The text below was posted about a year before the 2024 election. I am leaving it up as this might continue to be important information for the future. President elect Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 before the election. How much will now actually be pursued by a Republican President, Senate, and House.
The Republican Party presently does not have a platform. Instead, others such as the Heritage Foundation are forming political agenda that they push within the Republican Party. The full 920 pages of Agenda 2025 is available here and consists of four corner pieces discussed and compared below. The Democratic Platform can be found here.
| Agenda 2025 | Counterpoints and contrasts to Democrat Platform |
| “Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children” “Deleting terms such as sexual orientation and gender identity, diversity, equity and inclusion, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, reproductive rights, reproductive health” Outlaw pornography Parents control what is taught to their children not teachers“critical race theory” and “gender ideology” should be banned from curriculum Forbid the reassignment of sex of a minor by parents and doctors Stop big tech making our children addicted to social media such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter (now X) | Counterpoints: Recent rulings of the current pro-Republican Supreme Court fall in line with the “restore the family” agenda, which is in reality a disguise for oppressive measures, immediately revealed their negative consequences. For example, the ruling of the supreme court on a hypothetical scenario (not an actual case!) that a shop owner has the right to not serve a LGBTQ+ customer based on religious freedom is a clear step of dismantling the protection of marginalized groups from discrimination. The reality is that there always have been and continue to be individuals who are from birth not heterosexual. They have the same constitutional rights including religious freedom and freedom of speech as every other US citizen. Seeking to take away their language for expressing their identity (“don’t say gay bill”) is nothing short of criminalizing their very existence and is thus against their most basic right to live. The overturning of Roe vs. Wade has led to extreme Anti-Abortion Laws that are causing unnecessary harm and suffering to women. Protecting the unborn should not come at the cost of not protecting the mother from harm and refusing her access to discernment with medical doctors to come to decisions over her own body and health. To really address abortions requires a differentiated analysis of the causes of unwanted pregnancies and finding measures to address these causes. Some are obvious but their solutions are not supported by many conservatives. For example, educating about available contraceptives could reduce teenage pregnancy, but many conservatives are against contraceptives. The latter is also an example why parents should not be the ones deciding what to teach. It would result in a constant parent battle over curriculum as is already the case for some topics such as, for example, if evolution should be taught or not. It is a dangerous proposition as can be seen with the recent onslaught of unjustified book bans. Critical race theory is not even taught in K12 and lower-level curriculum. It is only taught at the university-level. Instead, under the disguise of banning “critical race theory” there is an attempt on rewriting history, which is dangerous because not facing historic facts such as that the US civil war was fought over the issue of slavery (see recent troubles of Presidential candidate Nikki Haley) could lead to repeating the same historic mistakes and wrongdoings. Outlawing pornography falls under similar policy as outlawing alcohol during the prohibition. Sex addition and alcohol (drug) addition are obviously detrimental for the individual and the society as a whole. The prohibition resulted in many other problems and was ultimately revoked and never reinstated. A similar fate is likely if pornography is outlawed. Note that there are laws at least for minors that protect them from pornography. This leaves the two issues where there might actually be agreement with many Democrats: reassigning the sex of minors and addressing the addiction potential of social media. When a minor questions her/his own biological sex, this clearly results in delicate and life-changing decisions that require time for discernment. Medical treatments that change the sex are not 100% reversible. It makes sense to wait until all the physiological and psychological changes that occur during adolescence settle (the exact age may vary from individual to individual but at least 18 years would seem reasonable) before administering any irreversible medical treatments. In the meantime, the minor may be allowed to explore reversible changes such as the way how they dress and would like to be referred to. It would also help if psychiatric and/or psychological services would be widely and affordably available for this discernment process. Many Republicans appear to be against such services and are generally opposed to measures that make healthcare more affordable and accessible. Many Democrats might agree with reigning in Big Tech for various reasons including the practices of many social media platform that lead to addition to social media as well as depression. Unfortunately, Republican generally want to eliminate regulations and governmental oversight as can be seen in the expressed goal of Agenda 2025 to dismantle government. Moreover, since Reagan, Republicans have been preaching and pursuing trickle-down economics that has shifted wealth and thus power to the most-rich corporations including Big Tech. More on this to come in below sections. Relevant Democratic Platform Listing HEALING THE SOUL OF AMERICA Protecting Americans’ Civil Rights Achieving Racial Justice and Equity Protecting Women’s Rights Protecting LGBTQ+ Rights Protecting Disability Rights Honoring Indigenous Tribal Nations Ending Violence Against Women Ending the Epidemic of Gun Violence Supporting Faith and Service Supporting Press Freedom Supporting the Arts and Culture |
