The Unfolding Agenda
Dear Coup Stoppers,
Yes, it’s true: we are all feeling a lot of pressure, gritting our teeth a bit, as the early voting unfolds and we brace ourselves for the November 5th election – under two weeks away now. We wanted to share a multipart Special Report: The Unfolding Agenda that we just released and have shared with the media and allies, as well as some hopeful news to bolster you as you amp up sounding the alarm about the threats of Project 2025 and the importance of voting for candidates who champion democratic rights.
The Special Report discusses unfolding attacks on our judicial and electoral system being implemented by the right-wing groups and key actors busily paving the road for Project 2025. It names names: the key conservative courts, judges, lawyers, think tanks, and key legal decisions that are bricks in the road.
It also spotlights three right-wing initiatives that each that merit your urgent attention. One is Project 19 and the Courage Tour, led by Christian nationalist evangelicals of the Pentecostalist New Apostolic Reformation and linked to Steve Bannon’s post-Jan 6th call for MAGA supporters to become “precinct warriors.” As we count the days to the election, they plan to be busy. Read and share that info.
Two is Project Sovereign 2025, backed by $1 million from the Heritage Foundation – it’s a McCarthyite revenge plan with a goal of finding dirt and going after 100 political enemies of Trump if he is elected. Our Politics of Retribution story talks about this. It’s a call to pre-emptive action for progressives.
SPECIAL REPORT:
The third is the right wing’s further weaponization of immigration. The new buzzwords of the Project 2025 camp are remigration, borrowed from the European far right, and denaturalization. Both policies target and seek to reverse the legal status of foreign-born immigrants and those deemed undesirable by conservative groups.
Who’s behind it? Many groups, led again by Trump’s immigration czar Stephen Miller. In 2018, he set up a new denaturalization division in the Department of Justice and increased rare cases of denaturalization by 600%. Now he vows to “turbocharge” denaturalization if the GOP wins.
What about our side? The good news is that a building Resistance movement has mobilized to tackle the unfolding and planned assaults on our government and civil society by Project 2025’s agenda. We discuss the progress made by a Congressional Task Force on Project 2025 and civic Working Groups since June, and the crack progressive legal team led by Marc Elias, now hired by the Harris campaign, to defend against democratic assaults, including attempts to hack the election.
Faith Leader Speaks Out
We’re happy to announce that we’ve added the voice of a bilingual Christian Latino faith leader to our expanding video series, “This Is Personal,” available for social media distribution. In it, New Jersey pastor Rev. Bolivar Flores calls on Christian Latinos to reject Project 2025, arguing that it does not speak for Christianity or reflect Christian values, and does the opposite. Please watch and share!
Revisioning Democracy Podcast
Episode #5: Stopping the Soft Coup
Join us at 7 pm EST this Friday, Oct 25, for the fifth episode of our Revisioning Democracy Podcast on the theme: Stopping the Soft Coup. Podcast is both in person and via livestream.
We’ll discuss Project 2025’s looming threats to weaponize the government – and progress to stop this – with guests Steve Lenkart, Director of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) union; James Goodwin, Executive Director of the Center for Progressive Reform and a regulatory law expert; and Bill Fletcher, labor journalist and author.
We’ll also be looking at the resistance that is needed after the election, regardless of the winner. In person podcast takes place at the Bureau of General Services – Queer Division bookstore, 208 W. 13th St., 2nd fl., NYC. Livestream HERE. Join the conversation!
Take to the Streets
Oct 31st & Nov 2nd
As you race to make calls, send postcards, and knock on doors pre-election, we invite you to join us on Thursday, October 31st in spirited purring solidarity as part of the Cat Ladies contingent at the Greenwich Village, NY, Hallowe’en Parade where the theme is Meow! Cats Against Project 2025! To join the fun, register here.
On Saturday, November 2, gather at the Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, for The Women’s March, 3-6pm. You can join us for some pre-March creative action at 1pm across from the Heritage Foundation, then march with us behind our campaign banner: Stop Project 2025! Register here.
Organize Now for What May Come Later
A last reminder: Project 2025 is designed to unite the far right and intimidate the rest of us. A first step to resisting autocracy is to avoid being silenced or withdrawing, fearing future attacks. That gives the right an undeserved victory. As the saying goes, the greatest defense is offense. Let us unite and speak out more loudly, more boldly and intersectionally, than ever.
We all have new allies locally and globally who are very alarmed by Project 2025 and the prospect of Trump 2.0. What will resistance and survival look like if the GOP wins? Let’s fast-track that conversation now, to be ready post-January 20, 2025.
Now is also a great time to build up and expand one’s personal-political support group and talk about a post-election future. Talk to your friends, family, neighbors, and work colleagues, and engage new allies. Host an election potluck, then go vote as a group with friends and neighbors. Organize a post-election one.
What do targeted people in your communities need? Local immigrant groups? LGBTQIA+? What are local steps to help targeted groups or agencies prepare if the GOP wins? The first step is talking about it. As social media posts have reminded many of us for months: We can’t wait for the cavalry to save us. We ARE the cavalry.
Let me close with a note of encouragement and resistance, which reflects the incredible energy we’ve all witnessed across the country, as progressives and newly-minted activists and election advocates of all stripes have risen to meet this political moment, to prevent a possible dictatorship and Project 2025. Regardless of the outcome of the election, millions of Americans and others globally have been freshly mobilized and politicized to defend rule of law and our democracy. We also know it’s unlikely that we’ll know the election results overnight – it may be days or weeks. During that nail-biting time, we invite you to consider and envision your own post-election resistance.
Let’s also elevate our collective dream of a victory for progressive America on election day that will help stop Project 2025. The fight won’t be over, but will call for a major celebration. And then? How to we advance the still-unfilled promise of our battered democracy? How do we build stronger resistance to right-wing populism? As we gather, as we scheme, as we advance on little cat’s feet on Halloween, as we march in DC, the chant remains: our democracy, our civil rights.
In spirited resistance,
Anne-christine d’Adesky
