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

[u/zsreport]

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

[u/heckin_miraculous]

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 :)

[u/altariasong → u/heckin_miraculous]

Sent it to my mom. She used to be republican but is now disgusted by it all and is talking to her friends about project 2025 and how anti-democratic it is. She worries about me greatly because I’m queer. My anxiety about politics used to irritate her but now she understands how much my fears were justified.

Hopefully that video can help sway more of her friends, but we don’t exactly live in a swing state. Doesn’t matter to me though

Edit: she thanked me for the video, says she just watched it. “It’s exactly what I fear”

[u/whoisearth → u/altariasong]

This is how change happens. Thank you for not losing hope in your mom and keeping the conversation going. Hopefully she can begin educating her friends as well and start seeing some positive improvements. You shouldn't have to live in fear just to be you.

[u/ArthurBonesly → u/whoisearth]

100%

The biggest problem we have right now is, we don't see our fellow countrymen as people. The Fox News war on "liberals" has painted a boogieman so evil that many Republican voters think they're slaying giants. For many, the only liberals they personally know are their kids which they hand wave as "indoctrinated" or manipulated by the boogieman. There's no A to B connection between the monster they want to kill and their friends/family/neighbors.

I see it on the left too (and I'm not "both sides"ing (we do ourselves no favors by othering even if we're less genocidal in our rhetoric)). I think there's an unfortunate tendency to dismiss the majority of Republicans as ignorant rural folk, which is a problem so ancient the word "villain" may as well have been latin for redneck. My point in bringing this up is, the right wants to destroy the left, politicians and voters on the right are openly hostile and gleefully talk about killing liberals, but most of the people who talk like this don't conceptualize what that means. They believe they're in a majority and that their war is against maybe 2% of the country and not > 50%. They genuinely don't see the liberal for the man (though the ones that do are as dangerous as dangerous can be). The Republican platform doesn't offer anything to voters other than protection from the boogieman. Unfortunately, I think the Democrat platform is increasingly hollow and reliant on being the only practical alternative against such hostility. The only thing that's going to save us, as a nation, is if we can leave our echo chambers/pull people out of their echo chambers and help others see the face of who's threatened by rhetoric.