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Vance and the future of the anti-democracy movement

Vance has been anointed its future leader

Robert Reich Oct 3

Trump, Vance, Thiel

Friends,

JD Vance, the Republican candidate for vice president, will almost certainly be the Republican presidential candidate in 2028, regardless of whether Trump wins in November.

But who is JD Vance, really? An opportunist chameleon who once viewed Donald Trump as “Hitler” and is now his pit bull? 

Or does Vance have an agenda over and above mere political ambition?

In one of the most important exchanges of Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, Vance refused to say that Trump lost the 2020 election, and he downplayed the violent events of January 6, 2021. Vance also declined to rule out challenging the outcome of the upcoming election even if votes were certified by every state leader as legitimate.

Trump picked Vance for his vice president because Vance publicly stated he’d do what Mike Pence refused to do: overturn democracy and place America under MAGA control.

In response to a question ABC’s George Stephanopoulos put to Vance last February — “Had you been vice president on January 6th, would you have certified the election results?” — Vance said:

“If I had been vice president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia, and so many others that we needed to have multiple slates of electors, and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there.”

In 2020, Vance alleged that the 2020 election was stolen and that Biden’s immigration policy meant “more Democrat voters pouring into this country.” In 2022, he suggested that Democrats were attempting to “transform the electorate” amid an immigrant “invasion.”

Echoing the so-called “great replacement theory,” Vance told voters, “You’re talking about a shift in the democratic makeup of this country that would mean we never win, meaning Republicans would never win a national election in this country ever again.”

In contrast to Trump, who has no ideology except accumulating power and wealth for himself and taking revenge on those who would deny them to him, Vance does have an ideology. He’s the emerging leader of the anti-democracy movement in America.

Vance would never have become a senator from Ohio in 2022 were it not for billionaire tech financier Peter Thiel, who staked $15 million on Vance’s election — a major portion of all the funds that went into Vance’s race.

Thiel knew what he was buying. Vance had worked for Thiel’s California venture capital firm before running for the Senate and was part of Thiel’s libertarian community of rich crypto bros, tech executives, back-to-the-landers, and disaffected far-right intellectuals.

Because Thiel had been a major funder of Trump’s 2016 presidential run, he had significant influence with the former president when urging Trump to pick Vance for his vice president.

Why has Thiel been such a strong sponsor of Vance? Because Thiel sees in his protege a future leader of a political movement to turn America away from democracy. “For Peter,” said one of the people familiar with his thinking, “Vance is a generational bet.”

Thiel is a self-styled libertarian who once wrote: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”

Hello? Freedom is incompatible with democracy only if you view democracy as a potential constraint on your wealth and power.

That’s the point. Thiel and Vance — along with Elon Musk, Steve Bannon, Blake Masters, tech entrepreneur David Sacks, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, Palantir adviser Jacob Helberg, Sequoia Capital’s Doug Leone, blogger Curtis Yarvin, and others in the anti-democracy movement — believe that the only way true libertarians can win in America is for a Caesar-like figure to wrest power from the American establishment and install a monarchical regime, run like a startup.

Yarvin comes as close as anyone to being the intellectual godfather of the anti-democracy movement. He has written that real political power in the United States is held by a liberal amalgam of universities and the mainstream press, whose commitment to equality and justice is eroding social order.

In Yarvin’s view, democratic governments are inefficient and wasteful; they should be replaced with sovereign joint-stock corporations whose major “shareholders” select an executive with total power, who serves at their pleasure. Yarvin refers to the city-state of Singapore as an example of a successful authoritarian regime.

How to achieve Yarvin’s vision? The first step, as Vance offered in a 2021 podcast, is to replace “every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state … with our people. And when the courts stop you, stand before the country, and say—” as did Andrew Jackson — that “the chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.”

Vance has been anointed by Thiel and the rest of the anti-democracy movement as the post-Trump president, tasked with replacing the American establishment with an authoritarian regime.

