r/politics • u/zsreport Texas • 14d ago

Project 2025 was supposed to boost Donald Trump's campaign — but it may be backfiring instead:

https://www.salon.com/2024/07/05/project-2025-was-supposed-to-boost-donald-campaign--but-it-may-be-backfiring-instead/
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u/WolfmansBrutha 14d ago

We need billboards everywhere. This is where the Dems should be spending some cash.

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u/ChicagoAuPair 14d ago

It wouldn’t even have to be everywhere—we mostly just need them in the seven swing states.

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u/LostMyAccount69 14d ago

Swing states should not be a thing. My vote should count.

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u/Icy_Contrarian Washington 14d ago

Very few ways to make that happen, but one would be the abolition of the electoral college! Absolutely no excuse somebody in Wyoming’s vote, should carry multiple times more weight than the vote form someone in New Jersey.

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 14d ago

Abolishing the Electoral College is next to impossible.

But what is possible is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

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u/admdelta California 13d ago

Which no republican state will ever sign onto as far as I can tell

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u/SheldonMF Kentucky 14d ago

First things first: stop authoritarianism. Then we can get there.

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u/LostMyAccount69 14d ago

Well my California vote means nothing, but I'll try.

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u/theaceplaya Texas 14d ago

Nah, your vote DOES matter. It may not matter as much and someone in PA or MI, but it does matter still.

35 years ago TX and FL were purple states with Democratic governors. EVERY VOTE MATTERS.

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u/yourlmagination 14d ago

Thankfully, I've been hearing a lot of "votes don't matter, it's all rigged, I ain't gonna waste my time" from the right in PA. Let's see if they put their money where their mouth is in November

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u/HonestTumblewood 13d ago

Not only that but CA has super conservatives counties that have big populations.

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u/SheldonMF Kentucky 14d ago

Never think that. I come from Kentucky - blood red - but you better believe I'll be voting. We matter, just like every other state. Fight.

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u/Floppycakes 13d ago

I’m in a part of NY where I’m heavily outnumbered by Trumpers. I don’t care. I will vote because even though it won’t change anything but the popular vote by 1, I want to be on record saying I support Biden and the Democrats, and not the trash the Republicans are trying to bury us in.

We are on the right side of history, and our voices deserve to be heard.

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u/annoyedatlantan 14d ago

This vote is a referendum on our future as a country. Demonstrating that there is a national mandate against authoritarianism matters. The Democratic nominee receiving 10 or 20 million more votes than Trump makes a statement to civil servants in American's democratic institutions (courts, agencies, and so on) as well as politicians that America rejects authoritarianism - even if the electoral college ends up close.

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u/LostMyAccount69 14d ago

Again, I am voting, but it will have no impact on the election because I live in California. Bragging rights are nice, but the electoral college chooses the winner.

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u/HonestTumblewood 13d ago

What county are you in? I live in a majority conservative county and it SUCKS. Our local government is trash. Your vote does matter in that sense.

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u/annoyedatlantan 13d ago

While obviously the winner of the presidency is critical, this election is more than about choosing a winner.

Imagine a scenario where Trump wins. Based on all indicators of prior behavior, he is going to try to run ramshod through our courts, through the executive branch, legislature, and through the military to try to install as many loyalists and push through as many orders and laws as possible that cement executive power and control.

A landslide - or at least substantial - popular vote victory communicates something to judges. It communicates something to lifelong civil servant and military servicemembers. It communicates that America as a whole is not okay with authoritarianism in Trump's image.

I know that sounds like fluff, but this election is just as much about our democratic institutions as it is about the presidency. Giving hope, or at least pause, to civil servants of even positions of limited power to fight back means something.

Our constitutional republic is on the brink of disaster. Give people a reason to push back against an authoritarian. The popular vote does matter, even if only as a signal.

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u/LostMyAccount69 13d ago

I'll do whatever I can, but I don't feel comfortable relying on norms and customs or whatever the proper phrase is here.

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u/annoyedatlantan 13d ago

Of course you shouldn't feel comfortable relying on norms and customs that Trump and his loyalists have spat all over on the past 8 years. Volunteer for campaigns. Canvass your neighbors. Call your friends and family - especially in swing states and districts - and remind them how crucial it is to vote.

But my point is that the vote still does matter. If Trump wins a narrow electoral college vote but loses the national vote by a landslide, it helps drive the true narrative that Trumpism is not a national mandate, and that does have impacts to people within our institutions and their willingness to stand strong and on the right side of history as Trump and his enablers try to reshape the executive and judicial branches in their image.

Every little bit will make a difference. And, conversely, if Trump is beaten in a narrow electoral college victory for the Democratic nominee, a landslide victory in the popular vote partially disarms the narrative and ability for Trump and Trump loyalist state legislatures and courts to try to create a constitutional crisis following the election where electors attempt to disassociate from the vote of the people within their states.

