Project 2025 Invites Fascism to America

Right wing extremists are promising violence -- here's what you need to know

A quote often attributed to Sinclair Lewis states, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”

This article will not make you feel good, and it does not have a happy conclusion promising everything will be all right. Because with Project 2025, we are beyond mere arrival of fascism in America—we are on the cusp of full blown fascism. As I wrote recently, the grotesque Supreme Court decisions this session—including expanding Presidential immunity to include hypothetically assassinating a political opponent as an ‘official’ act—demonstrate how dire a situation we are in. Indeed, such decisions are ultimately the result of Project 2025. Electing Trump will further accelerate Project 2025’s goal of implementing Christian nationalism in American government.

So, what is Project 2025 and why should we care? Let’s Address This.

Credit: MSNBC

What Is Project 2025 and Why Should We Care?

Project 2025 is a well funded MAGA theocratic fantasy turned reality. Established only in 2022, it already has a $22 million budget, which it is using to achieve its goal of exerting Christian nationalist control over the Federal government’s Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches.

The founder of Project 2025 is a self identified Christian nationalist named Kevin Roberts. Roberts also leads The Heritage Foundation, a right wing think tank that has successfully implemented numerous extremist conservative policies—including helping overturn Roe. Roberts describes Project 2025 as a ruthless takeover of our secular government, one that promises bloodshed to anyone who doesn’t comply. In an interview on the known pro-white supremacist Steve Bannon’s podcast, Roberts boasted:

In spite of all this nonsense from the left, we are going to win. We're in the process of taking this country back. We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless, if the left allows it to be.

On the Executive level, Project 2025 is working to elect Donald Trump to complete their government takeover. With Trump at the helm, they will seek to abolish the Department of Education and reallocate federal tax dollars to school choice, enforce a national ban on mifepristone, severely limit immigration and exploit those seeking asylum through monetizing their suffering, gut climate justice initiatives, and increase fossil fuel usage despite the climate crisis. Project 2025 also seeks to purge anyone not openly right wing conservative from the Federal government, including from non-partisan civil service roles.

Credit: The Guardian

On the Legislative side, Project 2025 is well on its way with MAGA GOP Speaker Mike Johnson. Johnson is already a self-described Christian nationalist and has openly advocated for Biblical rule. For example, when asked how he would make public policy, Johnson replied:

Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.

And it gets worse. As The Guardian reports:

Johnson’s inerrant biblical truth leads him to reject science. Johnson was a “young earth creationist”, holding that a literal reading of Genesis means that the earth is only a few thousand years old and humans walked alongside dinosaurs. He has been the attorney for and partner in Kentucky’s Creation Museum and Ark amusement park, which present these beliefs as scientific fact, a familiar sleight of hand where the end (garnering more believers) justifies the means (lying about science). For them, the end always justifies the means. That’s why they don’t even blink when non-believers suffer for their dogma.

And as you might guess, Project 2025 is already miles ahead on the Judicial branch of government. Indeed, their corrupt worldview is made possible by their knowledge that their right wing Supreme Court will rubber stamp their Christian nationalist authoritarianism. This is all made possible by right wing billionaires spending hundreds of millions of dollars to hand select and install right wing Supreme Court justices—as they did with Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barrett. As a result, the current Supreme Court is further right than the vast majority of Americans, and perpetuates an unjust trend of conservative control of the Supreme Court despite liberal popular vote victories at the Presidential level.

Median Judicial Ideology of Supreme Court Justices since 1937. Source: Martin-Quinn Scores

In short, Project 2025 seeks to fully transform the United States into a banana republic and theocracy—both concepts repugnant to a U.S. Constitution committed to secular governance and equal access under the law. And given the success these right wing extremists have had in taking over the United States Supreme Court and hundreds of members of the United States Congress, it would be unwise to dismiss them as unserious in their attempts to win back the White House.

There’s no easy answer and no flip of a switch that will stop this violent assault on our democracy. But that is why it is that much more critical we stay engaged in the political process, stay educated and informed ourselves, hold our elected representatives accountable, and not be bystanders. I’m hopeful this heavy piece has provided at least some more clarity for you, and you can be assured I will continue to raise awareness on this existential threat to our country and Constitution.

Our Republic has so far survived 248 years. If we do not maintain secular governance this November, we may not make it to 250.