WHAT IS PROJECT 2025?
America has always been about progress. Freedom. Rights for all who live here. Project 2025 promises to eradicate the values we hold dear and replace them with Trump’s idea of America—a dictatorship with Trump at the helm.
Despite his insistence that he knows nothing about it, Donald Trump—along with many right-wing extremist Republicans—has orchestrated the agenda we now know to be Project 2025. Though Trump has attempted to distance himself from the mandate, which is a whopping 920 pages, his name appears in the document over 300 times. It also shares many characteristics with Trump’s own “Agenda 47.” Trump’s involvement in Project 2025 cannot be questioned.
It is undeniable that Project 2025 was authored by numerous members of Donald Trump’s former administration. It focuses on the first 180 days of what they hope will be Trump’s second presidential administration.
The intention of Project 2025, according to one of its chief engineers, Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation, is to “institutionalize Trumpism.”
Here we must ask ourselves: What is Trumpism? And what does it entail?
Here are just a few hallmarks of Trumpism:
But this only scratches the surface. Not only does Project 2025 espouse all of these things and more, but it also promises Donald Trump unchecked power over the entirety of the federal government. This is a slap in the face to the true values of Americans, all in favor of building a narcissist’s kingdom for himself.
“Surely Project 2025 won’t impact me,” some of you might say. We are here to tell you that whatever you think Project 2025 contains, it’s worse. Whatever you’re envisioning, Project 2025 takes your assumptions to a terrifying new level.
Video: Trump to Heritage after flying in a private jet with his Project 2025 leader: “This is a great group and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do [in my second term]”
HOW WILL PROJECT 2025 AFFECT MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TENNESSEE?
Project 2025 and Economic Policies:
Project 2025 proposes to renegotiate trade relations with other countries around the globe. Anything made in China, Taiwan, or any of the other United States’ trade partners would be less accessible.
In addition, Project 2025 will make it more difficult for workers to qualify for overtime pay by reducing overtime protections, forcing employees to work longer hours for less pay. Montgomery County workers deserve to get paid for hours worked. Project 2025 also takes aim at unions to prevent workers from fighting for their rights. Trump, true to form, has no respect for working people.
Project 2025 and Healthcare Access:
Project 2025 proposes changes to healthcare policies which will affect residents’ access to healthcare services, particularly if cuts to programs or changes to the Affordable Care Act are implemented. Project 2025 promises to cut funding for Medicare, Medicaid, and other essential healthcare funding that Montgomery County citizens need and rely on.
44,793 out of 235,000 Montgomery County citizens (19%) are on TennCare Medicaid as of June 2024 and 47,125 (20%) are on Medicare as of April 2024. Roughly half of Clarksville’s population would not be able to afford their healthcare costs under Project 2025. This would send an already strained healthcare system into greater chaos. Under Project 2025, Republicans plan to raise premiums for Medicare recipients, raise the prices of prescription drugs, and allow pharmaceutical companies more unchecked control over drug pricing.
HOW DOES PROJECT 2025 IMPACT REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS?
For childbearing individuals, abortion-related healthcare would be almost completely eliminated in the United States, with zero exceptions for rape, incest, age, or health of the pregnant person. This will cause extreme harm and even death to hundreds of Tennessee citizens who need this healthcare every year. Rape victims as young as ten would be forced to carry their rapists’ pregnancy to term. Interesting to note that, once again, the party that claims to protect children has little to no interest in protecting actual children who are forcibly impregnated.
What will the Impacts of 2025 be on Mental Health Resources?
Tennessee struggles to support its citizens’ healthcare. Our lawmakers’ refusal to fund healthcare initiatives makes this more difficult. Consequently, Tennessee ranks 29th in the country for mental health treatment, and 44th for public health. Montgomery County already struggles to meet the rapidly climbing demand for quality health care facilities. Project 2025 will make the situation worse by reducing funding for public health programs.
Project 2025 Impacts on Education
MAGA Republicans maintain that children are being taught “to be gay” in America. Project 2025 reflects this belief, despite offering no evidence to prove this is occurring. Major child advocacy organizations however, endorse teaching an LGBTQIA+ inclusive education, and this has been shown to produce better public health outcomes. Project 2025 seeks to abolish education that portrays LGBTQIA+ individuals in a positive light, in favor of indoctrinating children with Christianity’s narrow worldview.
Project 2025 also targets policies that protect LGBTQIA+ children, children of color, and children with disabilities in Montgomery County, intending to eliminate or roll them back. Under Project 2025, the most vulnerable of Montgomery County’s children would not have protections from bullying or discrimination. Is this really the America we want? One that leaves our most vulnerable open to further harm?
