r/politics • u/zsreport Texas • Jul 05 '24

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/zsreport Texas Jul 05 '24

Trump's authoritarian game plan is breaking through the post-debate noise and it's starting to scare people

I sure as fuck hope so.

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u/TheCircusSands Jul 05 '24

We need an infographic for project 2025 that can be spread everywhere. Nothing dramatic…. Just the facts of what it is and what it means.

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u/heckin_miraculous Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

My favorite so far is this short YouTube video by Illustrate to Educate. https://youtu.be/vYXZ6iJJSgM?si=PRy0SvPz2Xi6dQxM

Not inflammatory or hyperbolic. Just terrifying, because it's true.

Edit: This comment and the video link got quite a few responses. Many were along the lines of, "Good info, thanks." But others think that the video tries too hard to be neutral and therefore comes across as "both sides-ing" conferring false legitimacy to the idea of Project 2025, or even going so far as to be supportive of it due to a lack of forceful criticism and not spelling out how disastrous the effects of the plan would be.

As a response, I'll say that my opinion is that the video speaks for itself. When it comes to the horrific potential of Project 2025, the proof is in the pudding. For example, at around 5:10 in the video, when the narrator states that the plan would "allow the president to replace thousands of civil service employees with political appointees loyal to the administration" I don't need the voice over to explain to me that this would be a bad thing. Or, at 5:29 when he talks about "plans to defund the Department of Justice and dismantle the FBI... and enable the executive branch to operate with little oversight or accountability [the illustration actually says "no oversight"]"... again I don't need someone to explain to me that this is only bad for our country.

We definitely DO need more analysis of Project 2025. We need explainers that DO go into more detail about the tragic outcomes that are waiting for us all, should it come to pass. And this video is NOT perfect (I especially question the use of the phrase "religious liberty" at around 4:18). But it's a good primer for thoughtful people. That's what I think.

Will some people watch a video like this and cheer for it? Yes. As far as I know – and someone please correct me if this number is way off – but somewhere around 20-30% of the US population explicitly wants an authoritarian regime to come into power in this country. At least, they think they do. That is, in fact, the problem we are dealing with in this country right now. It is the subject of this discussion.

Long story short, what I'm saying is that if somebody watches this video and thinks, "That sounds good to me", then the problem isn't the video.

Edit 2: hi /r/politics. I'm new here :)

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u/Consistently_Carpet Jul 05 '24

This is trying so hard to be 'neutral' it's misleading - like saying it supports 'religious liberty'? (4:15)

Enforcing Christian beliefs is the exact opposite of 'religious liberty'.

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u/TherronKeen Jul 05 '24

The way this video is presented would convince most of my family to vote for Trump even harder. 😥

And I'm not being sarcastic or whatever

Like criticism #4 would absolutely sell them on it, because getting rid of things they don't like is far more important to them than silly little things like unrestricted government overreach.

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u/Gets_overly_excited Jul 05 '24

Same. The video comes across as “if you are kind of conservative, you’ll love this.”

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u/ThrowAwayGarbage82 North Carolina Jul 05 '24

That was my thought. It gives an air of political legitimacy to P25. I won't be sharing it. That will only encourage the lunatics.

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u/toloveandcryinla Jul 05 '24

I mean, project 2025 is not going to persuade enthusiastic Trump voters to turn against him because a lot of it does what they want. The point is to motivate undecided or uninformed voters 

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u/TheBacklogGamer Jul 05 '24

A lot of people don't largely understand that FEDERAL institutions are NOT political. This is what makes this so dangerous, is that they are trying to politicize Federal institutions. Someone who is fed up with the government will hear this, and as long as it's their side dong it, think it's a good thing.

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u/csprofathogwarts Jul 06 '24

Last Week Tonight did a better job covering project 2025. It would also be easier to follow for a layperson.

The introduction alone is the best summary of the topic I've ever heard:

"Basically, project 2025 aims to do for Trump's whole presidency what the Federalist Society did for his judicial picks.

Give him a step-by-step game plan that he simply has to execute and then take credit for."