The mainstream media appears to have finally awakened to the threat that a second Trump term poses to democracy in this country. Trump’s fascistic Veteran’s Day speech1 and the disclosure of his plans to round up and deport millions of immigrants and go after birthright citizens of immigrant parents2 have finally gotten through the fog of “renormalization” of Trump’s rhetoric. We can expect torrents of the same venomous bile until Trump is either behind bars or elected.
The Veteran’s Day riff was no spur-of-the-moment event. It was set in motion to stick a pin in the bubble of optimism that grew from the near-total Democratic sweep in last week’s elections. By now, anyone who was been watching realizes that Trump feeds bloodier and bloodier red meat to his minions as a distractor whenever he loses. He cannot give them time to actually think about the loss other than to declare it more of the rigged system perpetrated by “the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections.” He has to foment more anger in his acolytes to keep them loyal.
We need to steel ourselves and face every day understanding what is at stake.
Today’s challenge to democracy is going to be the vote on the continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government. 3 The chaos caucus has already signaled to Speaker Johnson that they would not vote for the latest “laddered” CR gimmick since it did not contain deep spending cuts, border security funding, and aid to Israel but without humanitarian aid for the Palestinians. Johnson’s work-around is to avoid a rules fight and go for a procedural ploy that requires a 2/3 vote to bring the bill to the floor and, therefore, requires Democratic support. We are back to where we were when former Speaker McCarthy was ousted by the motion to vacate poison pill, which is still in play.
The question is, will the chaos caucus, having won their desire to set up two separate deadlines for different government agencies to be funded, pass the CR and not pull another motion to vacate? Or will they, instead, hold their ire until after the holidays?
The proposed draft of the continuing resolution (CR) would extend current funding for the federal government in two tiers: funding for four appropriations bills, would be extended until January 19, 2024, and funding for the remaining eight bills would be extended until February 2, 2024. A summary of the status of the appropriations bills and what needs to be done to get them through the appropriations process can be found in a prior post.4
According to the Washington Post, Speak JOhnson’s end run around the chaos caucus is not being well received:
“It will be very frustrating and really flies in the face of all that we’ve been fighting for,” said Rep. Andrew Ogles (R-Tenn.), a member of the Freedom Caucus. “I think there’s a real chance that votes going forward could get really contentious, even more so than they are now.”
Asked how the Freedom Caucus would respond if GOP leaders decided to pass the funding bill with the help of Democrats on Tuesday, the group’s chairman Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said, “It could be rage.”
Both Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell are supporting Johnson’s “clean” “ laddered” CR, so it is likely to pass the Senate and move on to President Biden for signature if it can make it through the House today. “Non-essential” government services shut down at midnight on Friday if it does not. That only buys time until
Buried under the torrent of Trump related-related news, including the leaked tapes from the Georgia election interference case, was news that Trump allies have started vetting 54,000 loyalists for his new administration. 5
For the last 7 months, I have been writing about Project 20256 Republican manifesto to decimate the ranks of the civil service professionals in the executive branch and install a layer of political hacks to make sure the tattered remains of Departments and Agencies fall into line with a conservative President’s directives. I have been sounding the alarm almost daily in comments on Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American. My mind has been boggled that this 900-page document is openly available on the internet, with its detailed game plan to initiate massive changes on Day One of a new Republican administration, but it has received little attention with individual articles and programs in the media sparsely scattered randomly over time since the spring. 7 Every article points to the danger that Project 2025 poses to our Democracy, but there has been no sustained effort in the media to investigate deeply and inform the public. There also has been little recognition of the coordination between the legislative takeover through gerrymandering, dubbed OPERATION REDMAP, and the stacking of the justice system with ultra-conservative judges and SCOTUS justices vetted by the Federalist Society. Project 2025 would complete the trifecta.
In fact, Project 2025 is the latest in a long line of “Mandates for Leadership” encyclicals from the first, written in 1980 for the Reagan administration by the Heritage Foundation. 8 You can see a timeline of their purported accomplishments from their organization in 1973. Heritage claims that 2/3 of the 2000 policy recommendations in the 1,093-page document produced in 1980 were adopted by the Reagan administration. Heritage claims that 64% of the policy prescriptions in the “Mandate for Leadership” volume at the beginning of the Trump administration were included in Trump’s Budget, implemented through regulatory guidance, or under consideration in accordance with Heritage’s proposals. In other words, most of what you see is what you get.
Project 2025 is built on four pillars, according to its introduction:
Pillar I—(this volume)—puts in one place a consensus view of how major federal agencies must be governed and where disagreement exists, brackets out these differences for the next President to choose a path.
Pillar II is a personnel database that allows candidates to build their own professional profiles and our coalition members to review and voice their recommendations. These recommendations will then be collated and shared with the President-elect’s team, greatly streamlining the appointment process.
Pillar III is the Presidential Administration Academy, an online educational system taught by experts from our coalition. For the newcomer, this will explain how the government functions and how to function in government. For the experienced, we will host in-person seminars with advanced training and set the bar for what is expected of senior leadership.
In Pillar IV—the Playbook—we are forming agency teams and drafting transition plans to move out upon the President’s utterance of “so help me God.”
The Heritage Foundation claims that 350 leading conservatives participated in developing the mandate. More than 80 Conservative organizations are on the Project 2025 advisory board. 9 The list includes organizations such as the Alliance Defending Freedom, where Speaker Mike Johnson spent a decade as a constitutional lawyer fighting gay rights, including gay marriage. 10 Another familiar name on the list is the book-banning group Moms for Liberty.
The Rolling Stones Article shows that the dark-money-funded Heritage Foundation operation is well on its way to constructing Pillar II of its plan to destroy the executive branch.
There are lots of parts in motion in the current assault on Democracy. Trump is the bright and shiny object that is meant to be the distractor and draw focus. But just as damaging are layers of other machinations to obstruct the functioning of government, by withholding funding and blocking critical personnel appointments, blocking legislation, and preventing judicial relief from courts that are stacked with hand-picked far-right conservatives. Below all of that is Project 2025, getting primed, ready, and now staffing up to step in should Trump win.
https://www.newsweek.com/what-project-2025-trump-shadow-network-plans-overhaul-deep-state-1825780
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/17/us/politics/trump-plans-2025.html
https://www.npr.org/2023/10/28/1204936155/republicans-census-project2025-trump-citizenship-question
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/09/19/project-2025-trump-reagan-00115811
Trump loyalist Jonathan Karl in an interview with Jen Psaki revealed the following about TFFG-
"He lacks any shred of human decency, humility or caring," a former White House official told Karl. "He is morally bankrupt, breathtakingly dishonest, lethally incompetent and stunningly ignorant of virutually anything related to governing, history, geography, human events or world affairs. He is a traitor and a malignancy in the nation, and represents a clear and present danger to our democracy and the rule of law."
Karl explained that the person was in the West Wing and worked alongside Trump for more than a year at a "high level." The key title is "official," indicating it wasn't a staffer or aide.
The Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy is one of the original signers of Project 2025. A 2021 article in The American Mind by Claremont’s Glenn Ellmers is a rare look behind their curtain. Ellmers’s article separates Trump the individual from Trumpism the movement and is no fan of the former given his bombastic personality and therefore is not the Chosen One to lead them (Project 2025) forward. Trump will be discarded when the time is right.
https://americanmind.org/salvo/why-the-claremont-institute-is-not-conservative-and-you-shouldnt-be-either/
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/12/conservativism_is_no_longer_enough_its_time_for_something_new.html
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/4/1/22356594/conservatives-right-wing-democracy-claremont-ellmers