| “Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people” “Make federal government smaller, more effective and accountable” Fire “un-firable” federal bureaucrats” to “remove thousands of bureaucrats from the positions of public trust” “Shutter wasteful and corrupt bureaus and offices” “Muzzle woke propaganda at every level of government” “end the Left’s social experimentation with the military, restore war fighting as its sole mission, and set defeating the threat of the Chinese Communist Party as its highest priority” | Counterpoints: Since Reagan, Republicans have increasingly branded government as something bad that cannot be trusted to the point of now openly calling for a dismantling of the “administrative state”. For a society to function, there are tasks that require the cooperation of many (groups of) individuals with varying expertise including but not limited to the building of infrastructure for the transport of people and goods, the provision of education, the export and import of goods from other countries, the provision of law and order. It is unavoidable to have some form of government to achieve these tasks nationwide. In the US, the government is a democracy where the leadership level of government is elected (majors, governors, President, judges, representative, senators etc.). Dismantling the administrate state would imply that not only the highest levels but the incumbents of many more if not all government positions would be elected. This clearly is impracticable. Under Trump, we have already experienced the effects of “dismantling the administrative state”. For example, post-master DeJoy dismantled the postal services with his controversial measures that immediately resulted in reduced postal delivery times, endangering the health and well-being of people in rural areas that rely on the Postal Services for delivery of their medication. More recently, Republican Senators Cruz, Rand and Tuberville have blocked for many months the nomination of ambassadors and military promotions with severe consequences to the national security. Several Republicans in the House are calling for a complete defunding of the FBI, which would be a total disaster. Republicans are against the hiring of more IRS workers which would allow more involved audits of large corporation. These are known to be notorious of not properly paying their fair share of taxes causing reduction of funds to the national government that will have to be made up by the taxes of every-day Americans. We have also seen Trump misusing his powers and fire willfully Government workers who were whistleblowers calling him out of misconduct. Before Reagan, it used to be honorable to work for the government, for the common good for the society. Since Reagan, the increased distrust and commensurate calls for reduction of government has made it less attractive to work for the government. While the US population increased and with it the demand for government services, many areas of government have been underfunded and understaffed to handle the increased volumes of workload, making it even less attractive to work for the government. This scheme of demonizing governmental workers, underfunding them and ultimately calling for their removal is not only an insult for all the hardworking governmental employees, it undermines the effectiveness of government and creates chaos. For example, it was not until Obama became president when more funds went to the patent office so that 2+ years of backlog of patent applications could be addressed. This helped that the affected new inventions could finally lead to new business opportunities in the US. Under Trump, workers at the Environmental Protection Agency were not allowed to use the term “climate change”. Climate change is at this point undeniably real and affects everyone in the US and the world. Imposing limits on acceptable terminology and calls for muzzling of “woke propaganda” is clearly an attack on first amendment rights that the same Agenda 2025 is holding up so dearly. Together with the call of firing government workers, these measures are dangerously reminiscent to totalitarian regimes, where government workers have to be in lockstep with their autocratic leader, or they will be fired, if not persecuted. Perhaps that explains the absurd admiration by Trump and many other Republicans for dictators including Putin, Xi, and Kim Yong Un. If China (as well as North Korea and Russia) is such a threat, then why does Trump admire Xi so much and why does he and his daughter Ivanka have business dealings with China where China granted them 18 trademarks (see this article)? It is clear that Agenda 2025 considers LGBTQ+ individuals as subhuman and within this discriminatory view unfit to serve in the military. The determination of fitness to serve in the military should be based on the individual’s abilities and physical fitness, not their sexual orientation or sense of self-identity. Besides physical fitness, the military also needs skilled individuals to take care of their technically complex warfare systems, and highly intelligent individuals for strategic decision making. LGBTQ+ member may very well be able to contribute to fulfill these needs. For Democrats, the best way to ensure accountability is the ballot box. For that reason, Democrats are unapologetically pro-democracy and against autocracy. Democrats advocate for fair elections where all Americans have equal access to the ballot box, including marginalized and minority groups. The 2022 (and 2020) elections were unfair, but not because of fraud by Democrats but because of extreme Gerrymandering by the Republicans. Because of unlawful Gerrymandering that could be litigated only after the 2022 election (see Lawyer Elias giving a summary of all completed and ongoing lawsuits in the country in this video, Republicans won the majority of the House. They have to date