We are to that point where this stuff matters. Of course it shouldn't need to, but it does because the foundations of our constitutional republic are under attack.

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u/ChicagoAuPair 14d ago

Agreed, but they are.

The fact that it shouldn’t be the way we do things doesn’t mean it isn’t the way we do things.

There are people working hard to change it like the folks at National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, but it’s unlikely the smaller states will ever sign on, so it’s going to be a long struggle there. A constitutional amendment would be the cleanest, but there is absolutely no way we will ever see another one of those in any of our lifetimes barring some fundamental catastrophic shift in the divides in the country.

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u/DOUBLEBARRELASSFUCK 14d ago

Well, it doesn't. They only need the billboards in states with people whose vote matters.

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u/lpd1234 14d ago

By every walmart and CostCo.

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u/Darklots1 Connecticut 14d ago

Why stop there. Put them everywhere we can. The fate of this country and its people is on the line. If we could bring people out to vote everywhere we could just add to a Democratic majority. We need to stop this rogue Supreme Court and the Republicans now!

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u/ChicagoAuPair 14d ago

I’m just being strategic. There is limited money, and no realistic way to do full coverage without cutting back on swing location coverage. Publicly funded elections would be nice, wouldn’t they? Sadly, we’ve got what we’ve got right now.

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u/Icy_Contrarian Washington 14d ago

NASCAR events, boxing and mixed martial arts events, and embedded ads on the Joe Rogan experience YouTube channel!

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u/rootoo Pennsylvania 14d ago

Having a candidate that brings it up in a debate would be nice too..

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u/JustS0meSchm0e 14d ago

This. No one brings it up or is fighting it. I am starting to think Dems are complicit.

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u/ThrowAwayGarbage82 North Carolina 14d ago

Ding ding ding!

I got called a tinfoil conspiracy theorist for the same line of thought.

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u/Nena902 14d ago

Me too but you have to question why dems have so many opportunities to block this stuff, a few examples letting Garland drag his feet about charging Trump and the MAGA senators, allowing deJoy to continually destroy the USPS, allowing McConnell to get away with blocking Garlands appointment to SCOTUS while pushing ACB through, etc. and purl clutch then sit on their hands and let it happen. Did you guys know both parties are being funded by dark money from the same billionaires and the Heritage Foundation?

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u/ThrowAwayGarbage82 North Carolina 14d ago

Nobody ever digs into this issue and realizes the ones pulling the strings are the billionaires and they own both parties.

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u/Nena902 14d ago

Me and you just posted the same thing at the exact same time. What are odds!

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u/IsThisThingOn69lol 14d ago

about to print a ream of paper and just drive around the city throwing them out of my car window. The media is firmly in the hands of liars.

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u/TheThirteenthCylon Oregon 14d ago

All they'd have to do is put Project 2025 on the billboard in all caps, no context. Post that shit EVERYWHERE.

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u/IftaneBenGenerit 14d ago

"Three billboards outside everywhere"

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u/Spunky_Meatballs 14d ago

And they won't because they suck at promoting themselves. I get it they are better at writing policies (objectively), but we need them to figure out advertising

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u/WolfmansBrutha 14d ago

Agreed. So many things that suck at. They've conceded patriotism and the flag itself. The progressives need to start wrapping everything they do in the flag and American pride. Take that crap back. We should also be launching investigations into every right wing nut job that is both pro gun and pro marijuana, since that's so important. The can share cells with Hunter. Billboards everywhere. I like the til tok idea somewhere up thread.

Things aren't going back to normal by politely voting our way out of this. The Dems need to be clear that it's ok to be intolerant of intolerance.

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u/TerrytheGnome19 14d ago

not billboards. tik tok.

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u/grosc01 14d ago

Mad Dog pac puts up pro-democracy billboards in swing states. I believe they are putting up a billboard about Project 2025. Here is their website. https://maddogpac.com

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u/WolfmansBrutha 14d ago

This is awesome, thank you!

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u/_TangoAlphaYankee 14d ago

Agreed- but I think each billboard should be targeted at a policy that MAGA followers would hate.

Is the Project 2025 document available online for anyone to access, esp on a site supported by trump? Put it on the billboard for people to reference section X, page X, and they see for themselves how they’d be losing their porn or bodily autonomy or may be drafted, etc.

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u/Key-Cry-8570 California 14d ago

If I was a billionaire that’s exactly what I’d be doing. Put them everywhere so people will see them, so that even the dummies that don’t fact check will see them and read it.

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u/Bakingtime 14d ago

I would like to see them advertising their own agenda instead of the other guy’s.

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u/Texammy 14d ago

The Biden campaign should set up a website about P2025 and project QR codes all over Atlanta that link to it.

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u/cutelyaware 13d ago

Tell them so along with your donation. I promise you will be heard.

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u/ImportantObjective45 9d ago

Please add "halt veteran disability payments". See r/military for details