Make no mistake: The foundation for America’s first true anti-democracy president is being laid right now. 

PUBLIC CITIZEN: a supernova that burns everything to ash

 

What types of businesses come to mind when you think about corporate money in politics?

Big Oil?

Big Pharma?

Wall Street?

Big Tech?

All true.

But a newcomer is putting those veterans to shame when it comes to the obscene amounts of money Corporate America spends corrupting our elections.

• As detailed in a recent Public Citizen report, the cryptocurrency sector alone is responsible for essentially half (48%) of ALL the disclosed corporate money lavished on political candidates so far this year.

• In other words, the crypto kingpins are spending virtually as much to distort our democracy as all other Big Businesses combined!

• Crypto is currency that exists only as digital (i.e. computer) files. It is not backed up by any government and so far it is largely unregulated. Bitcoin may be the most well known example.

• With the crypto “industry” spending so much so fast, those old-timers — Big Oil, Big Pharma, Wall Street, Big Tech, and more — will surely ramp up their spending beyond even the insane levels we’ve already seen from them.

• And we can only imagine the untold amounts they are spending in the shadows using dark money conduits.

• So the absolute dumpster fire of corporate money in politics could very well become a veritable supernova that burns everything to ash.

All of this, of course, was set off by the Supreme Court’s infamously anti-democratic Citizens United ruling back in 2010.

Public Citizen called for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United within moments of the decision being handed down. We’ve also consistently fought for disclosure of the secret spending that was unleashed by the ruling. And we’ve been a leader in the fight against corporate money in politics ever since.

Add your name today in support of a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and get corporate money out of politics.

Because winning a constitutional amendment can take years or even decades, we have to keep demanding it — over and over and over — until we get it.

So please add your name today even if you’ve taken action before in support of a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.

Click to add your name now.

Thanks for taking action.

For democracy,

- Robert Weissman & Lisa Gilbert, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen
 
 

Donate | Public Citizen | 1600 20th Street NW | Washington DC 20009 

****MUST READ FOR THE LIST OF BILLIONAIRES****** Billionaires for Trump and Vance

NOTE: CHINA HAS BANNED CRYPTO FOR NATIONAL SECURITY REASONS! 

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman speaks at The New York Times DealBook Conference at Jazz at Lincoln Center on November 10, 2016 in New York City.

 (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for The New York Times )

Billionaires for Trump and Vance

Here they are. They have names. They have billions. And they're the leading American oligarchs backing the ticket that wants to kick the working class and poor people in the face.

No matter who may be supporting them in public opinion polls, Donald Trump and JD Vance are not the saviors of the middle class, the working, class, or the poor. They are not the champions of Blacks, whites, Latinos, men, women or any other demographic group. Their policy proposals won’t even benefit better off but not rich Americans. They are the candidates of casino, real estate, fossil fuel, and tech billionaires. Many are affiliated with Trump 47 or one of the other pro-Trump Super PACs.

I am a union member and have been since I started working as a teenager in the 1960s and I support the Harris-Walz ticket. I think it is a moral transgression in this election to vote for any down ballot Republican candidate that appears on the same line as Trump and Vance. The Democrats must win the House and Senate and local elections to stop the billionaire financed anti-democracy MAGA movement.

Below, in alphabetical order, is a list and description of some of the Trump-Vance team’s key super-wealthy supporters. It is a billionaire’s club.

Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman is the chief executive and portfolio manager of Pershing Square Capital Management. Ackman demanded that Trump resign after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, but now endorses Trump. Ackman is a leading crusader against DEI policies and what he perceives of as a wave of antisemitism on college campuses. He played a leading role in forcing Harvard President Claudine Gray to resign, in getting New York City Mayor Eric Adams to use police to breakup protests at Columbia University against Israel’s action in Gaza and contributed to SuperPACs that defeated progressive candidates in Democratic Party primaries because they criticized Israel. Forbes estimates Ackman’s net worth at over $9 billion.