nothing substantial to show for, but rather demonstrated their complete inability to govern causing unnecessary chaos with commensurate threats to the US economy and security. This should not be surprising to voters, because why would a party that does not trust and believe in government be in charge of it? Relevant Democratic Platform listings: RESTORING AND STRENGTHENING OUR DEMOCRACY Protecting and Enforcing Voting Rights Reforming the Broken Campaign Finance System Building an Effective Transparent Federal Government Making Washington, D.C. the 51st State Guaranteeing Self-Determination for Puerto Rico Supporting the U.S. Territories Strengthening the U.S. Postal Service ACHIEVING UNIVERSAL, AFFORDABLE, QUALITY HEALTH CARE Securing Universal Health Care Through a Public Option Bringing Down Drug Prices and Taking on the Pharmaceutical Industry Reducing Health Care Costs and Improving Health Care Quality Expanding Access to Mental Health and Substance Use Treatment Expanding Long-Term Care Services and Supports Eliminate Racial, Gender, and Geographic Health Inequities Protecting Native American Health Securing Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice Protecting and Promoting Maternal Health Protecting LGBTQ+ HealthStrengthening and Supporting the Health Care Workforce Investing in Health Science and Research |
| “Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats” Terms such as “openness, progress, expertise, cooperation, and globalization” are to be considered “Trojan horses” for stripping “ our constitutional authority over our country’s future”. The country is currently run by educational elitist groups including University presidents and Well Street hedge fund managers who are European-like socialists that must be stopped. What it means to live well is available in the “book of human knowledge” (the bible?). Everyone “who can read in that book must have a voice in deciding the course and fate of our Republic”. US should abandon “supranational organizations like the United Nations and European Union” and international treaties such as those concerning pharmaceutical patents, climate change or “the rights of a child”. Environmental extremism “is not a political cause, but a pseudo-religion meant to baptize liberals’ ruthless pursuit of absolute power in the holy water of environmental virtue” and “is decidedly anti-human”. Free trade with China has been a mistake only leading to closing of US manufacturing and China only breaking treaties by stealing technology and spying through social media platforms. The only way to solve the China influence problem is by “ripping out the trees – root and branches” by ending “economic engagement with China”. Outlaw “Confucius Institutes, TikTok and other arms of Chinese propaganda and espionage. “Universities taking money from China Communist Party should lose their accreditation, charters, and eligibility for federal funds.” Promote national oil and gas production to dominate the world energy market and become energy independent from the world and secure jobs while growing the US economy. | Agenda 2025 is taking on an old former Republican position, which is that US should stay out of foreign affairs. This position is today even less realistic because the world is interconnected more than ever before, if we like it or not. Goods are imported and exported from and to all over the world. Many big companies are global companies. Many challenges are global challenges including environmental challenges, global peace, and global food and housing security. Especially the environmental challenges including global warming, pollution, extinction of animal species etc. cannot be solved without global cooperation. Industrial nations including the US consume natural resources at a rate of about four times as fast as the planet earth can restore. Even for climate change deniers, this simple and irrefutable fact should have the logic conclusion that current ways of living in the US is not sustainable. Rather than denying this reality that will affect the next generations not only of the US but worldwide, our nation should step forward in a leading role to do everything possible to address these environmental threats to the US and the world. Clearly, what Agenda 2025 calls for is just the opposite and will thus lead to zero actions to address these global threats to humankind. It is also important to realize that when one part in the world suffers, the rest of the world will feel the consequence as well, last but not least from increased migration. Protecting our planet earth should also be an obvious high-priority agenda item for every Christian, because clearly as stewards of God’s creation, we need to do better than what we do now. Those US citizens who recently lost their livelihood to roaring wildfires, extreme droughts, torrential floods and horrifying tornadoes will agree that what is really anti-human is to deny the existence of these global environmental threats. That is why the Biden administration has put in forward looking investments into renewable energy sources. To generate these renewable energy capacities takes time. Unfortunately, recent events, mainly the fallout of the Ukraine war, led to global inflation that forced the Biden administration to reduce energy prices by increasing domestic drilling, so that the US is producing more oil and gas than under the prior Trump administration. Inflation has indeed settled to normal levels as a result of this and other measures of the Biden administration. So what Agenda2025 is calling for with respect to energy independence is exactly what Biden has been doing as the President. It is ironic that Agenda 2025 calls out elitist groups for running the country. Firstly, the writers of Agenda 2025 belong to exactly the same group of elitists called out here! Moreover, Trump is coming from an elitist group of the most-rich. As already mentioned, the Republican mantra of trickle-down economics has failed time and again and only led to a greater divide between rich and poor. The richest individuals