CRAFTSBURY – We are in the most dangerous days of America; least of it is Donald Trump’s “Day 1″ release of criminals convicted for violence at the U.S. Capitol four years ago.
During his campaign for president, Trump consistently claimed knowing nothing about Project 2025, the plan created in part by right-wing Heritage Foundation’s Russel Vought that would remake our system of democracy into a new system we never voted on, whereby everyone in federal government would be replaced with loyalists to Trump and the ultra-rich with whom he surrounds himself. (You saw many on stage at the Inauguration and their names are familiar: Bezos (Amazon, Whole Foods, Washington Post), Zuckerburg (Facebook/Meta), Musk (Spacex, X, Tesla, Starlink). Others like Peter Thiel, sponsor of JD Vance’s Senate run are lesser known.) Seeing the influence they are already having on Trump, we may now accurately refer to this band of billionaires as America’s oligarchs. “Follow the money” was Deep Throat’s admonishment in the erstwhile film about Nixon-era corruption; it applies still.
Inspired by the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency headed by oligarch Musk (by law it can only be an advisory committee and must be open in its operations and headed by a balance of voices-neither condition has been met) Trump has issued a letter to thousands of federal workers urging immediate resignation for a low-dollar buy-out. He further violated federal law by attempting to impound dollars previously allocated by Congress to fund critical government programs. All of us know someone affected by this imperious, illegal order.
He next illegally fired the 15 inspector generals- who are the non-partisan watchdogs in each department of the government, more employees in the FBI who helped investigate his attempt to overturn election 2020, and is investigating others on his enemies list. Such policy priorities of the new Trump administration are right out of the Project 2025 plan. That plan is to concentrate this president’s power and ensure only his loyalists have positions in government: their qualification is that they all stood up for Trump’s big lie that he won the 2020 election. (You may recall that a sign of his insecurity in this matter is that prior to election day 2020 Trump repeatedly asserted that only he could win that election.) With fealty to him displacing any notion of the constitutionally created system of checks and balances, Vought, Project 2025 and it lackeys defy the central idea of our constitution, that power in this nation is distributed to and ultimately held by its citizens, not a king or his court.
Lies, firings, concentration of power, power held by the very rich who are loyal to a person and not the constitution: these are the hallmarks of an authoritarian state. Mark Twain said “History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” Musk’s fawning support of the far-right extremist AFD party in Germany reveals his politics and makes the rise and rhyme of Musk most unsettling.
Trump has appointed Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), described as the nerve center of the federal government. Further, he has named Kash Patel to head the FBI, Tulsi Gabbard to head Intelligence, and RFK Jr. to head Health and Human Services. Like the now installed head of the Department of Defense (even quisling Senator Mitch McConnell voted against confirming him), they lack experience or capacity to run these tax-funded entities of our system. Some are just kooks. Patel, for instance, supports fringe conspiracy theories and has vowed investigation of and retribution to those who stood against Trump’s debunked claims that he won in 2020.
Last week the Senate conducted hearings in consideration of whether these appointees should be confirmed to their positions. The vote will be soon. We still have one check-balance available: encourage all you know to call and urge their U.S. Senators, particularly Republican ones to vote no on nominees Vought (OMB), Patel (FBI), Gabbard (Intelligence), Kennedy (Health and Human Services). Trump and his oligarchs are moving fast to actualize Project 2025, whose scope and purpose is the antithesis of a democracy of, by and for the people.
Anne Hanson