Casino magnates Miriam Adelson and her deceased husband, Sheldon Adelson, were Trump's biggest donors in 2020. They contributed $90 million to the pro-Trump SuperPAC Preserve America. Adelson is the wealthiest Israeli citizen and one of the fifty wealthiest people in the world. She pledged $100 million to Trump’s 2024 campaign in exchange for his promise that if he is elected President the United States would recognize Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, torpedoing any possible of an independent Palestinian state.

Marc Lowell Andreessen is a Silicon Valley tech businessman, former software engineer, member of the Facebook Board of Directors, and worth $1.8 billion. In 2016 he endorsed Hillary Clinton for President because of Trump’s anti-immigrant stance, but he is now donating mega-bucks to SuperPACs supporting Trump, hoping to secure policies that favor his investments.

Scott Bessent is founder of the global investment firm Key Square Group with an investment portfolio of $8 billion. Previously Bessent was the Chief Investment Officer of Soros Fund Management, a much more liberal company. At some point, Bessent changed his stripes, and he is now a co-chair of Trump 47, a Republican Party fundraising group in Palm Beach, Florida. Bessent is considered a possible Secretary of the Treasury if Trump is elected.

Robert Thomas Bigelow owns Budget Suites of America and is founder of Bigelow Aerospace. He is a notorious conspiracy theorists providing financial support for investigating UFOs and paranormal phenomena including consciousness after death. Bigelow has originally a DeSantis supporter but switched to Trump when DeSantis dropped out of the race. Bigelow gave Trump a million dollars to help with his legal fees and promised to give $20 million to pro-Trump Super PACs. Bigelow’s net worth is $1.5 billion.

Robert H. Book is chairman of Book Capital Enterprises and Jet Support Services, and a Vice Chairman of Axxes Capital. His net worth is only half a billion dollars so he may not belong on this list. Book, a major philanthropist in support of Israel, was critical of Trump in 2017 for not forcibly condemning neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville, Virginia. However, in 2020 he gave over a million dollars to the Trump Victory Committee.

Timothy Dunn is the CEO of the fossil fuel company CrownQuest Operating. Dunn contributed to the Trump 2020 campaign and in 2023 he gave $5 million towards the 2024 campaign. He's an active donor in rightwing Texas politics, giving approxinately $10 million to the conservative Defend Texas Liberty PAC. He co-founded a Christian school where he is on the board of trustees and teaches Sunday school. Dunn opposes abortion, same-sex marriage. and adoptions by same sex couples. He is worth an estimated 2.2 billion.

José Fanjul is a Cuban American a sugar magnate with investments in Domino Sugar and real estate who gave over $800,000 to the Trump 47 Committee and hosted a Trump fundraiser. Fanjul’s company received an estimated $65 million in federal agricultural subsidies that he uses political influence to protect. The family’s business interests are valued at over $8 billion.

Kenneth Griffin is a hedge fund manager who gave $10 million to the House Republican Super PAC and $5 million to the Senate Republican Super PAC. Griffin initially backed Nikki Haley for the 2024 Republican nomination and called Trump a “three-time loser,” but is now prepared to endorse Trump. Griffin is worth about $35 billion.

Harold Hamm, executive chair of Continental Resources, is an oil and gas magnate heavily invested in fracking who is worth $18.5 billion. Hamm is part of the Koch brothers rightwing donor network. He contributed $320,000 to the 2020 Trump campaign and organized a major Trump fundraiser with the fossil fuel industry.

Diane Marie Hendricks and her deceased husband were major supporters of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Her net worth is over $20 billion. From 2014 to 2016, she gave millions of dollars to a Republican Super PAC created by the Koch Brothers and in 2020 Hendricks contributed $1.1 million to Trump’s presidential campaign. She spoke at the 2024 Republican Party National Convention and is also a financial supporter of Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Hendricks’ investment in Trump paid off bigtime. She saved $36 million in income taxes from a provision in the 2017 Trump tax cut.