and corporations keep getting tax-breaks under Republican government on the back of the rest of the 90+% Americans. These richest elites do everything they can to continue this cycle as it is obviously to their financial advantage. They throw in money for lobbying against regulations and other policies that may limit their business revenues. They throw in money in election campaigns for Republican candidates that will vote for policies in their favor. They are paying millions of dollars to the Federal Society, which has become a pseudo-governmental agency because whenever Republicans are in charge of nominating judges, they recruit them from the Federal Society. These Judges include Supreme Court Judges. The corruption of Justice Thomas has become apparent and likely, this is only one example of much more corruption upheld and influenced by the most-rich in this country (see this illuminating 5-minute C-SPAN video from a public hearing). Democrats advocate for more transparency, higher ethical and enforceable standards for the Supreme Court, and an overhaul of campaign financing laws to limit and prevent such corruption. Agenda 2025 has an unsupported view that US Universities are financially dependent to China. This is just plain false. University budget revenues come mainly from tuition, even for State Universities because State support for higher education has nationwide shrunk very much over the past two decades. There are some Professors who are involved in international research collaborations with Chinese researchers. These collaborations have come into scrutiny and despite that they are quite rare. In short, except for isolated wrongdoings of some Professors not disclosing properly financial ties to China, there is no widespread influence of China over US universities. Such statements do nothing more than fearmongering. The threat of Chinese spying and influence through social media such as Tiktok is well recognized by the current Biden administration. For example, government workers are presently not allowed to use TikToK on Government devices. To combat Chinese and other espionage and cyber security threats, this requires highly trained secret service members in the FBI and CIA. However, Republicans do not trust the FBI and CIA and call for their defunding, which is clearly counterproductive. Republicans are defending the undefendable security lapses of Trump who has kept boxes and boxes of secret classified documents including top secret documents in his possession at Mar O Lago and other properties, shown them to various individuals, and refused to return them after he became out of office. These actions have compromised untold FBI and CIA agents worldwide and brought much damage to the US reputation. Relevant Democratic Platform listings PROTECTING COMMUNITIES AND BUILDING TRUST BY REFORMING OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM COMBATING THE CLIMATE CRISIS AND PURSUING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE CREATING A 21ST CENTURY IMMIGRATION SYSTEM RENEWING AMERICAN LEADERSHIP Revitalizing American Diplomacy Rebuilding America’s Tool of First Resort Reinventing AlliancesInternational InstitutionsForeign Assistance and Development Transforming Our Armed Forces for the 21st centuryEnding Forever Wars Securing our Competitive EdgeDefense Spending Keeping Faith with Our Veterans and Military FamiliesCivil-Military Relations Mobilizing the World to Address Transnational ChallengesGlobal Health and Pandemics Climate Change Technology Democracy and Human Rights Advancing American Interests Global Economy and Trade |
| “Secure our God-given individual rights to live freely-what our Constitution calls “the Blessings of Liberty” “Pursuit of Happiness” is in essence pursuit of Blessedness, which is, “an individual must be free to live as his Creator ordained-to flourish. Pursuit of the good life is found primarily in family-marriage, children, Thanksgiving dinners and the like.“ The promise of socialism is simple: Government control of the economy can ensure equal outcomes for all people. The problem is that it has never done so.”“By contrast, in countries with a high degree of economic freedom, elites are not in charge because everyone is in charge. People work, build, invest, save, and create according to their own interests and in service to the common good of their fellow citizens.” “The next President should promote pro-growth economic policies that spur new jobs and investment, higher wages, and productivity.” There should be “antitrust enforcement against corporate monopolies.” “Should promote educational opportunities outside the woke-dominated system of public schools and universities, including trade schools, apprenticeship programs, and student-loan alternatives that fund students’ dreams instead of Marxist academics.” “The next President should crack down on the crony capitalist corruption that enables America’s largest corporations to profit through political influence rather than competitive enterprise and customer satisfaction”. “Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and the freedom to assemble also represent key components of the American promise. Today, in addition to the problem of Big Tech censorship, we see speakers at universities shouted down, parents investigated and arrested for attempting to speak at school board meetings, and donors to conservative causes harassed and intimidated.” | Counterpoints Democrats support the US constitution including the rights of “pursuit of Happiness” and religious freedom. The US constitution is clear about separating State and Religion so that the fundamental right of religious freedom can be protected by preventing that any one particular religion is dominating other beliefs. The separation of State and Church has been challenged by conservative politicians and seemingly by Agenda 2025. For example, the current House speaker Michael Johnson, who says for example that separation of church is a “misnomer” and if anyone wants to understand his thinking “about any issue under the