Why Project 2025 is a hateful plan all Americans should fear

Ray Marcano, a longtime journalist, is the former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, a two-time Pulitzer juror, and a Fulbright fellow. He is a frequent Columbus Dispatch contributor.

Project 2025 serves as blueprint for a conservative remaking of the federal government through “policy, personnel and training.”

But Project 2025, with thoughts from more than 400 conservative policy experts and scholars, does something else. It fosters intolerance and hatred of those who don’t agree with its views and seeks to ostracize its philosophical enemies in the name of setting a lost America on the right track.

At first glance, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

The Project’s report, “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” contains four “pillars” that seem reasonable on its face:

• Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children

• Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people.

• Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats

• Secure our God-given individual right to enjoy “the blessings of liberty.”

Sounds reasonable. Those are all mainstream positions that most Americans can support.

What Project 2025 would actually do to America

But the devil is always in the details.

You have to read beyond the headlines (something few people do) to see how Project 2025 wants to achieve those goals. When you do, the tone and tenor turn to from plausible to preposterous.

Fact check: Claim of 'period passports' under Project 2025 is from satire

In restoring the family, the authors write the next President remove “the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion, gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.”

The report likens pornography to transgender ideology, which it says is in the realm of “child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women.”  Librarians who produce and distribute “pornography” should be forced to register as sex offenders.

Project 2025 an unchecked attack on America

Most people prefer a smaller government, and the report rightfully points out the Congtress has given too much power to bureaucrats.

But then it begins attacking the agencies that don’t fit the conservative agenda.

It accused the EPA of strangling “domestic energy production,” but doesn’t provide any examples. It says the Department of Homeland Security allows migrant criminals to enter the country unchecked. The Department of Education injects “racist, anti-American, ahistorical propaganda into America’s classrooms,” and the Department of Justice “forces school districts to undermine girls’ sports and parents’ rights to satisfy transgender extremists.”

Biden? Harris? I don't care. Stopping Trump and Project 2025 is all that matters.

Americans, by in large, want safe borders and a tougher yet compassionate immigration policy. But in this section, Project 2025 criticizes the left for supporting the United Nations, the European Union, open borders and China policies. It’s more railing instead of offering questions to contemplate or real solutions.

Project 2025 thinks induvial rights are under attack and the country is engaged in a battle to save it from “elite-directed socialism.”

Throughout the report, the “left” is a common foil.

The report asserts the “Left does not believe that all men are created equal—they think they are special.” The “left” is an “anti-American” cabal that loves “environmental extremists.”

As quickly as the report came out, prominent Republicans distanced themselves from it.

Donald Trump called parts of the report “ridiculous and abysmal." Two senators and potential Trump vice presidential nominees, J.D. Vance of Ohio and Marco Rubio of Florida, also downplayed the report.

That makes sense. Project 2025 is a fantastic document for the ultra-right, but it’s not policy positions that resonate with most Americans. For example, roughly one on three Americans born since 1981 identify as LGBT, according to Gallup. That’s a lot of young voters to disenfranchise.

Trump should be wary. Vance, Donalds and Carson have credibility issues.

Barring any unexpected developments, Trump appears on a trajectory to reclaim the White House.

But the GOP is still in a fight to regain the Senate (likely) and keep the House (tougher). Republicans don’t want to answer questions about a report that’s out of touch with most Americans.

Project 2025 is worse than out of touch. It’s everything that America should aspire not to be.

Ray Marcano, a longtime journalist, is the former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, a two-time Pulitzer juror, and a Fulbright fellow. He is a frequent Columbus Dispatch contributor.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: What is Project 2025 and why it should frighten all freedom lovers?