Project 2025 Policies promoting school choice and voucher systems
School voucher programs are presented as “education freedom” and “school choice.” In fact, the choice is for the schools themselves, not the students. Private schools have the freedom to deny a student entry for essentially any reason. In practice, voucher schools are often worse alternatives for students, operating with less oversight and low-quality educational material. Many voucher schools utilize a Christian-based curriculum. Children raised in a different religion or without a religion could potentially be refused admission to one of these faith-based voucher schools. Project 2025 would drain funds from public schools and direct tax payer money into private religious schools. This will lead to the loss of teacher positions, higher teacher-to-student ratios, and a reduction in school-based programs.
How Does Project 2025 Affect Environmental Regulations?
Changes to environmental regulations proposed in Trump’s Project 2025 will impact local agriculture, water quality, and public health in Montgomery County and all over the United States. Project 2025 seeks to dismantle the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the system by which we receive information about weather forecasts, ocean and atmospheric conditions, and other ocean-related information. Without the National Weather Service, citizens in Montgomery County would not have had enough information to seek safety in time on December 2023, and many more might have lost their lives to the devastating tornado we experienced. The architects of Project 2025 are primarily concerned with diverting tax payer money away from NOAA into private hands, not protecting American citizens.
Scientists around the country have continually sounded the alarm in reference to global warming. The climate in Tennessee is becoming hotter and wetter, increasing the chances of extreme flooding followed by drought due to excess evaporation. In 2010, Clarksville experienced a damaging flood. Since then, Clarksville has experienced several other smaller flooding events. If we ignore climate change, Tennessee will face an increase in extreme rain events, combined with an overall increase in temperatures. This will impact our agriculture industry and also reduce quality of life.
Project 2025 wishes to ignore climate change completely. Pretending global warming doesn’t exist will not make it go away.
How Will Project 2025 Impact Social Services?
MAGA falsely claims that social services and welfare programs drive up the national debt. Project 2025 plans to all but eliminate social service programs that support the most vulnerable in our communities. Affordable housing is in short supply in Clarksville. Funding for low income housing initiatives would disappear under Project 2025. Those seeking affordable housing would have even fewer options and protections against discrimination. Project 2025 wants to repeal any initiatives which acknowledge inequality experienced by people of color and minorities in the housing market, dismissing this as an “equity” measure. Project 2025 policies would seek to punish these families by rolling back their rights.
Thousands of Montgomery County residents rely on Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and other essential services. Project 2025 accuses beneficiaries of these services of being “entitled” and argues that funding should be reduced even further.
How Will Project 2025 Affect Our Infrastructure and Transportation?
Project 2025 will decrease federal funding for infrastructure projects. This will affect local roads, public transportation, and community development. Project 2025 proposes a rollback on environmental protections including car emissions, essentially allowing higher rates of air pollution. Project 2025 also wants to roll back funding for public transit, something that Montgomery County – and most of Tennessee – already severely lacks. This will adversely affect people who rely on public transit for work or for other transportation needs: healthcare, school, etc. It appears to be another way to punish low-income individuals for being low income. This is a common theme in Project 2025.
What Will Project 2025 Do to Civil Rights and Community Relations?
Project 2025 wants to reintroduce discrimination within the workplace. The architects of Project 2025 dismiss workplace protections as “woke” and seek to demolish them, allowing employers to discriminate in their hiring practices once more. This will lead to a rise in discrimination against people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and women.
Montgomery County has a rich history, and it would not be what it is today without contributions from its Black citizens. Among them: Olympic Champion Wilma Rudolph, Dr. Robert T. Burt, who created the first integrated hospital in Clarksville, and Ida Gray Nelson Rollins, the first Black dentist in the United States. Our Black citizens play an integral role in our community, and Project 2025’s attack on “wokeness” and critical race theory completely discounts their value. Project 2025 wants to disband “DEI” initiatives. This seems to be a desire to return to the pre-Civil Rights era, when white men were seen as the highest in society. This would erase decades of progress in community relations and will negatively impact civil rights protections, community dynamics, and social cohesion within Montgomery County.
Public Safety, Law Enforcement, andProjeCT 2025
Project 2025’s proposed changes to funding will impact local policing practices, resources, and community relations. A second Trump administration would allow the militarization of American communities in order to enforce new domestic and immigration laws. This could lead to the terrifying scenario of full military personnel with little accountability, bought and sold by Donald Trump, parading the streets of Clarksville. Think of George Floyd. Eric Garner. And most recently, Sonya Massey. All people of color who were needlessly killed by police. Under Project 2025, we could see a relaxing of accountability for police officers involved in unjustified violent acts.
Interestingly, under Project 2025, the FBI will be prohibited from investigating misinformation. This is odd coming from the group that consistently denounces “fake news” and “alternative facts.”
How Will Project 2025 Impact Voting and Election Processes in Tennessee?
Trump himself recently stated at a rally: “If you vote for me, you won’t have to vote again.” Following up on Project 2025’s promise of holding the president above the law, Trump appears poised to dismantle the entire voting system as we know it, installing himself as a dictator with no accountability. Based on other proposed mandates in Project 2025, we can infer that MAGA Republicans wish to install Trump and his loyalists into positions of power indefinitely. If Trump is voted in and Project 2025 is allowed to take effect, Tennesseans may not get another opportunity to vote for a number of years.
