Musings on How American Democracy Could Be Undermined by Project 2025

Musings on How American Democracy Could Be Undermined by Project 2025

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., February 15, 2025

The oath of office of the President of the U.S. is, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."  By expanding the executive powers Project 2025 can violate the Constitutional separation of powers.

Article I of the Constitution grants all legislative powers to Congress, while Article II grants all executive power to the President, and Article III vests the power of judicial review to the courts.  With a Congress polarized by partisan politics, the executive branch has been left by default to make laws by executive order, subject to judicial review.

In 2026, voters will have the opportunity to end the partisan polarization of Congress.  All members of the House of Representatives and many in the Senate will be running for office.  While America will have to wait until 2028 for the next presidential election, independent voters can end partisan polarization and restore the Constitutional separation of powers in 2026. 

That is, unless before then, the courts allow Trump and Musk to continue to expand the power of the President with Project 2025 by making laws by executive order that increase the powers of the executive branch in the Constitution at the expense of the legislative branch.  Executive orders of the President should not encroach on the legislative function of Congress.

Trump and Musk promote a form of oligarchy that favors the rich and powerful over a democracy that favors people of modest means.  They favor a powerful executive branch that attracts demagogues like Trump and Musk that can reduce the powers of Congress over the executive branch and reduce the effectiveness of government by attrition and automation.

If you wonder how that would work, think about how large megacorporations have automated their services and minimized their workers, making it difficult to get personal services.  Can you imagine depending on a government that has automated all of its services?  That’s the vision of oligarchs like Trump and Musk of the federal workforce in the future.  

In the public sector the governing moral principle is to promote the common good, not selfish interests to make a profit, as favored in capitalism by the rich and powerful.  Unlike the private sector, the objective of government is to serve public needs, not to make a profit.  Too often politicians confuse those contrasting objectives.  

The objective to promote the common good is based on the altruistic moral imperative of the greatest commandment taught by Jesus to love God and our neighbors as we love ourselves.  That’s why altruistic norms of faith should be prevalent in government, while the profit motive remains dominant in the capitalist businesses of the private sector.  Meanwhile, the courts must prevent Project 2025 from undermining the separation of powers in the Constitution. 

Notes:

Project 2025 is a political initiative to reshape the federal government of the United States and remove checks on executive power in favor of right-wing policies. See Project 2025 at Wikipedia. It was published in April 2023 by the American conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation in anticipation of Donald Trump winning the 2024 presidential election.[4][5  The ninth iteration of the Heritage Foundation's Mandate for Leadership series, Project 2025 asserts a controversial interpretation of the unitary executive theory according to which the entire executive branch is under the complete control of the president.[6][7] To achieve its goals, the project calls for merit-based federal civil service workers to be replaced with people loyal to the president[8] to take partisan control of key government agencies, like the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Commerce (DOC), and Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Other agencies, like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), would be dismantled, and the Department of Education (ED) abolished.[9  Once these measures are in place, the president would be free to implement the agenda, including reducing taxes on corporations and capital gains, instituting a flat income tax on individuals,[10] cutting Medicare and Medicaid,[11][12] and reversing Biden's policies.[13][14] Other goals of the project include infusing government and society with conservative Christian values[15][16] and rejecting abortion as health care.[17][18] It calls for making the National Institutes of Health (NIH) less independent, stopping it from funding stem cell research, and reducing environmental regulations to favor fossil fuels.[19] It proposes eliminating coverage of emergency contraception[11] and prosecuting people who send and receive contraceptives and abortion pills.[18][20] It proposes criminalizing pornography,[21] removing legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,[22][23] and terminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs[5][23] while having the DOJ prosecute anti-white racism instead.[24] The project recommends the arrest, detention, and mass deportation of illegal immigrants living in the U.S.[25][26] and deploying the military for domestic law enforcement.[27]  Proponents of the project argue it would dismantle what they view as a vast, unaccountable, and mostly liberal governmental bureaucracy.[28] Critics have characterized Project 2025 as an authoritarian, Christian nationalist plan[15][29][30] that would steer the U.S. toward autocracy.[31] Legal experts have said it would undermine the rule of law,[32] separation of powers,[5] separation of church and state,[31] and civil liberties.[5][32][33  Project 2025 is closely connected to Donald Trump, with many contributors and Heritage Foundation employees associated with him, his 2024 campaign, his first administration, and his allies.[34][35][36][37][38] Trump campaign officials had regular contact with Project 2025, seeing its goals as aligned with their Agenda 47 program.[28][39][40][41] But amid media scrutiny during the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump distanced himself from it, calling some of its proposals "ridiculous and abysmal".[37][42][43][44] Critics dismissed Trump's denials, pointing to the many people close to him directly involved, the many contributors expected to be appointed to leadership roles during Trump's second presidency, his endorsement of the Heritage Foundation's plans in 2022, and the 300 times Trump is mentioned in the plans.[45][46][47][48]

On Trump Brazingly Defies Laws in Escalating Executive Power Grab. see https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/us/trump-federal-law-power.html.