Storm Advisory: 2024 Election
Even if Kamala Harris Wins
From a Google Image Search - USA Today
The sad part of the 2024 election is that if Dems win, the Republicans will go on with their power-grab strategies and obstruct, obstruct, obstruct, depending on the margins in Congress, of course. We will be free of Trump, but we will still have a stuffed Supreme Court, the "Freedom Caucus," the Heritage Foundation, and the Evangelicals. It appears that two ministers in Texas may have outdone the Koch web.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/02/magazine/texas-politics-billionaire-preachers.html
"In reality, Rogers had disappointed two men: Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, billionaires who have made their fortunes in the oil industry. Over the past decade, the pair have built the most powerful political machine in Texas — a network of think tanks, media organizations, political-action committees, and nonprofits that work in lockstep to purge the Legislature of Republicans whose votes they can’t rely on. Cycle after cycle, their relentless maneuvering has pushed the Statehouse so far to the right that consultants like to joke that Karl Rove couldn’t win a local race these days.
...
Like the Koch brothers, the Mercer family and other conservative billionaires, Dunn and Wilks want to slash regulations and taxes. Their endgame, however, is more radical: not just to limit the government but also to steer it toward Christian rule."
Even if the Dems win the Republicans will still try to achieve the goals they outlined in Project 2025. Kamala Harris is as intelligent as any male president we have elected and more intelligent than some. She believes in democracy so she will not govern alone but will have many experts chiming in. But can we expect her to battle an obstructive Congress? Male Democrat presidents have found this difficult and so will Kamala.
However, the alternative is still awful. Trump wants to be king or emperor or dictator for life and he wants it really bad. It is almost within his grasp. He can taste it. If we think he will stick to the plan outlined in Project 2025 if he wins, we may need to have our heads examined. But he may let the Republicans do as they wish. The elites don't want to send their children to school with hoi polloi so they will shut down the Department of Education and use our tax dollars to pay for private (elite) schools. It will not be their tax dollars because Trump will cut their taxes again and many of the wealthy already have ways to avoid paying any taxes.
If Republicans have the votes in Congress (polls suggest they will take the Senate), then they plan to get rid of benefits Americans rely on in hard times or old age. The ACA will be gone. We will have a truly two-tier health system then and the middle and lower classes will die at younger ages.
For the Nerds - From the BBC - long quote
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c977njnvq2do
Government
Project 2025 proposes that the entire federal bureaucracy, including independent agencies such as the Department of Justice, be placed under direct presidential control - a controversial idea known as "unitary executive theory".
In practice, that would streamline decision-making, allowing the president to directly implement policies in a number of areas.
The proposals also call for eliminating job protections for thousands of government employees, who could then be replaced by political appointees.
The document labels the FBI a "bloated, arrogant, increasingly lawless organization". It calls for drastic overhauls of this and several other federal agencies, as well as the complete elimination of the Department of Education.
The Republican party platform has absorbed many - but not all - of these ideas.
It includes a proposal to "declassify government records, root out wrongdoers, and fire corrupt employees". It pledges to slash regulation and government spending, and explicitly calls for closing the Department of Education.
But it stops short of proposing a sweeping overhaul of federal agencies as outlined in Project 2025.
Abortion and family
The mentions of abortion in Project 2025 - there are about 200 of them - have sparked some of the most contentious debate.
The document does not call for an outright nationwide abortion ban - and Trump says he would not sign such a law.
However, it proposes withdrawing the abortion pill mifepristone from the market, and using existing but little-enforced laws to stop the drug being sent through the post.
Harris said during the presidential debate: "Understand, in his Project 2025 there would be a national monitor that would be monitoring your pregnancies, your miscarriages."
That appears to be a reference to proposals in the document to bolster data collection on abortion.
More generally, the document suggests that the department of Health and Human Services should "maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family".
On abortion at least, the document differs fairly substantially from the Republican platform, which only mentions the word "abortion" once. The platform says abortion laws should be left to individual states and that late-term abortions (which it does not define) should be banned.
It adds that that access to prenatal care, birth control and in-vitro fertilisation should be protected. The party platform makes no mention of cracking down on the distribution of mifepristone.
Immigration
EPA
Increased funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border - one of Trump's signature proposals in 2016 - is proposed in the document.
Project 2025 also proposes dismantling the Department of Homeland Security and combining it with other immigration enforcement units in other agencies, creating a much larger and more powerful border policing operation.
Other proposals include eliminating visa categories for crime and human trafficking victims, increasing fees on immigrants and allowing fast-tracked applications for migrants who pay a premium.
Not all of those details are repeated in the Republican party platform, but the overall headlines are similar - the party is promising to implement the "largest deportation programme in American history".
What a Trump second term would look like
Climate and economy
The document proposes slashing federal money for research and investment in renewable energy, and calls for the next president to "stop the war on oil and natural gas".
Carbon-reduction goals would be replaced by efforts to increase energy production and energy security.
The paper sets out two competing visions on tariffs, and is divided on whether the next president should try to boost free trade or raise barriers to imports.
But the economic advisers suggest that a second Trump administration should slash corporate and income taxes, abolish the Federal Reserve and even consider a return to gold-backed currency.
The GOP party platform does not go as far as Project 2025 in these policy areas. The platform instead talks of bringing down inflation and drilling for oil to reduce energy costs, but is thin on specific policy proposals.
And Trump himself has come out in favour of raising tariffs on imported goods.
Tech and education
Under the proposals, pornography would be banned, and tech and telecoms companies that allow access would be shut down.
The document calls for school choice and parental control over schools, and takes aim at what it calls "woke propaganda".
It proposes to eliminate a long list of terms from all laws and federal regulations, including "sexual orientation", "gender equality", "abortion" and "reproductive rights".
Project 2025 aims to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools and government departments as part of what it describes as a wider crackdown on "woke" ideology.
The proposals in this policy area are broadly reflected in the Republican platform, which in addition to calling for the abolishing the Department of Education, aims to boost school choice and parental control over education and criticises what the party calls the "inappropriate political indoctrination of our children".
The plan's uncertain future
Prior to the swirling controversy around the proposals, Project 2025 was backed by a $22m (£17m) budget.
It includes strategies for implementing policies immediately after the presidential inauguration in January 2025, such as the creation of a database of conservative loyalists to fill government positions, and a programme to train those new workers.
But with the Trump campaign seeking to distance themselves from the project, its future is in doubt - even if many of its core ideas seem likely to shape policy in a hypothetical second Trump administration.
At the same time, many of the proposals would likely face immediate legal challenges from Trump's opponents if implemented."
End quote
Our media knows all of this and yet they keep telling us that people say they need to know more about Kamala Harris. They want to know exactly what she has planned for the economy, immigration, and, oddly, grocery prices. Until we know the makeup of Congress it is difficult to say what can be accomplished, and does it really matter considering what may happen if we don't elect Kamala and if Republicans win majorities in Congress? People complain that she will just be Joe Biden 2.0. As I recall the media insisted that Dems elect a moderate and Joe Biden was that person. Biden did a good job as president. We should consider ourselves well-served if Kamala can achieve as much as Biden did given the headwinds against him.
Please vote wisely!