Benjamin Horowitz is a co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz along with Marc Lowell Andreessen and is personally worth $3.5 billion. He pledged to give money to the 2024 Trump campaign.

Robert “Woody” Johnson is co-owner of the New York Jets football team and an heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company. He is worth an estimated $10 billion. Johnson was a co-financial chair of the Republican Party during Trump’s 2016 campaign and was appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom when Trump was elected. During the 2024 campaign, Johnson has already given over a million dollars to Trump Super PACs.

Doug Leone is a partner at and former head of Sequoia Capital. Forbes magazine estimates he is worth $8.4 billion. In 2021, Leone said Trump lost his support because of the January 6 attack on the Capitol, but he is now back on the Trump bandwagon. He gave $2 million to the Right for America Trump Super PAC and $1 million to the America PAC.

Joe Lonsdale is a technology entrepreneur and investor and co-founder of Palantir worth about half a billion dollars. He donates to Trump through the Super PAC America Pac.

Howard Lutnick is CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and has a net worth of an estimated $1.5 billion. Lutnick has hosted New York metro area fundraisers for Trump in his home since 2019.

Omeed Malik, who formerly supported Ron DeSantis, changed track and pledged to raise over $3 million and donate at least $100,000 to the Trump campaign. Malik is president of 1789 Capital and CEO of Farvahar Partners. He has an estimated net worth of $6.15 billion.

Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus supported Trump for President in 2016 and 2020 and announced he would support Trump again even if he were convicted of crimes. He gave the Trump campaign $25 million in 2020. Marcus, who is worth almost $9 billion, originally supported DeSantis this round and then Haley, but he is now boosting Trump again. He said his donations to the 2024 Trump campaign would be “in line” with past contributions.

Vincent and Linda McMahon are professional wrestling promoters. The McMahons gave $5 million to the Donald J. Trump Foundation. Linda was appointed administrator of the federal Small Business Administration during the Trump administration and spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention. The McMahon’s have a combined net worth of $3.2 billion.

Timothy Mellon is a descendant of the founder of the Mellon Bank and railroad interests. The bank, under different names, today manages about $50 trillion in assets and the current generation of the family is worth about $15 billion. Mellon is a major Trump supporter. In April 2020, he gave $10 million to Trump’s America First Action Super PAC, and he has pledged $75 million to elect Trump in 2024. He also contributed $25 million to the independent candidacy of Robert Kennedy. Mellon is the definition of rightwing weirdo. He posted online comparing climate scientists to ISIS, is a COVID anti-vaxxer, donated to build a Southern wall, and issued statements that led to him being accused of racism.

Robert and Rebeka Mercer (his daughter and fellow conservative activist) Pappa Mercer was an artificial intelligence proponent and co-chair of the Renaissance Technologies hedge fund. Mercer has a string of companies based in the Caribbean that he uses to avoid paying American income taxes. Among his rightwing activities, he contributed to the Brexit campaign for Great Britain to leave the European Union, works with Koch brother’s groups, financially supported Breitbart News, donated to the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, labels civil rights acts as racist, and helped fund JD Vance’s Ohio Senate campaign. Daughter Rebekah is in charge of the Mercer Family Foundation. She home schooled her children, is on the Heritage Foundation Board of Trustee, was on the 2016 Trump transition team, and works closely with Steve Bannon who she introduced to Trump. Pappa Mercer is probably worth a little less than a billion dollars.

Elon Musk is going all in to elect Trump, providing money through his private pro-Trump Super PAC and free publicity on his social media site including an interview scheduled for posting on August 12. Musk reportedly pledged to contribute $45 million a month to his America PAC, which has already been accused of using data from a subterfuge voting registration drive to aid the Trump campaign. After Musk purchased Twitter, which he rebranded X, there was a surge of antisemitic and racist postings on the platform. Musk himself has also posted or retweeted hateful conspiracy theories, targeted Anthony Fauci, and made fun of people using gender pronouns. It is estimated that Musk is worth over $200 billion.

