Project 2025, Marc Elias and Some Thoughts

Mark Elias said something really critical today on Nicole Wallace's MSNBC show about Project 2025's content and intent that we all need to both internalize and spread widely, because we are in a world of shit if we don't:

"...I think we need to divide [the Project 2025] policy agenda into two pieces.  There is the substantive policies which, honestly, I don't think Donald Trump cares about, one way or the other.  I suspect he is not even familiar with them or, if he is, he may agree or disagree with some of them.  And then there are the process policies, and that is where Donald Trump sees the action, because the process pieces are what allows him to effectuate his desire to be a dictator.  Not for a day.  Not for a week.  But to be an authoritarian ruler, that he can do whatever he wants, can run government with his cronies in charge, and have everyone in the executive branch at his beck and call.  He will go after his enemies.  He will seek vengeance.  He will unleash not just the Department of Justice, but he will unleash the IRS, the DHS, it'll be permitting.  And he wants to be able to control government...as a tool of his corrupt vision of America.  So should people be putting tens of millions of dollars into educating the public about Project 2025?  I'd say no, they should be putting billions of dollars in educating the public about Project 2025.  The fact is that we are facing an existential crisis of democracy, and there is not the organized, coordinated, well-funded, serious effort to understand that the other side is not playing a game of propaganda.  They are playing for keeps, and their idea of keeps is to undermine democracy for a generation or more."

We need to all come to grips with the fact that the Democratic leadership across the board has completely dropped the ball on this.  We are doing far too little in terms of real messaging on these issues as a party.  It's not as though any of us could say we didn't see it coming after 4 years of Trump, January 6th and every campaign appearance of his since then.  The Jan. 6th hearings were a spectacular success in putting this front and center, but aside from an occasional ad or applause line, there has been no systematic and undeniable pushback on this authoritarian threat coordinated at the highest levels.

There is a reason the Trump people are backing away and trying to publicly shut the door on this.  We should be painting Trump with this like a tobacco barn covered in neon letters as the godfather of this apostasy.

The Biden arguments this week have been an all-consuming and messy sideshow from all of this on the Trump end of things.  My fear, though, is that it is indicative on where the Dem. party leadership as a whole has been far too often lately:  unfocused, vague, out of touch, lagging and squishy.  Anything -- and I mean anything -- that gets in the way of stopping Trump and the asshats at the Heritage Foundation is not in any of our interests.  

I love Joe Biden, he's an incredibly decent man and an honorable public servant in so many ways.  But if he isn't up for the job, he needs to be honest with himself and everyone else and make the hard decisions immediately.  This public holding of our collective breath is excruciating.  If, however, the truth is that he is up to the job, then the Dem leadership needs to take care of the devastating public flagellation immediately. This eating ourselves alive nastiness that is cropping up everywhere the last two weeks is helping no one but Trump, it makes Dems look like they can't find their way out of a very thin paper bag, and it's making all of us a nervous wreck for a very, very good reason.

I doubt that any of us knows all the facts on any of this.  I sure as hell don't -- I took myself out of the inside the beltway loop years ago for health reasons, and I'm only hearing dribs and drabs on occasion these days.  But I know enough about leadership to see that the DNC, the folks on the Hill, the White House and the campaign staff have no freaking clue how to effectively deal with any of this.  Hoping it will fix itself is not working.  It looks like they are playing hopscotch on hot coals, and not admitting they are even warm.  The flop sweat is palpable.

The press are having a feeding frenzy and screaming "dems in disarray"?  Of course they are.  Staff and electeds are leaking and picking favorites?  Of course they are. Politicians are trying to protect their own flank rather than fixing the problem?  Of course they are.  They do this every year.  

Where is our unified party strategy to deal with any of this effectively and efficiently?  Why aren't we deploying it?  Where is the leader who steps up and says enough already, and has the gravitas to make it stick?  THAT is my problem with the last 2 weeks.  We don't have one, or they would have already put a stop to the very public whining and wrangling.  The fact that no one has after two weeks of this craziness is what is freaking me out.

Democracy is messy -- it should be.  But it should also be productive, civil and moving toward resolving issues, not making them worse.  Our fear and anxiety may be getting the better of our manners.  We're all smart people and ought to understand that at a time of crisis, the most valuable assets we can have are a clear head and a little bit of kindness while we help to figure out the best way forward together.