Practical Politics

Political parties in the U.S. have used party platforms–also known as party guidelines for action once in office–since the early 18th century fights over establishing a democratic republic in the U.S. Every political party which vies for office has used its own playbook for deciding what issues to prioritize and which ones not to. Of course, the political life of being in office has always provided issues not anticipated.
Mostly, the political platforms of political parties are debated and then adapted–either wholly or in part–during a political party’s convention. Such will also be the case this year with the Republican and the Democratic parties’ get-togethers (in July and August), in spite of the many other issues that will overcrowd their separate agendas.
For the Republican Party 2024, the ultra conservative Heritage Foundation think tank has already produced a nearly 900-page tome which its authors hope will translate into the Republican Party’s National playbook for action should the Republican Party win the White House. That document is currently called Agenda 2025 and it represents a structural shift in governmental policy for the 21st century.
Divided into four main parts, Project 2025 calls for a radical re-shaping of the federal government which would be based on severely restricting the U.S. government’s footprint in social reform and a radical shift to supporting economic projects not concerned with saving the environment, easing poverty, or any interference with the aims and procedures of big business and finance. Project 2025 also aims to restore or create governmental action that totally bans a woman’s rights to abortion, contraception and other such activity. Project 2025 is a return to an early 20th century laissez faire type of government which allows business development to proceed no matter the cost to civilian life. There would be no proactive climate change agenda for the federal government. Essentially, the polluters in the American economy would be free to do whatever they want, and the public be damned.
According to a recent analysis by two reporters, Project 2025 can be described in the following way: It is a proposed set of conservative plans for a new Republican administration that will be based on four basic ideas that are laid out in a 900-page policy book calling for a total overhaul of the federal government, entitled “Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise.” This book is a new edition of “Mandate for Leadership,” which was first published in January 1981, which was to serve as a conservative roadmap for Ronald Reagan’s incoming administration. This revised manuscript lays out: (a) A new set of policy guidelines and action recommendations for the incoming 21st century Republican administration under Trump, (b) It will include a specific “Linked In”-type of database full of the “right” kind of personnel who would loyally serve in the next Republican administration; (c) It will create and operate a designated training apparatus called the “Presidential Administration Academy (similar to the ill-fated Trump University) to produce the right kind of administrative workers ; (d) And it will include a step-by-step playbook of conservative actions to be taken within the first 180 days in office (including a massive reduction in the civil service administrative staff of experts who carry the knowledge of how things were done previously (called institutional knowledge), and supposedly the moth-balling of the Department of Education and other such agencies).
Project 2025 is produced and asserted by the ultraconservative Heritage Foundation (HF), and the HF plans to create a permanent additional advisory board for this new agenda from its list of more than 100 other conservative groups.
In other words, Project 2025 is an openly intended murder by conservative crows.
Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth Friday.
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