law to give himself the power to withhold congressionally approved funding.
He plans to use the power to dismiss many federal employees at will–" He would be willing to fire a U.S. Attorney who doesn't carry out his order to prosecute someone, breaking with a tradition of independent law enforcement that dates from America's founding."
Implement extreme immigration policies.
Trump is making plans for a massive deportation operation–he wants to build migrant detention camps.
He plans to use military forces domestically–inland and at the border–to enforce immigration laws, leading to human rights violations.
Consider pardoning all January 6th insurrectionists.
Not come to the aid of a European or Asian ally if they weren't paying enough into NATO.
Deploy the National Guard into the U.S. as he wants.
Close the White House pandemic-preparedness office.
Be a dictator for a day and seems to think that's hilarious.
"I asked him, Don't you see why many Americans see such talk of dictatorship as contrary to our most cherished principles? Trump says no. Quite the opposite, he insists. 'I think a lot of people like it.'" ~ Eric Cortellessa for TIME
Project 2025 is Coming, and We All Have to Wake Up
Project 2025 is a set of policy proposals that Trump and his GOP are slobbering all over themselves to implement. It is spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation think tank, which is intricately linked to MAGA-TRUMP contributors.
Project 2025 = Trump. They are the same.
Project 2025 involves restructuring the executive branch and what it means to be president. Trump believes he should have ultimate authority and has no problems declaring it outright.
The project would lead to sweeping and dramatic changes for all of us. It would impact economic and social policy and the role of federal agencies.
Project 2025 has profound implications and demands extensive journalistic scrutiny. I'm committed to breaking it down piece by piece for Courage News over time, so stay tuned. The stakes are extremely high, and it's imperative that we all understand the full scope and potential impact of these plans.
What would happen if Donald Trump were to become president again cannot be understated.
Yes, Joe Biden is ~sucking~ in baffling and horrifying ways, and I can't justify that.
We have no choices in this country except to minimize harm. The United States, this system, and those before us have failed us.
I'm mad, angry, and devastated. I feel hopeless and scared, and I don't understand how people can be so evil.
How can Joe Biden send more money to Israel right now? I don't have an answer. I can't comprehend it.
But in a world of absolutely horrifying choices where one guy is evilly funding a genocide but allowing women to have access to healthcare and giving LGBTQIA+ people their rights and doing anything at all about climate change, and the other guy has said he will do more funding of a genocide and thinks Biden isn't going far enough for Israel and will take away women's rights to healthcare (and already has to many degrees) and will take away more LGBTQIA+ rights and dismantle climate change progress and I am just me with my Substack and a heart for the millions and billions who will be impacted if Trump wins I have to tell you ...
We can't let Donald Trump get back into the White House.
Here’s What Project 2025 and Donald Trump Would Do
The Rights of Women and Reproductive Rights
Reminder: As President, Trump nominated three Supreme Court Justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Project 2025 would name the USAID Office of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment to the Office of Women, Children, and Families to focus on pro-life issues.
It would take resources away from gender equality to move them toward the Christian idea of "family" to align with pro-life and family-first ideology.
Project 2025 would move to "protect" girls from gender ideology that conservatives consider harmful.
It would amend Title IX to move away from definitions of sex that include gender identity.
It would promote a pro-life stance in workplace regulations.
Project 2025 would strengthen pro-life legislation, ensuring compliance with statutory bans on federal funding for abortion and a commitment to a "culture of life."
The plan would restructure Medicaid to defund reproductive health and abortion care.
The plan would allow employers to make religious and moral exceptions and deny coverage to the contraceptive mandate.
LGBTQ Rights
Elimination of inclusivity terms and policies: Project 2025 proposes eliminating the use of terms such as "sexual orientation and gender identity, diversity, equity, and inclusion from federal rules and policy
This would result in reduced recognition and protection for LGBTQ individuals.
Reduction in guidance and function for gender-affirming care
Restriction on military service for transgender individuals
Allowance of faith-based adoption agencies to refuse to place children in LGBTQ households
Enforcement of policies that prioritize "traditional" family structures
Black and POC Communities
Revision of enforcement standards for civil rights in school discipline
Prohibition of educational programs and training that suggest racism is systemic in American institutions
Dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across federal agencies
Removal of structures intended to enhance opportunities for underserved communities
Revision of policies meant to address racial disparities in housing access and quality
Moving away from programs intended to address racial inequities in health, education, and economic opportunities
Climate Crisis
Project 2025 would eliminate environmental protections and existing climate programs and increase reliance on fossil fuels.
The plan calls for dismantling the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
It calls for a reversal of efforts to decarbonize the economy.
Immigration
Project 2025 seeks to roll back legal and "illegal" immigration, making hundreds of thousands of people vulnerable to deportation.
The plan would dismantle the DREAM Act and restrict the DACA program.
It would restrict T visas, which are for victims of human trafficking, as well as U visas, which are for victims of crimes in the U.S.
It would increase the authority of ICE, including in their enforcement and removal ops.
People adjacent to unauthorized immigrants could be punished.
"The next Republican administration … would also strip hundreds of thousands of individuals, many of whom have been in the U.S. for decades, of their legal protections by repealing all Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations."
Healthcare
Project 2025 aims to privatize Medicare and benefit private insurers at the expense of our seniors.
The plan seeks to move us away from the ACA and lightyears away from the dream of Medicare for All.
Middle, Working Class, and Poor
Project 2025 aims to reduce social safety nets and services.
The plan would result in cuts to healthcare, education, and social services.
Department of Justice
Project 2025 says that "litigation decisions must be made consistent with the President's agenda."
The plan allows for the administration to terminate FBI investigations it doesn't like.
Emphasis on enforcement of the death penalty.
"I think people will be surprised at the alacrity with which [Donald Trump] will take action [in his second term]."
~Kellyanne Conway to Eric Cortellessa for TIME
I know we all feel sick right now, and we’re fighting for so much. Do what you will in the primaries. I don’t see an issue with pressuring Joe Biden to do what’s right. Let’s do it.
But in November, we can’t allow Donald Trump to win. I do believe our republic is at risk. I do believe our country is at risk. People ARE at risk. Full stop.
I don’t believe in burning it all down because that means burning others down. And that’s exactly why we are protesting genocide–because we care about people. We care about the earth, and we care about the future. I want my kids and yours to have one.
Nothing is easy about this, but I can tell you one easy choice is not letting Donald Trump enter the White House again. I don’t see any justification for doing so, and certainly not anger at a system we have no hope of dismantling by November. It scares me when I see people I respect doing so on social media, which has prompted some of this. I won’t call people out. But, please, let’s minimize harm.
#FreePalestine.
Solidarity Forever,
Jenn
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As bad as the genocide in Gaza is, we can face a far worse outcome - WW3. Joe Biden started the war in Ukraine which may lead to direct NATO confrontation with Russia. He is also preparing to start a hot war over Taiwan. I will NOT vote for either of these monsters. You are VERY DISAPPOINTING and throwing your entire journalistic integrity into the garbage by continuing to peddle the "lesser of two evils" fallacy.
You like that Nazi gang in the WH, eh, Jenn. WTF? You should probably lay off the potatoes since they've clearly gone to your head.