The right-wing 'authoritarian' 2025 project aiming to destroy democracy: column

In a Monday, January 8 op-ed for The Oklahoman, columnist Richard C. "Dick" Hall warns the United States is "susceptible to converting our democracy to an authoritarian dictatorship based on" the right-wing's Project 2025 strategy — led by the political nonprofit The Heritage Foundation.

Noting that "Project 2025 echoes the steps taken that led to the rise of Nazi Germany," Hall writes, the program "builds off Heritage’s 'Mandate for Leadership.' The Trump administration relied on Heritage’s 'Mandate' for policy guidance during his term as president." He adds, Project 2025 is described as 'The Conservative Promise,' which lays out how to use many tools, including how to legally fire supposedly 'un-fireable' federal bureaucrats. Project 2025 is also referred to by the originators as the 'Presidential Transition Project.' It is a document of almost 1,000 pages. After reading through these documents and enduring the questionable political rhetoric, it seems more like the 'The Radical Conservatives Machination.'

The columnist notes right-wing activists behind Project 2025 are going about implementing the program by "currently recruiting an 'army' of Americans from across our nation to move to Washington, D.C., as new presidential staffers," with the goal "to have indoctrinated human resources available on Day One of a new president to commandeer, reshape and do away with what these conservatives call the existing 'deep state' bureaucracy."

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Furthermore, Hall writes, "The 30 departments under control of the president ― including the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of State, and others ― are all subjects of political criticism by the authors of Project 2025. The most critical department addressed, in my opinion, is described in 'Central Personnel Agencies: Managing the Bureaucracy.' It is focused on restaffing the administrative offices of the president to install radical conservatives in all departments. It describes the need to replace long-time career staffing with individuals specially trained to support the new president."

He notes, "Launching Project 2025 to coincide with the 2024 presidential election campaign is aimed at avoiding the pitfalls encountered by former President Trump’s first years in office, when he and his inexperienced team were not capable of providing proper leadership. Former President Donald Trump’s policies were met with resistance by lawmakers, existing government workers and even his own appointees who refused to violate regulations to please him. In short, our democracy was working to stop dictatorial behavior."

Hall emphasizes, "Any individual elected U.S. president that uses the Project 2025 document to guide our nation presents a significant threat to our democracy. It plants the seeds of rebellion to change our United States of America from a democracy to an authoritarian-style dictator government.

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