Well, it looks like the three-part series related to Project 2025 is finally coming to an end. Honestly, I would create more of these articles if I wasn’t limited to three, but either way I’ve enjoyed writing so extensively about this topic. If you haven’t read the first two additions to this article series, then don’t worry, there is no need to read them in order, and each article will include a description of Project 2025.
The Mandate for Leadership: A Conservative Promise, better known as Project 2025, acts as a 900 page wish list of changes and reforms that may become reality in the event that former president Trump returns to office in 2025. The Mandate was written by the Heritage Foundation with the collaboration of over 400 different conservative scholars and policy makers, and includes information and requests related to many different departments of government. In this article, we will review some of the most important talking points in the following chapter, A Promise to America (located in the Mandate’s prologue before chapters are given numbers).
A Promise to America
This chapter of the Mandate for Leadership gives us a good idea of the larger themes the Heritage Foundation wishes the Trump Administration to focus on. But first, the chapter gives us a bit of info about the first Mandate for Leadership.
Written in 1979 and published in 1981, it is stated that the first mandate written by the Heritage Foundation had about 60% of its wishes come true under the Reagan Administration. The current Mandate for Leadership consists of 30 chapters and was written with the help of over 400 conservative scholars and policy makers, as stated in the previous paragraph. The chapter covers the four main ideas the Heritage Foundation wants the Trump Administration to represent: restoring the family as the centerpiece of America, better defending our nation’s borders and sovereignty, dismantling the administrative state, and securing our God-given individual rights to live freely.
Restoring the Family as the Centerpiece of America and Protecting Our Children
The Mandate states that America is currently seeing a concerning lack of father figures in the lives of children, which along with not having married parents in the family, the Mandate loosely connects to a “social implosion.” As stated in the chapter related to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Mandate wishes for the next administration to implement ways of teaching men to be good father figures. As for mothers, the Mandate wishes to further recognise the women who are finding it impossible to raise a child, and supply better options for support outside of abortion, such as adoption. On the topic of abortion, the Mandate wishes for a federal ban on abortion funding in order to better protect unborn children.
In education, the Mandate wants to see a full termination relating to all topics on abortion, gender identity, and critical race theory. The Mandate also wishes to outlaw the creation and distribution of pornography. What makes this specific wish more controversial is what the Mandate defines as pornography. The mandate defines anything related to “transgender ideology” as being pornography, meaning that any material relating to the topic of transgender people would be considered pornography and outlawed. Anyone who is caught creating or distributing any form of pornography will face prison time. Teachers who discuss topics related to transgender people and care would be registered as sex offenders, while any parent or physician who assists a child with accessing gender-affirming care, or reassigning the sex of a minor as the Mandate puts it, would be considered perpetrators of child abuse. What makes this specific potential crime interesting, and perhaps frightening in many peoples’ eyes, is that according to the chapter relating to the Department of Justice, violence against children should be met with a better-enforced death penalty. So, in theory, and this may be a loose connection, a parent or physician who assists a child in accessing gender-affirming care could face the death penalty.
Dismantle the Administrative State and Return Self-Governance to the American People
A common wish of many conservatives is to decrease the overall size of government. One way the mandate wants to achieve this is by dismantling two departments, the Department of Education and the Department of Homeland Security. The reasons for dismantling the DOE is because the Mandate believes that the current DOE is injecting anti-american ideas into schools, likely in the form of critical race theory and teachings about gender identities. The reason for dismantling the DOHS is because according to the Mandate, the DOHS has not been working as smoothly as many hope for, and breaking the department along its mission lines would prove to be better effective. Again, bringing the conversation back to schools, the Mandate states that the Department of Justice is allowing transgender athletes to play and compete with other athletes of their gender, and that this needs to stop. The Mandate makes it seem as though all schools in the country are allowing transgender athletes to compete, but this is not true, as many school districts do not allow that to happen. The Mandate also wishes to muzzle “woke propaganda” at every level of government, but it did not give any clear definition or example of this said “woke propaganda”.
Defend Our Nation’s Sovereignty, Borders, and Country Against Global Threats
This section of the chapter includes a larger discussion on China and the Chinese Communist Party, so we’ll go over the Mandate’s wishes related to the CCP first. One of the larger suggestions made by the Mandate is to end economic engagement with China, which also includes banning the social media app TikTok and outlawing the Confucius Institute, which is an international institute that aims to promote Chinese language and culture. American universities that accept money from the CCP should be cut off from federal funding, though they didn’t give any examples of universities currently accepting CCP funding.
The Mandate also wishes to stop all illegal immigration into the country from the southern border, and to simply seal the border, which likely means to put more funding into better border infrastructure. Unrelated, the Mandate also states that “environmental extremism” is anti-human, and that our world cannot run without vehicles, e-grids, and factories.
Secure Our God-Given Individual Right to Enjoy “The Blessings of Liberty”
This section will be a bit shorter since there were less pieces of the text that stood out as something worth sharing. But even with that being said, like every other section in the Mandate, Secure Our God-Given Individual Right to Enjoy “The Blessings of Liberty” was full of notable requests for the future administration.
The Mandate states that marriage, family, religious devotion, and spirituality are the greatest sources of happiness in the world. The Mandate also goes on to explain how countries with Marxist elites end up poorer and weaker than the US. I would like to quickly add that there is no such thing as a “Marxist elite” since that goes against one of the main take-away points of Marxism. These happened to be the only discussion-worthy things I could find in the text in this section.
Conclusion
No matter one’s individual political views, you cannot doubt that Project 2025 is a riveting document with the potential to influence the ideas and actions of the next administration. No matter who wields the power of government, it is always a good idea to research those of great influence. I hope you enjoyed reading this series and I’ll see you in my next articles!