If you’ve been living under a rock on Mars with your eyes closed and your fingers in your ears, all you’ve heard about for the past two weeks is whether President Joe Biden is too old to run for re-election and should he step down. However, there’s been little discussion on why a major political party is supporting a man who was recently convicted of 34 felonies in May. Oh, he was also proven liable in a civil case for sexual abuse.
These two things would’ve been a surefire reason for a candidate to step down in the past, but a political party will do desperate things during desperate times. As I’m writing this, the people are mourning the passing of former U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, who was a major critic of climate change or global warming. He was 89 and well into office until January of 2023. There were no comments about how he was too old – at least from, the right. No, Inhofe was a Donald Trump supporter. Was is the key word. That’s one less person who is going to vote for Trump.
And the Republican Party knows it’s losing its popularity. Most people who still have conservative views but don’t agree with the current GOP have jumped ship to the Libertarian Party. Or they’ve bit the bullet for this time and supported the Democrat Party. Only a dying party would conceive something as extreme as Project 2025. Also, following the elections in the United Kingdom and France where the left-wing parties both won over the conservative fear-mongering, it’s a cause for concern for both Democrats and Republicans.
How hard will Republicans go on this matter? Will Democrats and especially news pundits shut up about Biden’s performance at the debate in late June and focus more on this? Trump spread a lot of lies that weren’t checked by Biden and worse by the CNN moderators. CNN, who ran Trump’s speeches in their entirety back in 2015 and 2016, is still trying to cater to the right. The sad part is that Trump and his minions want nothing to do with CNN. The debate, for the most part, was just a 90-minute campaign commercial for Trump.
It took actors Taraji P. Henson and Mark Ruffalo to help bring this out some more. John Oliver did a story on it last month on his show Last Week Tonight. But he only scraped the surface a little. It is a horrible plan that has been pieced together by numerous conservatives through the Heritage Foundation. Some of which served under Trump during his Presidency. Trump saying he doesn’t know anything about it is another lie.(They have their own plan which is Agenda 47, which is the topic for another post.) But maybe he was hoping it would fly under the radar a lot while they continued to criticize Biden’s age. Just for the record, Trump is now 78, so he’s no spring chicken either.
(And let me just get this out of the way before I go any further. If we’re going to have this conversation about age limits and term limits, we need to go all in and not tiptoe around it for one position. There are numerous people who have served and continue to serve in elected office who a generation ago or so wouldn’t still be alive. This is a conversation we should have had this time last year at the latest. On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart said the Democrats need to discuss this. Yes, they do. But Biden won in the primaries. The Democrats put him up in the primaries. It’s not the time for Monday-morning quarterbacks.)
Now, back to Project 2025. If you’re just looking at this with an open mind, it might seem like something “that sumbitch Reagan” would’ve done during the 1980s. But it’s a lot worse. First off, it calls for the end of many programs and departments. Second, it calls for replacing all civil servants who work in the departments and programs left remaining to be loyal to the President. Some of those departments are the Education Department and any programs that seem to help such as Head Start or school-meals. So, basically, that’s one whole office that will no longer exists and many will find themselves out of work.
There are about 2.87 million civil servants. How many of them will be loyal to someone like Trump? Half or a third, maybe? That’s still going to put over one million people out of work on day one. And that’s one million people who are highly qualified at their jobs. How are they going to hire so many people so fast? The Trump Administration has so acting-secretaries of Cabinet posts it would’ve been outrageous if it wasn’t so true. And even just plain White House staff had to be replaced by the Trump Administration on day one.
It’s no mystery a lot of Republicans and even members of the Trump team felt he was going to lose. He would’ve lost if we didn’t still follow the Electoral College as about 80,000 people in a few key states put him in office. If the Republican Party was really serious, they would’ve implemented harsher policies during his administration. They’re not going to make the same mistake twice.
Essentially Project 2025 will widen the President’s authority, thus doing away with many of the checks and balances that have been in place. Following the Supreme Court’s preposterous decision that anything a President does as an “official act” gives them immunity, it basically means that Trump will be a dictator on Day One and from then on out. I don’t believe for one minute he’s read the 900-plus page policy book. But Trump wants power. He wants absolute power. It’s a dirty dance that the Republican Party is doing with him as they want to stay in power themselves.
