With spooky season filling our social media feeds and filling our department stores, it’s easy to avoid the scariest part of the fall season: politics. It’s the time of year in which we argue with our relatives over how we’re voting and whether our current government is actually getting its job done. Still, I see the scariest part of politics as what’s still to come, and it’s known as Project 2025.
Project 2025 is a plan and model made by a hard-right conservative think tank to influence and change the current system of government in the case that the Republican Party wins the presidential election in 2024. The project looks to drastically change the system of government to allow the executive branch to have more power, so the president can have more influence over the country as a whole.
The director and associate director of Project 2025 both come from the Heritage Foundation, a more widely known conservative think tank.
The Heritage Foundation is known for its far-reaching support of Republican politicians, such as former presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. The foundation embraces its accomplishment in promoting Supreme Court Justices who allowed for the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. The foundation has also been known to deny climate change, push forward anti-critical race theory legislation and promote false claims of voter fraud.
Project 2025 includes a 180-day playbook, administrative training, a personnel database and a policy agenda to enact as soon as a conservative president takes power. The project’s comprehensive plan is chronicled in a book, “Mandate for Leadership: A Conservative Promise,” with over 900 pages and free access for anyone to read.
The project aims to defund and dismantle the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the Departments of Education and Commerce, as reported by Politico. In doing so, the president can take up power over these departments. Therefore, the president would have control over all federal bureaucracy.
Along with all of this comes the individual rights and freedoms Project 2025 wants to limit. This includes “deleting the terms” sexual orientation and gender identity, diversity, equity and inclusion, gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health and reproductive rights. Under this plan, there could be an end to “gender reassignment,” and “critical race theory” and “gender ideology” will no longer be allowed in schools nationwide.
A project like this could drastically change the shape of our government. Within the first year, the executive branch could grow its power beyond what the Founding Fathers ever intended when they first wrote the Constitution. Polarization is driving a Republican extremism that most of America does not want to see as a reality.
The big election to determine the future of Project 2025 will be next year’s presidential election. While party candidates have not yet been selected, it seems that President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump are gearing up for a 2024 rematch. A Monmouth University poll found the public has little enthusiasm for this rematch, even with these two candidates polling the highest out of potential frontrunners.
While the November general election may not include the presidential election, which could result in the beginning stages of Project 2025, the way Americans vote could be an indicator of how they plan to vote a year from now. The implications of this election, especially with Issues 1 and 2 on the Ohio ballot, could show how a future ballot might look.
During my time writing this column, I have stirred away from giving my true opinions on issues. I’ve focused on telling you why you should care through the education of these important topics. Yet, I find myself needing to add my own take a bit more here.
The American people cannot let Project 2025 become a reality. It could change the freedoms owed by many individuals in our current government to an unlivable future where they cannot embrace their true selves in the public eye. Giving the president this level of influence could take away the balance of powers that keeps the government accountable today.
Even if this writing does not convince you to take a stand in one way or another, I encourage you to educate yourself further and vote in all future elections. It’s your vote that could change the course of democracy in America.
Claire Schiopota is a senior studying journalism. Please note that the opinions expressed in this column do not reflect those of The Post. Want Claire to cover a certain topic or talk about her column? Email her at cs123719@ohio.edu or tweet her @CSchiopota.
