Which is why in an earlier thread “To Trump or Not to Trump”, I posed the question of which would be worse for America: Trump, or an actually competent autocrat.
But were those actually his goals, or were those the red-meat he threw to the masses? Hell, Bannon made a tidy profit off of grifting the massas because the wall wasn’t built. His true goal was to consolidate power, and i think he was pretty damned successful at that.
On right wing social media the prevailing sentiment is that quality of life was far superior during Cheeto admin I. This belief is neither bolstered nor influenced by evidence.
And, in their view, that was all worth a little personal nastiness by the big guy. “Mean tweets? You’ve got to be kidding!”
It’s often bolstered by outright lies.
“A thanksgiving turkey now costs $90”
“An average airport burger now costs $78”
“Everyone is out of work”
“Gasoline is $13 a gallon”
I think Trump genuinely wanted to repeal Obamacare. Not because he cares about making sure Americans are taken care of, but becaues he hates Obama and wanted to take something away from him while putting his own name on it. I also think Trump cared deeply about getting the wall built. Not because he thought it’d keep America safe, but because he looks like a failure, a loser, for not getting it built.
Trump isn’t a particularly saavy politician and it’s clear he doesn’t understand complex issues like healthcare or even the basics behind how government works. But like all cults, his followers are more than willing to make excuses for him when he does fail. They’ll blame RINOS, democrats, wokeness, drag queens, groomers, or whatever else their flights of fancy lead them to.
Bumping this because of the Iowa Caucuses. Trump is one step closer to sealing up the nomination (officially) by going thru the motions of these primaries. I think he has a real shot at becoming #47, and this Project 2025 has a non-zero chance of happening.
But, what safeguards are in place to thwart, or at least hamper, stall, or otherwise disrupt this Project? Can individual states decline to participate in some of the shit they plan to do at the federal level? Can states ensure the rights of individuals where the Federal government is repealing those rights? Are there any guardrails strong enough to protect the nation, or will we all be in the early stages of the Fourth Reich?
Are we gonna lose porn?
Not to worry. Just like most of the child molesters are Republicans, so are the porn watchers.
trump himself would be a figurehead. As long as he can play golf, make money, and get his ass licked he’s happy. If he was involved, every aspect of the project would be two weeks in the future. I’m worried about what happens when his magnificent physique gives out, and his golf time becomes coming up with stupid fucking ideas time. I think much effort will go into keeping him out of the public eye as much as possible, like FDR, except FDR was just physically handicapped.
I reached out to the Heritage Foundation, sending them a list of several problems facing the country and asking how they would propose to solve them. They added their answers and sent it back. I mean, can you believe this?
Shortly afterward, they must have felt that they’d been somewhat hasty on the second item, so they sent the following revision:
The nerve!
I was trying to inject some comic relief here, but the ominous thing is that this is all more or less true.
And while all this is going on, and with all of the lasting damage Trump already accomplished in his first term, we have “progressives” both foreign and domestic ranting about the “Republicrats” or the “Duopoly”, saying there’s no difference between the parties, and that the Democrats are evil hypocrites. An Australian journalist heavily active on Medium has the basic message that Biden’s evil because “Gaza, Gaza, Gaza, Gaza”, and obviously cares nothing for the domestic policy impact of a second Trump term, or the fact that the Constitutional flaws regarding elections ALL favor the Republicans. She’s running around the gunpowder room playing with sparklers, and it’s not even her gunpowder room.
Imagine being a conscientious governmental middle manager, and having the people under you be replaced by MAGA approved people. It would be doubly worse if it was way too soon to retire.
Not to mention getting a Dominionist agency head and seeing civil service “reformed” so that pensions become privatized.
I think they’d fire the manager at the same time as their reports. Even if the manager is conservative by any reasonable standard, they still allowed those “undesirables” to come onboard. I think that’s how they’d look at it.
Exactly. The plan is to sweep out anyone not in the cult, no matter what level, office drones on up to managerial types.
If they have any brains at all 
They would just start at the top. Then they can take care of the rest.
That’s what they tried last time, but it was too slow. Even by the end of Trump’s presidency, most government workers were still trying to do their jobs. That’s the “deep state” they keep complaining about.
Right. They don’t want people that will do their job, they want people in those positions that wiil do as they’re told.
For those who haven’t put in the time to get a sense of what Project 2025 is about, John Oliver’s most recent show does a pretty good job of covering its dystopian highlights with his usual blend of highly-caffeinated dry wit.
NOT SAFE FOR WORK
Just under 30:00, but a good episode.
The part that catches my eye is the quote where the Project-2025 proponents describe the Biden administration as an example of “the inherent dangers of one-party rule”…while they themselves are calling for one-party rule.
To me, the ultimate example of projection is their stated plan to replace non-political, merit-based (ie, subject matter experts) federal career civil servants with loyalists, toadies, sycophants, and lackeys.
Thus creating – by definition – [wait for it] The Deep State.
You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.
Hypocrisy is strong with this group (but the ability to recognize it is not).