What’s so outrageous is how Project 2025 will greatly affect the rural areas and the “Heartland” which the Right has catered to for years. Many school districts in rural America that have depended on Head Start or school-meal programs will lose funding. This has benefited over 39 million children since 1965. In many ways, it’s to punish rural schools just for being rural as many students will be “encouraged” to enlist in the military as an alternative to college.
I got nothing against the military but in my experience over the years, they tend to focus on certain students, most of them in alternative education programs. By doing away with the Education Department, schools will be at the mercy of the Presidency and conservatives in Congress. This is why I don’t understand why one single teacher or educator is a supporter of Trump and the Republican Party. They want to do away with teacher unions and contracts and make it harder for teachers to do their work.
Speaking of unions, they want to do away with all of those as much as they can. There will no such thing as overtime pay. And while Trump will get “executive time” to play on his phone and watch TV, people will be forced to work 50-60 hours for no pay. Ok, it may not be something that drastic, but I anticipate a lot of employers will push it as far as they can go. Even if they can squeeze a few extra hours out of each employee every week, it’s money saved. (For years, corporations have been using prison labor.)
Why do you think some states that are politically conservative by majority are pushing to getting younger people in the workforce? Do you think someone who is 14-15 is going to put their foot down the same way someone who is 34-35 is when a manager/supervisor tells them they have to work a double shift or at least stay on a few hours? Hey, I’m all for vo-tech education in schools but I’ve noticed that even in states like Oklahoma, the bigger schools have a better program in that field as well. My eldest step-grandson benefitted from it when he attended Jenks High School, in a suburb of Tulsa. I know he wouldn’t have had this same opportunity in other parts of this state.
I remember one time I was more or less duped into covering members of Rolling Thunder, a military veterans group, trying to get students in alternative education involved in the military. There was supposed to be a survivor of the Bataan Death March at the school but there was a last minute cancellation. I wasn’t informed even though I was told they’d tell me if there was a change. But after two hours, I really didn’t see much more or a reason to stay.
I know a lot of people who are moderate or even conservative but not too passionate might look at Project 2025 as one of those things that can’t happen because of Congress. Or they rationalize it as a way to “make things easier.” Saying both sides should just agree with what one side wants to do isn’t the way we run our government. In theory, we’re supposed to find a common ground. We’re also not to have just two political parties. However, it seems now both sides can’t even agree on anything. Or one side keeps the other from moving forward.
The Republican Party has been very lazy with stalling many things. This Congress has been the least productive in a long time mainly because the GOP is stalling everything, even the immigration bill. Why? Because it would look like a win for Biden. And immigration is only an issue whenever there is an election. But we know it’s really about brown-skinned migrants, not the numerous other migrants who fly to America on school or work visas and just stay. Because they’re from Europe or other countries where people can pass more for white people.
Some people may not think it’s going to be an issue. Yet, I’m sure the people of Dresden, Germany felt the same way in the early winter of 1945 before American and British forces firebombed the city over two days. At the time of the firebombing in the mid-February, Dresden had been one of the few German towns/cities not affected by the events of World War II. The people knew there was a war because prisoners-of-war were housed there. It should be a grim reminder that turning a blind eye to something is never the right option, because it can be worse.
It sucks the media hasn’t done its due diligence and been reporting on this for months. Instead, all we’ve heard for the last two fucking weeks is how old Joe Biden is. Even the track record of his accomplishments while in the White House aren’t enough. I mean, we can usually use the “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” rationale. Yet, this year, we’re dealing with an entirely different monster.
All people are going to look at is gas prices and food prices. My mom says when she worked at my grandfather’s gas station in the early 1960s, gas costed a quarter a gallon. That’s about $2.65 in today’s amount. While it’s over $3.499 in that area, more people are driving cars and corporate greed is pushing prices up. However, most people think the President is the controller of gasoline, food and lodging.
Maybe it’s because instead of studying social studies in school, they’re listening to podcasts or reading blogs. I don’t know everything and I might be incorrect about a few things. I’ll admit that. But most of the people on the right who say they do their own research are just searching for stuff they agree with and ignoring the rest. And part of the reason you’re hearing so much about Biden’s age is it’s getting clicks and discussion on media websites.
