Socialism and the Best Effort: Project 2025

What would be a modern-day Conservative manifesto without some lovely conspiracy? This, by the way, will be the last of the foreword. You got the whole thing. After this, each chapter will highlight what seems alarming to me. We will likely disagree on what must be alarming. Why, I say read it.

But this piece contains some lovelies that go back a long time, with a few smears that also go back a long time.

The fact that they are calling Democrats socialists goes back to the Cold War. In fact, some of this goes back to both Red Scares. The first one was in the twenties. Once again, there is an effort to move the Overton window further to the right. You know it is when a party does this.

So, let me give you the screenshots.

Now, the beginning of the first screenshot also has another marker of fascism. Religiosity in the US has been on the way down for decades. Many of the people behind this plan are Christian nationalists. Here is where the marriage (maybe of convenience) between Victor Orban and Vladimir Putin comes in. Both are also pressing that same point, with the phrase traditional values.

It is going after this, which was not shocking. They are also equating all left-of-center movements, including some that are center, with communism. It is a deft trick, the Nazis also used that.

It also tells people that the Democrats seek control of the economy. They don’t, but the accusation works. Partially, this is a continuation of the attack on the administrative state. For some of these people, any regulation is government control. They believe in the fiction that markets will do all and that a kid, as young as fourteen, should be able to work if they want to. Russia is already doing this as well.

The canard that all socialists want is power is cute. And I will say this: there are social democracies that work very well, thank you very much. I don’t think Norway or Sweden are dystopian hell scales, but maybe I need to move to another timeline.

They also use words that do not mean freedom of religion or speech. We know that they want to bring back the Muslim ban. It’s on the party platform. It’s in Project 2025. So, not all religions?

The same goes for the rest. They do not mean all freedoms for everybody. It’s another episode of every accusation, which is a confession.

Now the last part of the executive summary can be summarized this way. We plan to unite along these goals. It’s our best effort to transform the country. The appeals to Ronald Reagan are funny because I don’t think Reagan would endorse any of this. Anyhow, here are the last screenshots.

After this, the screenshots will be far more limited. And why is Donald Trump trying to distance himself when a lot of his staff is involved here and expects to have a role in that government? Well, it’s toxic. And I think at least his aides realize that this cat is out of the bag.