The Consequential Effects of Project 2025
Article by Orsi Brown | Art by Jillian Hartshorne
Discourse has died down following this year’s presidential election; however, it is important that the consequences of this election are not ignored, specifically and especially regarding minorities. It is only a matter of time before we face the repercussions of Project 2025.
The Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise-Project 2025 is a 920-page-long policy initiative that aims to change our democracy and lives as we know it. Written by the Heritage Foundation, this bucket list has policies upon policies that will change the lives of any minority including women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and anyone in the middle class or below.
Here are some planned policies of Project 2025:
The Heritage Foundation aims to eliminate all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion agendas: “The next conservative Administration should dismantle USAID’s DEI apparatus by eliminating the Chief Diversity Officer position along with the DEI advisers and committees; cancel the DEI scorecard and dashboard; remove DEI requirements from the contract and grant tenders and awards; issue a directive to cease promotion of the DEI agenda, including the bullying LGBTQ+ agenda.” (Project 2025, 258), as well as DEI in the workforce: “Needed Reforms: Reverse the DEI Revolution in Labor Policy” (Project 2025, 582).
DEI actively works only to ensure a sense of equality within the workforce for all people, specifically those who have been subject to discrimination–which is only fair considering the years of trauma and setbacks that minorities have faced throughout history and now. Not only is this an attack on those protected from DEI agendas, it is also a declaration that conservatives do not care about the fairness, respect, equity, or lack thereof, that people of color or the LGBTQ+ are treated with. This is a clear attempt at making it easier for companies to mistreat their workers without consequence, which will, in turn, create a more hostile and less diverse working space in America.
The Heritage Foundation also plans to ban specific words and phrases in order to strip minorities of any type of regulation: “The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity… [DEI], gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.” (Project 2025, 4-5)
In what way do these phrases deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights? If anything, allowing Americans to use whatever language is needed in politics grants Americans these rights. This policy contradicts itself and ignores the real issues that revolve around these phrases. Conservatives may not agree with them, but they must acknowledge these issues instead of ignoring and attempting to filter them out of any federal matter; ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ cannot be applied to such a grave issue.
Project 2025 further presses on issues against the LGBTQ+ community, planning to “rescind regulations interpreting sex discrimination provisions as prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, sex characteristics, etc.” (Project 2025, 582).
This will allow companies to discriminate against workers based on their sexual orientation or gender without the possibility of being sued. This erases and invalidates the years of hard work that the community has done to find stable working lives.
These are only three of the policies that the Heritage Foundation plans to enact upon America.
Donald Trump has called the plans of Project 2025 “ridiculous and abysmal”, but he will likely be establishing his administration with direct authors of the manifesto. Trump has, with pleasure, announced that “the Former ICE Director, and stalwart on Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation’s Borders.”. Russell Vought, a prominent author and figure of Project 2025, has also been nominated as director of the Office of Management and Budget, along with Stephen Miller as deputy chief of police. Even if Project 2025 is not directly put into place, its most important policies will.
Today’s youth and Trump supporters must be aware of the policies that the Trump administration plans to enact upon America. This is a matter beyond policies and law-making. As the largest superpower in the world, it is important that this country roots for fairness and equity instead of close-minded ideologies that strip people of the right to equal workspaces, regulations, and defense.
