Trump Has A Plan To Destroy Democracy. Why Haven't People Heard of It? 🇺🇸

[appalachiablue]

Daily Kos, June 19, '24. Ed (231 Rec, 112 Cmt).

Donald Trump's "Project 2025" is a blueprint of right-wing grievances geared toward dismantling or coopting every aspect of the federal government and trampling over the rights of everyone they despise in the process.

For a nation that still prides itself on its exceptionalism, Americans are exceptionally indifferent to the workings of their own government. One explanation for that complacency is that, at least in recent times, our government’s powers have rarely been wielded specifically for the purpose of intimidating and harming American citizens in the manner of less benign societies, such as dictatorships and autocracies.

Republicans now aim to change that, and they are convinced that if Trump is elected in November, he will provide them their moment.

While all Republican administrations since Reagan’s have taken advantage of their stewardship of government to gorge themselves at the public trough, Trump’s first term might have been the most egregious in history. But even Trump’s record of craven political corruption was apparently not enough for the people who now dominate the GOP. While draining public funds through corporate tax cuts and exploiting the country’s surfeit of natural resources is still the GOP’s paramount goal, the opportunity to transform the tools of government into a weapon to attack their political opponents now appears irresistible, particularly if those tools are handed to them by an administration that simply does not care how they are used.

So they’ve created “Project 2025,” a manifesto supported by 100 right-leaning organizations that satisfies those aims while enriching themselves in the process. They know that they have a uniquely clueless and mercurial vessel in Trump. One who is profoundly uninterested in governing, whose only real aim has always been to line his own pockets. So they assume with a reanimated, vengeful Trump in charge they’ll be given free rein to run amok, as long as Trump’s needs are met. That 920-page tome, prepared by the Heritage Foundation, is a blueprint of right-wing grievances geared toward dismantling or coopting every aspect of the federal government and trampling over the rights of everyone they despise in the process.

That includes women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and just about anyone opposing their white supremacist and Christian nationalist agenda. It’s written broadly to apply to any Republican administration, but most particularly one under Trump, whose name is referenced in the document some 300 times.
Unsurprisingly, few American voters are even aware of the existence of Project 2025, let alone what it portends for their future. It’s a recipe for the total destruction of U.S. democracy through the imposition of a virulent, white, Christian nationalist regime, answerable only to Trump. A poll conducted last month by Global Strategy Group for its Navigator Project indicates fewer than one in four registered voters in this country has heard of Project 2025...More + Comments,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/19/2246322/-Trump-has-a-plan-to-destroy-democracy-Why-haven-t-people-heard-of-it
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The Even More Horrible Truth about Project 2025 That is Being Ignored, Daily Kos,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/19/2247497/-The-even-more-horrible-truth-about-Project-2025-that-is-being-ignored

[Silent Type]

1. I've not read the whole thing, but a BBC summary is enough to make my head wobble. BUT,

close to 50% of voters believe that crud. How do we convince them otherwise? If they read it, they’ll say “hell yeah” and wave their confederate/trump flags.

[appalachiablue]

3. That's the great challege because they'll buy anything they're told, look out.

How to get through to them is for high level strategists surely working on this crisis. And sorry to say I read a few more remarks by democracy supporters that people who do not understand the dangers of anti democratic dictatorship may have to learn the hard way. That's a horrible prospect but I get the point that it might be what it takes for many to 'see the light' and way too late. It's terrifying.

[Silent Type]

7. It really is terrifying. While I'm reasonably confident Biden will prevail, who knows what will pop up

just before election. I find some comfort that anything that pops up is more likely trump’s undoing.

But I got excited in 2004 when Kerry appeared to be surging until Bin Laden released a threatening video the Friday before election, scaring wavering voters back to bush. Never got over that.

[appalachiablue]

9. Biden will make it I think as well, but the turmoil until

Nov. and the potential for the release of problematic material near the election, a la the October Surprise is a lot of angst with the stakes higher than I've ever seen. The way it is.

Tx for the reminder about the awful video let loose before the Kerry election. What a shame and a sham.

[appalachiablue]

16. *PROJECT 2025, THE MEN BEHIND TRUMP: THOM HARTMANN THURS, 6.20.24

- Project 2025 Secret Plan Reveals Who Holds Trump's Leash, June 20, 2024. (8 mins).

In less than a month, Republicans will meet in Milwaukee to crown Donald Trump as their Emperor King and Sun God. But the real powers behind the GOP - the billionaires and their institutions that created Project 2025 as a how-to manual to convert American democracy into something like the Old Confederacy. They don't care much about Donald.

The Agenda - dismantle Federal Civil Service protections; dismantle the US Dept. of Education and replace it with private, for profit academies; slash funding for the US Dept. of Justice and dismantle the FBI. Replace it with new police agencies loyal to the president like the forces in FL with DeSantis and TX with Abbott...More.

[lees1975]

17. I'm not sure about that.

When people realize that the purpose of this is the transfer of wealth from their pockets to the rich, I don't think they'll cheer. They'll deny that Trump is proposing it. It's a liberal talking point to them.