However, there are reports people have done Google searches more for Project 2025 as they should. I don’t mean to be a complete asshole here. But I had better hopes for my life as I got older. And I’ve been fighting for this disability case for five-fucking-years. My girlfriend died. My lifestyle has changed drastically. I would like to enjoy whatever I can get from my disability for as long as I can live.
Under Project 2025, they’re going to put an end to social security and disability. Why? I have no fucking idea. Because we live in a society where only the rich and the privilege get to get a lot of money but do nothing to earn it. People losing their Social Security and disability will make them homeless or very dependent on family and friends, which will put a strain on those people. How are we going to have any form of an economy if people can’t buy things?
Republicans don’t care. They want to take the money that’s already there and put it to other things that will benefit them. This is a ludicrous policy that either side would’ve discarded. It is the blueprint for a Fascist dystopia. It will also lead to another Great Depression.
Because the country is so spread out, I think there will be a lot of resistance even if some of the policies are enacted. Another factor Republicans haven’t consider is how other nations will respond to America. What would happen if the United Nations Headquarters moved from New York City to London or Toronto? Trump and the Heritage Foundation wants to mostly sever our ties to NATO.
Another factor that will be very detrimental to the economy is the outlawing of pornography. It is a billion dollar a year industry. It’s estimated that over $3,000 is spent on porn each second. And that doesn’t include the sale of sex toys. Hate it all we want, but the porn and sex toys industries are some of our most booming fields. Get rid of those and it contributes more to an economic depression.
Then, you have people prosecuting those who make it. As if our courts weren’t already full as it is because of the War on Drugs, we’re going to have a War on Pornography. This is from the Christian Nationalist on the right. The question is how far will this extend. Will it also include nudity and simulated sex scenes in Hollywood movies? Are we really going to go back to the era of the Hays Code? Or is it going to be worse like in Cinema Paradiso, where we ban even kissing in movies?
I don’t think the Heritage Foundation really thought this through. They have put things in it so ludicrous to get the focus on others. And while Trump has distant himself from it, he is named about 300 times in it. He may not agree with it publicly, but he definitely agrees with it in private. It pretty much gives him everything he wants. Along with civil servants, it would also install loyal military officials. Just to clarify, the military is loyal to the American people, not the President. While it might seem that many military service members are typically political conservatives, Trump’s refusal to serve during Vietnam for “bone spurs” as well as his criticism of vets especially those killed in action, might have turned some against him.
It’s really a poor excuse on the media’s part not to have focused on this earlier, considering that the Heritage Foundation is listed as a 501(c)(3) tax exempt status yet it remains political. I really must say the New York Times publishing a column by George Clooney saying Biden should step down is a shameless ploy for attention. Yes, Clooney should have his views. Yet, I don’t think the issue right now is who doesn’t want Biden to run for re-election, especially based on one debate.
It’s roughly four months until the general elections. Both the U.K. and France were able to round up enough support in a fraction of that time. This is the same type of in-fighting that divided Democrats in 2016 when they wanted to criticize Debbie Wasserman Schulz, then chair of the Democrat National Convention, for not allowing Bernie Sanders to be the nomination, even though Hillary Clinton won more primaries. Who’s do they want now? Sanders. He’s just as old as Biden.
They’re saying Biden isn’t polling as good, which is accurate after the debate. But in 2012, President Barack Obama had a rough time following the first debate. He was later re-elected. And I will reiterate this – I have never ever been asked to participate in a poll, nor do I know anyone who has. Is it done by phone? Who the hell answers a phone they don’t recognize in 2024? Oh, yeah, the polls said Clinton was going to win in 2016 and Jimmy Carter was going to win in 1980. You really should put too much faith in a poll especially if it’s not a fair representation of the voting public.
And the Republican Party wants to put an ban on abortion at the national level. Texas has reported about 26,000 pregnancies from sexual assaults following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Seriously, I don’t understand why some women supporting this especially if they have daughter.
I can go on and on because there’s so much. I don’t want to. I want you to look into it. Biden has a stutter and he might have a problem. But away from the debate, he has a proven track record. I haven’t agreed with some but we’re not supposed to.
I do know the alternative is not something I want to deal with.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 