Chamath Palihapitiya, an early senior executive at Facebook, is a champion of digital currency and a competitive poker player. He co-hosted a San Francisco fund raiser for Trump with David Sacks that raised $12 million and promotes Trump on his podcast. Palihapitiya’s net worth is estimated at $1.2 billion.

Geoffrey Palmer is a Los Angeles-based real estate developer and competitive polo player worth $3.1 billion. His company contributed $5 million to Trump’s 2016 campaign, and he has hosted fundraisers for each of Trump’s campaigns. This round he gave $2 million to Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC and $814,600 to the Trump 47 Committee. He was also a major financer of efforts to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom.

John Paulson, net worth $3.5 billion, made his money from the 2008 housing market collapse. He was an early supporter of Trump in 2016, has already raised $50 million for the Trump 2024 campaign, and is another potential Treasury Secretary.

Hedge fund broker Nelson Peltz stated that he regretted voting for Trump after the Capitol attack, but he is now hosting Trump fund raisers at his Palm Beach, Florida mansion, although he says he is not happy about it. Peltz is worth $1.6 billion.

Isaac Perlmutter is an Israeli American billionaire who has had stakes in several companies including Revco drug stores, Remington gun manufacturers, and Marvel Entertainment. He is a friend and unofficial advisor to Trump who helped oversee the Department of Veterans Affairs when Trump was President. Isaac and his wife Laura Perlmutter gave Trump almost $2 million in 2016, and Laura was part of Trump’s inauguration planning committee. In 2024, the Perlmutters have already contributed $10 million to Trump’s Right for America Super PAC. Isaac and Laura Perlmutter live near Mar-a-Lago in Florida and are worth over $4 billion.

Vivek Ramaswamy originally ran against Trump in Republican primaries but then endorsed him and was awarded with a spot at the Republican National Convention. Ramaswamy opposes affirmative action, abortion rights, and birthright citizenship. During his campaign he called the “climate change agenda a hoax” and for raising the voting age to 25. He has endorsed conspiracy theories that the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was a “inside job” and questioning the official story about the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center. He made his money in pharmaceuticals and is worth about a billion dollars.

Todd Ricketts is a co-owner of the Chicago Cubs, a TD Ameritrade board member, and a former Republican Party finance chair. Since 2016 he has been a Trump fundraiser and was chair of the Trump Victory Committee in 2020. The Ricketts family is worth over $4 billion.

Phil Ruffin, a casino magnate, is a longtime associate and business partner of Trump who was with Trump at the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow. Ruffin, worth $2.6 billion, contributed $2 million to Trump’s MAGA Inc. Super PAC and more than $800,000 to Trump 47.

Tech investor, podcast host, and venture capitalist David Sacks spoke opening night of the Republican National Convention. on Monday, co-hosted a fundraiser for Trump in San Francisco. Sacks, a former chief operating officer at PayPal, is now a big promoter of crypto currency along with JD Vance. Sacks supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, recently toyed with support for Robert Kennedy, but is now a prominent Trump fund raiser.

Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, a longtime friend of Trump, was chairman of his Strategic Policy Forum when Trump was President. In that role he marshalled billionaires to support Trump tax cuts and economic policies. Schwarzman denounced the January 6 attack on the Capitol Building as an “insurrection” and an “affront to the democratic values we hold dear” and in 2022 he announced he would not support Trump for reelection however Schwarzman is now a Trump supporter and fundraiser again. He is worth $39 billion.

Paul Singer is a hedge fund manager with a net worth of over $6.1 billion. His specialty is buying the debt of poor countries and then forcing them to pay. Singer and the workforce at his company, Elliott Management are a top source of contributions to the National Republican Committee. Singer has contributed to the political efforts of the Koch brothers and gave one million dollars to the Trump 2017 inaugural committee. He originally supported Nicki Haley’s 2024 campaign but has now endorsed Trump.

