Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot.

As people give the candidacy of convicted felon and adjudicated sexual assaulter Donald Trump a closer look, more eyes have been drawn to Project 2025, a project launched by the Heritage Foundation, a well-endowed far-right think tank. Authors affiliated with Heritage crafted the over 900-page volume which lays out the program for a second Trump term.

Because the Project started receiving critical feedback, Trump made a weak attempt to distance himself from its contents. Trump would like to pretend he has no connection but nothing could be more implausible. Trump and his associates plan to implement the plan immediately if he is again inaugurated president. Many of the authors of Project 2025 served in his administration and it is not a small number.

According to Judd Legum’s Popular Information, of the 38 people who wrote and edited Project 2025, 31 had been appointed or nominated to positions in the Trump administration. The distancing of Trump by himself from Project 2025 is hilarious. But this is a person with less than zero regard for the truth. If he sees any political advantage, he would be embracing it to the max.

Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, has acknowledged that there is “tremendous overlap” between the RNC platform Agenda 47 and Project 2025. So what is the big deal with Project 2025?

I would argue it is a reactionary blueprint, opposing all the positive changes made in America since the 1960s. It is an effort to turn back the clock. The Project wants to return to white supremacist dominance like existed in the Jim Crow era. Instead of multi-racial democracy, Project 2025 envisions a Christian nationalist dictatorship run by wealthy white men.

Since there are many aspects to Project 2025, I will zero in on a few aspects I find most pernicious.

Project 2025 is anti-woman and the mentality behind it is misogynist. They believe life begins at conception, a view that absolutely prioritizes fetal personhood over the life of the mother. A major focus is further whittling away women’s reproductive rights.

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The plan says, “Abortion pills pose the single greatest threat to unborn children.” They want the FDA to withdraw approval from Mifepristone and Misopristol, two drugs safely used in abortions that have been approved for over 20 years. They want the DOJ to resuscitate the long-moribund 1873 Comstock Act as a vehicle for prosecuting anyone sending or receiving abortion pills.

They also want rules requiring confidentiality of medical records lifted so that states can pursue criminal investigations of women who cross state lines to get an abortion. Punishing women for exercising their rights is a Project 2025 theme.

Project 2025 is also anti-immigrant. Even though we saw the horror that was family separation during the Trump years in office, the Project wants to create a new border patrol and immigration agency that would build camps to detain children and families at the border. They intend to enlist the military to round up and deport millions of people who are already in the country, including Dreamers.

The level of cruelty reflected in the immigration chapter is not surprising considering that Trump calls immigrants “vermin” who “poison the blood of America.” You have to ask if this project comes to fruition, who will perform the jobs in agriculture, construction and care-taking? Trump and Project 2025 fail to consider the economic fallout of this unprecedented deportation scheme. It will result in a massive worker shortage in the harsh jobs most Americans will not do.

I would also mention the Project’s sexist position on T and U visas. The Project wants to eliminate T and U visas. These have been used to protect victims of human trafficking, domestic violence and female genital mutilation. The disregard for the lives of women could not be more apparent.

Project 2025 is anti-science and it is opposed to efforts to address climate change. These people actually want to double down on fossil fuel production. They plan to close the EPA’s climate change departments and they want to shut down the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the government agency that forecasts weather and tracks climate change.

This is far right-wing la-la land where if they close their eyes to reality, it won’t happen. It is not surprising that millions in dark money from the oil and gas industry (e.g. Koch Industries) are funding this effort. The fossil industry’s campaign to mystify the public about climate change is a continuing corporate crime.

NOAA Chief Scientist Dr. Sarah Kapnick said, “After seeing the 2023 climate analysis, I have to pause and say that the findings are astounding. Not only was 2023 the warmest year in NOAA’s 174-year climate record - it was the warmest by far…We will continue to see records broken and extreme events grow until emissions go to zero.”

I would be remiss if I did not mention the central authoritarian strand of Project 2025. It is about vastly increasing the power of the Executive Branch, including exerting political control over the Department of Justice. This would allow the president to use the DOJ to prosecute those Trump deems “enemies.” Project 2025 is welcoming a dictatorship.

They want to infuse Christian nationalism into every facet of government policy. If they prevail, there will be no more separation of church and state. The government will be promoting evangelical Christianity.

Stepping back, one point that gets lost is that while Donald Trump would like to appear as a rebel, Project 2025 shows he is just a spokesman for the interests of the billionaire class. The policies outlined in Project 2025 are detrimental to democracy and all working people.

Trump is a convicted criminal surrounded by other convicted criminals. His candidacy is fundamentally a vehicle for staying out of jail. Making money for himself remains his greatest obsession. Project 2025 is a combination of Margaret Atwood and George Orwell.