There's apparently a group of Democratic operatives calling themselves "Project 2029" who are developing what they think is an analog to the MAGAt fascists' "Project 2025" -- that notorious document that gave them a running start on dismantling the Federal Government, Constitution, and "liberal administrative state" once the Malignant Fascist took office. Here are two commenters who've seen a summary of an early version of the Dem operatives' work and have some serious concerns.
"...These liberals, all veteran Democratic operatives, have begun offering glimpses of their work, and I’m of two minds. First, generously: As the saying goes, there’s no bad ideas in a brainstorm. Ideas are good. Ideas that start out bad can become good. Ideas that seem unresponsive to the needs of today can become urgent—or they might just be worthy apart from any particular salience, easily slotted into some future appropriation bill without fanfare.
"Second, more importantly: We are not—at this rate—getting a Project 2029 that serves anything like the purposes Project 2025 was meant to serve. We’re getting competing factional agendas, from a familiar universe of people, all of whom want jobs in or influence over the next administration. And so they’re devising policy ideas meant for popular consumption, rather than governing stratagems for fixing the American state.
"This is an error of conception. It doesn’t discredit any particular idea let alone the whole suite. It just means that if liberals or progressives thought party operatives were hard at work on a blueprint for the first several months of the next Democratic administration—a series of steps that any Dem president could execute to put the country back on an even keel—they’re going to be terribly disappointed. Unless something changes..." (our emphasis)
"... If you look at the challenges faced today by Democrats, their reputational problems, lack of trust not only by unattached voters but by their own partisans, the biggest problem is that people think they are weak, their espousal of values doesn’t match their willingness to fight for those values and goals. At the most basic level, they don’t have a strong understanding of political power and how to use it. A Project 2029 should be mostly a blueprint for how to use trifecta power to the maximum extent possible by law and constitution to make thoroughgoing structural changes to the federal government to buttress against authoritarian fascist attack. Reinforcing the structures of civic democracy is a central part of that. To use a sports analogy, that doesn’t mean running good plays. It means reshaping the entire playing field. They’re not the same thing. That means starting as the sine qua non with things like ending the Senate filibuster and reforming the Supreme Court. But those are only the start. Those are the ones that make all the other reform and structural changes possible. They are also the talismans of seriousness. Because if you’re not willing to tackle those, you’re not any kind of player or even on the field.
"The reason to do this is, above all, because it needs to be done. The country managed for a long time with a very imperfect system because none of its presidents actively wanted to govern as dictators or as though they owned the country. We don’t have that luxury any more. But there are secondary importances too. It is a demonstration that Democrats have become comfortable using political power to its maximal extent and are willing to do so. So it’s a demonstration of ability and willingness. The biggest reason for the Democrats’ unpopularity is the idea that they are weak and essentially useless. You can’t contest elections effectively, over time, without changing that perception. And you change the perception by changing the reality." (our emphasis)
The operatives coming up with this are likely the same ones advising DNC Chair Ken Martin, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. Their playing field, from these indications, is that of 1980 or maybe even 2016. They're not, to use Marshall's analogy, reshaping it to meet what needs to happen for the future, radical de-Trumpification of America. It also might be said, to extend the sports analogy, that they don't have any balls.