[msongs]

2. every media outlet seems to be 90 per cent trump all the time...including most well known

democratic internet message boards

[appalachiablue]

5. Ik, it's an overwhelming issue, the non stop focus & profit made from the spectacle..

As Les Moonves, head of CBS said the last time, 'Trump may be bad for America but he's good for CBS.'

[KT2000]

4. Our local Next Door

is having a discussion about the 2025. The RW contingent believes it is necessary to save the Constitution and keep corporations from taking over. The RW contingent devours propaganda daily. Their brains have been twisted.

[appalachiablue]

6. Good for your Next Door group, Action! Many RW brains are programmed

and rigid after decades of the prop machine I know..

[Silent Type]

8. Whew, my local nextdoor is about 80% white wing. I post what I think is true. Some folks support that,

most think I’m a communist, pervert, or something else.

So, I have a lot of post hidden. Screw ‘em.

[KT2000]

14. I do the same

I am surprised that most of the posters on our Next Door are liberal. I have found the loud, racist RWers will take over boards such as ND because they are basically bullies. They bring the level of discourse way down so the least I can do is post facts and call out the insanity for what it is.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. The survival of our Democratic form of government is on the ballot

Joe Biden did a good job with this issue during the 2020 election

Here is some polling that shows that voters are aware of this issue. https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219047052

[appalachiablue]

12. Thanks, from Fox too.

Brand new Fox News polling shows the "Future of Democracy" being the top issue heading into 2024.
The continued existence of our Democratic form of government is an important issue

[Rhiannon12866]

11. John Oliver explained the details on his show on Sunday and the plan is not just anti-democratic, but terrifying

[elleng]

13. Because there's a number in it's name?

[appalachiablue]

15. Dunno but the added date which is very near! may add emphasis for some..

I overlooked adding to the OP above the earlier influential Manifesto, the POWELL MEMO (1971) and here it is. Powell's plan to control the 'attack on the free enterprise system' has had a huge impact esp. since Reagan's election in 1980, the other entertainment Potus. The Powell Manifesto called for the establishment of powerful think tanks and lobbyists in DC and state capitals, control of the media, academia, consumer groups, and more. Look at where we are now.
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- Lewis Powell, tobacco industry lawyer, Richmond, Va. Supreme Court, Nixon admin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_F._Powell_Jr.
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- The Lewis Powell Memo: A Corporate Blueprint to Dominate Democracy - Written in 1971 to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Lewis Powell Memo was a blueprint for corporate domination of American Democracy.

For more, see *Greenpeace analyses of how Lewis Powell’s suggestions have impacted the realms of politics, judicial law, communications and education. The full text of the Powell Memo is below or can be downloaded as a PDF.
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CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM
- Attack on American Free Enterprise System -
DATE: August 23, 1971
TO: Mr. Eugene B. Sydnor, Jr., Chairman, Education Committee, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
FROM: Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

This memorandum is submitted at your request as a basis for the discussion on August 24 with Mr. Booth (executive vice president) and others at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The purpose is to identify the problem, and suggest possible avenues of action for further consideration.

- Dimensions of the Attack: No thoughtful person can question that the American economic system is under broad attack. This varies in scope, intensity, in the techniques employed, and in the level of visibility. There always have been some who opposed the American system, and preferred socialism or some form of statism (communism or fascism). Also, there always have been critics of the system, whose criticism has been wholesome and constructive so long as the objective was to improve rather than to subvert or destroy. But what now concerns us is quite new in the history of America.

We are not dealing with sporadic or isolated attacks from a relatively few extremists or even from the minority socialist cadre. Rather, the assault on the enterprise system is broadly based and consistently pursued. It is gaining momentum and converts.

- Sources of the Attack: The sources are varied and diffused. They include, not unexpectedly, the Communists, New Leftists and other revolutionaries who would destroy the entire system, both political and economic. These extremists of the left are far more numerous, better financed, and increasingly are more welcomed and encouraged by other elements of society, than ever before in our history. But they remain a small minority, and are not yet the principal cause for concern. The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism come from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians.

In most of these groups the movement against the system is participated in only by minorities. Yet, these often are the most articulate, the most vocal, the most prolific in their writing and speaking. Moreover, much of the media — for varying motives and in varying degrees — either voluntarily accords unique publicity to these “attackers,” or at least allows them to exploit the media for their purposes. This is especially true of television, which now plays such a predominant role in shaping the thinking, attitudes and emotions of our people.

One of the bewildering paradoxes of our time is the extent to which the enterprise system tolerates, if not participates in, its own destruction. The campuses from which much of the criticism emanates are supported by (i) tax funds generated largely from American business, and (ii) contributions from capital funds controlled or generated by American business. The boards of trustees of our universities overwhelmingly are composed of men and women who are leaders in the system. Most of the media, including the national TV systems, are owned and theoretically controlled by corporations which depend upon profits, and the enterprise system to survive...
https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/democracy/the-lewis-powell-memo-a-corporate-blueprint-to-dominate-democracy/