The Most Important Things About Project 2025

This morning I experienced something we’ve talked about: a friend, a likely voter who is an undecided independent and who had never heard of Project 2025 when it came up in conversation this morning. I stopped myself just short of saying, “what do you mean you haven’t heard about it?” took a deep breath, and thought, what is the most important thing I can say right now?

I’ll tell you where I ended up, but this experience underscores how important it is for each of us to be ready for this moment. How do you tell someone who doesn’t know about Project 2025, or maybe someone who has heard about it but doesn’t know any of the details, what it is and why it means they need to vote in the coming election? Of course, that’s going to be very individualized. Some people will be persuaded by the big picture: Project 2025 is bad for democracy because it’s a plan to centralize power in the hands of “the next conservative” president, and that means ending the rule of law by, among other things, neutering DOJ’s independence. Others will want to know how it impacts them personally.

My friend is an immigrant, a naturalized citizen, so I focused on immigration. I explained that Project 2025 calls for deportations of people who are here without legal status. “Prioritizing border security and immigration enforcement, including detention and deportation, is critical if we are to regain control of the border, repair the historic damage done by the Biden Administration, return to a lawful and orderly immigration system, and protect the homeland from terrorism and public safety threats,” I read to her from the chapter about the Department of Homeland Security authored by Ken Cuccinelli, Trump’s de facto head of that agency from November 2019 through the end of his administration. She was surprised by the promise of mass deportations, which made bad economic sense to her, but also seemed just cruel. We googled and found reporting from last fall of Trump’s promise to begin massive deportations, rounding up undocumented people and forcing them into camps until they can be expelled from the United States. Trump’s plans to restrict legal immigration as well as illegal immigration also concerned her.

It makes sense that the people who have the least at stake in the election, people who for whatever reason would be shielded from facing any personal consequences if Trump returns to office, might be less focused on this scenario. But another friend raised Project 2025 with me later in the day. He told me he’d never heard of it until another friend mentioned it and told him he needed to “look it up and see what it means for your daughter.” That got his attention.

Project 2025, in the chapter on the Department of Health and Human Services, would end FDA approval for mifepristone and place greater restrictions on its use while it remains available, including only permitting its use until seven weeks, before most women know they are pregnant, and requiring it to be dispensed in person, which means women in rural areas with limited access to doctors would lose their ability to obtain the drug in the mail. These rules would restrict access for women experiencing medical emergencies and for rape and incest victims, along with women seeking to make their own decisions about their bodies. For many people, the thought of a child suffering a miscarriage and being unable to get care, particularly in an era when some state attorneys general have suggested travel out of state to obtain an abortion could lead to prosecution, is a compelling reason to reject a Republican return to power.

Suddenly, everyone seems to be asking about and talking about Project 2025. That’s great. Americans should be educated before they vote. When someone tells you who they are and what they intend to do, you should believe them!

What have you been hearing, and most importantly, what, in your experience, are some of the important pieces of information to share about Project 2025? Practicing civil discourse has never been more important. Let’s all share the arguments and information that has been most impactful in our conversations so others can benefit from it. It’s increasingly clear the costs of losing this election are far too high to bear.

Thanks for being here with me at Civil Discourse!

We’re in this together,

Joyce