Project 2025 is weird

This is my friendly reminder that rumors of Project 2025's demise are exaggerated. Project 2025 is alive and well, as a recently exposed cache of training videos makes perfectly clear. If you want to watch them, the link is here. As usual, ProPublica provides a helpful public service with its investigative journalism. As noted elsewhere, Project 2025 may not explicitly name Donald Trump as the beneficiary of Project 2025's proposals, it's very clear that this is a plan for the next GOP president, who would be Trump if he manages to win enough of the electoral vote count in November. It also is worth mentioning that the co-authors of the various chapters of that document are former and future Trump Cabinet members and potential leaders of various agencies in the eventuality of a Trump victory.

This very partial list I found in Axios gives a bit of a teaser of what to expect if Project 2025 were implemented. Like your accurate weather forecasts? Too bad. NOAA is on the chopping block. The need to know the risk for severe weather turns out to be one that goes beyond party lines. Besides, there is no viable replacement for NOAA's services. Any student financial aid relief would end, including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (which Trump never much cared for anyway). Outside of hardcore Trump stan circles, taking away one of the few incentives for those who may be willing to take on public service jobs (that often pay well below market value for the specialized skills these professionals gain) is self-defeating. We all lose. And what is it with constantly threatening to target Social Security and Medicare? I don't care what political persuasion you come from, but chances are that if you are an American reading this, you are in favor of receiving your Social Security and Medicare benefits when the time comes. Reducing drug prices is something all of us are in favor of (except for Pharma executives). Project 2025 would be outside the mainstream on that front as well. You can find plenty of lists of what Project 2025's proposed policies would do to us. I chose a source that was non-partisan for a reason. The people I may want this to reach are not folks who subscribe to NYT or Washington Post. It isn't just the liberals who find this stuff weird. And the reason these policies are weird is precisely because they are so far outside the mainstream, and would be rejected by most of us regular folks.

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