How Would Military and Veterans Be Treated Under Project 2025?
When it comes to healthcare and benefits for our military and veteran community, Republicans typically do not deliver. Project 2025 promises to limit benefits even further for those who bravely served. Fewer veterans would qualify for benefits under Project 2025. Veterans who sustained injuries and lifelong medical conditions from Agent Orange or toxic chemicals may no longer receive benefits from the VA. Transgender individuals would be banned from serving in the military. Abortion-related healthcare and gender transition surgery will no longer be available. In addition, Project 2025 wishes to install partisan leadership (read: Trump loyalists) in the military, to “ensure political control of the VA” and “protect from political transition” to instill extremist Republican values within our military indefinitely.
Will Project 2025 Affect Federal-State-Local Relations?
Project 2025 promises again and again to install politically aligned federal employees across all federal offices in order to concentrate power toward Donald Trump. Staff in all areas of the federal government would be required to be unwaveringly loyal. This will upset the balance of power and responsibilities between federal, state, and local governments, altering how local officials in Montgomery County interact with their state and federal counterparts. It will take power away from our locally elected governments in Clarksville and Montgomery County.
Democrats Challenging Project 2025
Below is a list of Democrats in Tennessee you might have heard of who are challenging Project 2025. These individuals would pass legislation to counter or mitigate the policies proposed in the case of a second Trump administration. Learn more about them by scrolling down.
Rep. Ronnie Glynn
Ronnie Glynn assumed office on November 8, 2022. Glynn graduated from Halls High School before serving in the U.S. Army from 1990 to 2014. He earned a B.S. in business administration from Trident University International in 2012. Glynn and his wife have four adult children and 11 grandchildren, eight of whom are students in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System. Glynn is also a small business owner in Clarksville, TN.
Garfield Scott
Garfield Scott is a third generation Clarksville native, born and raised in the St. Bethlehem area. He has lived in District 68 all of his life. He is a married father of two grown children with one young grandchild. Prior to his almost forty year career as a professional truck driver, Garfield was a farmer on the family farm. He is a longtime member of St. Bethlehem church. Being one of ten children and a product of the Clarksville public school system, Garfield has learned the value of compassion and the ability to get along with friends and neighbors of all ages and backgrounds. Garfield Scott is running for the seat left open by the retirement of Representative Curtis Johnson.
Allie Phillips
Allie Phillips is a lifelong Tennessean. She was raised in Ashland City and now calls Clarksville home with her husband and daughter. She received her bachelor’s degree in multimedia Journalism from Middle Tennessee State University. In November 2022, Phillips and her husband learned she was pregnant. During a scan at 19 weeks, doctors informed Phillips that her unborn daughter, Miley Rose, was not compatible with life and that Phillips’ own life was in danger the longer she remained pregnant. Because of Tennessee’s abortion ban, Phillips made the difficult decision of traveling to New York to terminate the pregnancy. Now, Phillips is running to help improve healthcare and abortion access in Tennessee. She will be challenging incumbent Jeff Burkhart.
Councilperson Karen Reynolds
After retiring as an Army Master Sergeant with 21 years of honorable service, Karen chose to return to Clarksville to raise her sons and fully engage in the community. She is married to Billy Burgett and a proud mother of three sons, one of whom serves in the U.S. Navy. Karen holds a Master of Arts in Adult Education from East Carolina University. She is a graduate of Leadership Clarksville and Leadership Clarksville Montgomery County School System. She worked as a Veteran Service Representative for the Veterans Benefits Administration and then as a Project Manager in Healthcare Informatics until 2021 at Blanchfield Army Hospital. Her education, experience, and commitment to others make Karen a valuable leader and resident in the Clarksville-Montgomery County community. Reynolds will be challenging incumbent Bill Powers.
Megan Barry
For U.S. House of Representatives, District 7
Megan Barry is an American businesswoman and politician who served as the seventh mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County from 2015 until March 6, 2018. One of Barry’s accomplishments was the creation and expansion of the Opportunity NOW program, which aimed to reduce the rising rates of youth violence and unemployment by creating 10,000 paid job and internship opportunities for Nashville’s teenagers and young adults throughout the private, public, and non-profit sectors. Barry will be challenging incumbent Mark Green.
Rep. Gloria Johnson
State Representative Gloria Johnson has dedicated her life to serving Tennesseans, fighting for justice and standing tall for all who have been left out, left behind, or left without a voice. After the legislature took away a teacher’s seat at the table, she decided to run for the Tennessee House in Knoxville in 2012. In 2023, when a murderer stole the lives of three 9-year-olds and three adults in Nashville, she demanded Republican politicians in Nashville pass gun safety measures to prevent future shootings. Johnson is running for U.S. Senate because she knows it is time to shift power back where it belongs: with working and middle class families. She will be running against incumbent Marsha Blackburn.
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