Jeff Sprecher and his wife, former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler are worth over $1 billion. Each contributed over $800,000 to a Trump Super PAC. Sprecher is the former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. (SUCCESSFULLY DEFEATED IN GEORGIA!)

So far Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, has not endorsed Trump again. He contributed a million dollars to the trump 2016 campaign but did not give money in 2020. Thiel, who is gay and part of a same-sex marriage, remains unhappy with Trump and the Republican Party’s focus on hot-button cultural issues. However, he was a major supporter of JD Vance’s Senate campaign and is expected to eventually support the Trump-Vance ticket because of his major investment in crypto currencies. Thiel, the person who introduced Trump to Vance, is worth $4.2 billion.

Richard Uihlein and Elizabeth Uihlein are founders of Uline and Richard is also an heir to Schlitz. They are anti-union, anti-tax, anti-regulation, and anti-gay and transgender rights. Their $10 million contribution to the Trump 2024 Make America Great Again Super PAC is currently the second largest Trump gift. The Uihleins are worth over $6 billion.

Kelcy Warren, the chairman and former CEO of a pipeline company with a net worth of over $6 billion gave over $800,000 to the Trump 47 Committee and $5 million to the MAGA Inc. super PAC.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss each gave over $1 million to the Trump 47 Committee and $250,000 to the America PAC. The twins run the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and are each worth $2.7 billion. When endorsing trump, Tyler Winklevoss called him “pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto, and pro-business.”

Steve Wynn was vice-chairman of Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee. He is casino and real estate magnate worth $3.4 billion who is accused of sexual misconduct and acting as a foreign agent for China. Wynn gave over $800,000 to the Trump 47 Committee.

Jeffrey Yass is the co-founder trading and technology company Susquehanna International Group, a major investor in TikTok which is under attack because its parent company is owned by China, and Trump’s sham media company. He has a net worth of $27.6 billion. He is a self-proclaimed libertarian, on the executive advisory council of the Cato Institute, and an advocate for charter schools and vouchers. Yass is one of the largest Republican Party deep pockets and contributed to several candidates challenging the results of the 2020 Presidential election.

COMMON DREAMS

 

'Truly Horrifying': Trump Allies Already Making List of Federal Employees to Target

"This is an intimidation tactic to try to menace federal workers and sow fear," said the American Federation of Government Employees.

A right-wing organization allied with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and funded by the group behind Project 2025 has reportedly begun assembling a list of federal employees deemed potentially disloyal to the former president, an effort that is drawing comparisons to the McCarthyite crusades of the 1950s.

The American Accountability Foundation (AAF), headed by former Republican Senate staffer Tom Jones, is "digging into the backgrounds, social media posts, and commentary of key high-ranking government employees, starting with the Department of Homeland Security," The Associated Press reported Monday.

The group, according to AP, is "relying in part on tips from his network of conservative contacts, including workers." AAF, which received a $100,000 grant from the Heritage Foundation—the right-wing group spearheading Project 2025—intends to publish its list online once it's completed.

In its announcement of the $100,000 "innovation prize," the Heritage Foundation said the award would support AAF researchers as they work to "alert Congress, a conservative administration, and the American people to the presence of anti-American bad actors burrowed into the administrative state and ensure appropriate action is taken." 

 GIGI SOHN belonged on the FCC

SMEAR is what these groups are known for

DEMOCRACY can't afford these tactics! 

 PROJECT 2025 is ANTI-GOVERNMENT, ANTI-AMERICAN....

Heritage proudly noted that AAF contributed to the smear campaign that derailed Gigi Sohn, President Joe Biden's erstwhile nominee to serve on the Federal Communications Commission.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the nation's largest federal workers union, condemned AAF's initiative as "an intimidation tactic to try to menace federal workers and sow fear."