sun” should: “go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.” He also stated that his presently role as Speaker of the house is meant to happen by God. This latter statement is reflecting the Agenda2025 statement that “an individual must be free to live as his Creator ordained to flourish”. The danger in such statements is that an individual could claim God given authority to stay in office despite being unelected by voters. This is clearly theocratic not democratic and as such counter to the US constitution. The issue of elites has already been addressed above. What should be added is that Republicans keep looking at Western European countries, most of which are longstanding democratic allies to the US, as corrupt socialist countries. This is not only false but ironic because the Republicans keep endorsing Hungary who under the leadership of right-wing Victor Orban has become the most undemocratic European Union country that is clearly aligning itself recently to Russia. US should definitely not follow the example of Hungary where Freedom of Press has been effectively abolished and the government is tightly controlling the information in the media accessible to the Hungarian public. In the US, there exist also the rightwing propaganda machine of News Max and Fox News. Who in the US media landscape really tells the truth has become clouded, except when defamation lawsuits ultimately show, who was lying to the viewers. Exposed email conversations have shown that Fox News hosts were clearly and knowingly lying about the 2020 elections. Why else would Fox News settle and pay 950 billion dollars and then let go of Tucker Carlson as a too high liability? Democrats agree that “the next President should promote pro-growth economic policies that spur new jobs and investment, higher wages, and productivity.” The Biden administration is in fact delivering on this. Bidenomics of growing the economy from the bottom up and middle out is working, this includes investing in trade schools and new apprenticeship training for the generation of a skilled workforce. The extremely positive economic trends are constantly denied by the rightwing media doom and gloom forecasts that simply just have not materialized. The GDP has grown to 4.2% by the end of 2023. Inflation and gas prizes have come down after the woes of the start of the war in Ukraine. 14 Million new jobs have been added during the Biden presidency, which are more jobs than under the last three Republican presidents combined. Wages have been raising last but not least because Democrats are supportive of labor unions while Republicans are not. It is ironic to see the call in Agenda2025 for enforcing antitrust laws and cracking down on crony capitalist corruption because Republicans have opposed such calls by liberal Democrats such as Senators Warren and Sanders. The Republicans are the ones who oppose pro-democratic legislation to change finance campaigns. It is the Republicans who even allow corporations to vote in local elections! Republican voters are hanging to every word of their cult leader Trump, who is lying to them time and again, does not care for anyone but his own interests, has been convicted of improper business practices, which caused him to close Trump University and as it looks like soon his businesses in the State of New York. In public, Trump can lie as much as he wants, but in courts, he typically avoids any appearances because under oath he cannot lie without consequences and only the facts and evidences count. Finally, it is ironic to see a callout of censorship and limited free speech in the Agenda2025. The reality is that the Republican party has created a cult around Trump as the cult leader where some of the cult members are so obsessed that they are ready to cause harm to those who they think is against their cult leader and their “cause”. They are the ones who leave death threats to judges, lawyers, and politicians. It is so bad that Republican politicians do not dare to stand up against even the most egregious acts and statements of Trump. Trump has created this on purpose through constant lying, constant requiring of loyalty to him and grooming of his audiences with incendiary speeches, including the speech on January 6, which resulted in the storming of the Capitol. After just a few weeks where Republican leadership finally called out Trump for his (in)actions on January 6, they fell in a calculated decision right back behind him in large part because they are afraid of the Trump cult voters. These cult voters terrorize local School board meetings, show disrespect (or worse) towards teachers who they unjustifiably accuse of indoctrination (see illuminating interview of Texas teachers who quit), cause the unjustified banning of books, and pressure Universities against hosting speakers they deem as too liberal. These cult members are the ones who oppress the freedom of speech, the truth of our Nation’s History that includes slavery and oppression of native Americans, the truth about environmental threats, the truth of voter suppression, and much more. Relevant Democratic Platform items: BUILDING A STRONGER, FAIRER ECONOMY Protecting Workers and Families and Creating Millions of Jobs Across America Raising Wages and Promoting Workers’ Rights Enacting Robust Work-Family Policies Investing in the Engines of Job Creation Building A Fair System of International Trade for Our Workers Putting Homeownership in Reach and Guaranteeing Safe Housing for Every American Leveling the Economic Playing Field Reforming the Tax Code to Benefit Working Families Curbing Wall Street Abuses Ending Poverty Protecting Consumer Rights and Privacy Tackling Runaway Corporate Concentration Guaranteeing a Secure and Dignified Retirement PROVIDING A WORLD-CLASS EDUCATION IN EVERY ZIP CODE Guaranteeing Universal Early Childhood Education Supporting High-Quality K-12 Schools Across America Making Higher Education Affordable and Accessible Providing Borrowers Relief from Crushing Student Debt |
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