"Civil servants are required take an oath to the Constitution—not a loyalty test to a president," the union wrote on social media.

During his final weeks in office, Trump signed an executive order establishing an entirely new category of federal employees known as "Schedule F." Before Biden rescinded the order shortly after taking office in 2021, tens of thousands of federal workers were to be reassigned to the new category, under which they would lose employment protections typically afforded to career civil servants—making them far easier to fire.

Trump has made clear that, if he beats Biden in November, he intends to revive the Schedule F order as part of a broader effort to bend the federal government to his will and target his political enemies.

"We will pass critical reforms making every executive branch employee fireable by the president of the United States," Trump said during a rally in South Carolina in March 2022, before he formally launched his 2024 campaign. "The deep state must and will be brought to heel."

Axios has reported that Trump's "top allies are preparing to radically reshape the federal government if he is reelected, purging potentially thousands of civil servants and filling career posts with loyalists to him and his 'America First' ideology."

"The public list-making conjures for some the era of Joseph McCarthy, the senator who conducted grueling hearings into suspected communist sympathizers during the Cold War," AP reported. "The hearings were orchestrated by a top staffer, Roy Cohn, who became a confidant of a younger Trump."

AP noted that while AAF "won't necessarily be recommending whether to fire or reassign the federal workers it lists," the group's work "aligns with Heritage's far-reaching Project 2025 blueprint for a conservative administration." The blueprint states that Trump's Schedule F order "must be reinstituted."

Skye Perryman, CEO of the watchdog group Democracy Forward, told the outlet that AAF's plans recall some of "the darker parts of American history."

Echoing AFGE, Perryman said Trump's allies are trying to "chill the work of these civil servants" as part of a "retribution agenda."

"They're seeking to undermine our democracy," she added.

Then-U.S. President Donald Trump shushed journalists before signing legislation in the Rose Garden at the White House June 5, 2020 in Washington, D.C. 

(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

COMMON DREAMS

disappointed but not surprised

 AIPAC & ITS NUMEROUS TENTACLES ARE KNOWN ANTI-DEMOCRACY GROUPS 
THAT HAVE PREVIOUSLY ADVERTISED LIES & FALSE CLAIMS TO DEFEAT TARGETED  CANDIDATES 

THEY HAVE VOWED TO SPEND $25 MILLION TO DEFEAT JAMAAL BOWMAN WITH AN UNINFORMED PUPPET TO DO THEIR BIDDING - AN OUTRAGEOUS AMOUNT IN A CONGRESSIONAL PRIMARY

EQUALLY PATHETIC IS CORPORATE SHILL HILLARY CLINTON ENDORSMENT IN THIS RACE 

PLEASE SUPPORT JAMAAL BOWMAN! 

We've been screaming this for months now:

CHIP IN NOW

And even though AIPAC wouldn't own up to it, it's right there in print: The majority of the GOP money that's infiltrating this race is from AIPAC.

They're MAGA-aligned and they cannot deny that.

As for my opponent? He was hand-selected by them to defeat me. They didn't pick him for his record, or his ideas, or his ability to get important work done.

They chose him because he'd do whatever they'd say. It's despicable.

Our election is less than 2 weeks away, so this is extremely critical. Will you please rush an urgent contribution to help me take on AIPAC and continue delivering for you, the people who matter most?

If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:

$5

$15

$25

$50

$100

OTHER

Keep fighting,
JB

  

PAID FOR BY BOWMAN FOR CONGRESS

. Our campaign is powered by grassroots supporters chipping in to emails just like this one. 

To contribute via check, please address to: Bowman for Congress, 81 Pondfield Rd, Suite D 351 Bronxville, NY, 10708

 

Will you sign the petition to expose Project 2025 and stop right-wing authoritarianism?

 

Eliminating Social Security, Medicare, corporate regulations, environmental protections, LGBTQ+ rights, and abortion. This is the MAGA agenda. It's called "Project 2025."

If you've heard of Project 2025, the MAGA blueprint for a second Trump presidency, and are freaked out, you're not alone. This week, House Democrats came together to launch the Stop Project 2025 Task Force, to raise the alarm about the threats of this concrete plan if Trump win this November and fight back against it before it's too late.¹ 

Trump's first term was chaotic and incompetent. But this time, MAGA is prepared with a detailed plan to quickly seize power and ruthlessly reshape America. Project 2025 is a 920-page document, authored by Christian nationalists, corporate oligarchs, and militaristic authoritarians at the Heritage Foundation, that provides a step-by-step blueprint for how to impose the MAGA agenda on every aspect of Americans' lives.²

Eliminating and gutting Social Security and Medicare, corporate regulations, environmental protections, rights for LGBTQ+ people and religious minorities, contraception and IVF, and more—some of the freedoms and protections that are under attack with detailed policy proposals for executive action and legislation. Project 2025 is a wake-up call about what's at stake in this election. 

Democrats have signaled where they stand on this antidemocratic plan to strip us of our freedoms. Now we deserve to know where the rest of our elected leaders stand on this extreme, dangerous blueprint. It's time we expose this dystopian MAGA plan and demand that all Republicans in Congress go on record with their position on Project 2025.

Will you sign the petition to demand that all Republican members of Congress publicly reject Project 2025 and urge all Democrats to do all they can to keep shining a bright light on these extreme policies? While this plan is widely supported by conservatives, including active leaders in the Trump campaign, Republicans in Congress have been silent. It's time for them to share their positions on Project 2025.

We demand that all Republicans in Congress publicly state their positions on Project 2025. As constituents and voters, we deserve to know their positions on this extreme agenda ahead of the November election.

The Stop Project 2025 effort is led by California Democrat Representative Jared Huffman, and he's part of a growing group of Democrats sounding the alarm about Project 2025. During a congressional hearing, now captured in a viral TikTok video, Representative Ayanna Pressley clearly stated, "Project 2025 is a far-right manifesto. It is a 1,000 page bucket list of extremist policies that would uproot every government agency and disrupt the lives of every person who calls this country home." Rep. Pressley warned that, if the policies were enacted, the Department of Education would be eliminated and the Department of Justice "would go on a murder spree," expanding the use of the death penalty.⁴ 

In a taunting response to the launch of the Democratic task force, the president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, said “Project 2025 will not be 'stopped,'" adding that Democrats are "more than welcome to try. We will not give up, and we will win."⁵ 

Project 2025 details a concerted plan for how the MAGA movement seeks to control us and take us backward. Instead of representing "We the People," they want to rule over us and for their corporate interests. 

Let's be clear: The most effective way to stop Project 2025 is to defeat Trump in November. But it's critical that members of Congress do everything in their power to prepare and raise the alarm about this dangerous proposal. 

Please add your name to the petition to demand that all Republican members of Congress go on the record and reject Project 2025. This dystopian, discriminatory, undemocratic plan must be exposed and rejected.

Thanks for all you do.

–Kelsey, Erik, Alexis, Alyssa, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "House Democrats step up to try to stop Project 2025 plans for a Trump White House," AP News, June 11, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/193965?t=6&akid=393326%2E3735812%2EVQ27__

2. "A guide to Project 2025, the extreme right-wing agenda for the next Republican administration," Media Matters, March 20, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/189537?t=8&akid=393326%2E3735812%2EVQ27__

3. "House Democrats step up to try to stop Project 2025 plans for a Trump White House," AP News, June 11, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/193965?t=10&akid=393326%2E3735812%2EVQ27__

4. Post on TikTok by Representative Ayanna Pressley, May 23, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/193967?t=12&akid=393326%2E3735812%2EVQ27__

5. "House Democrats step up to try to stop Project 2025 plans for a Trump White House," AP News, June 11, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/193965?t=14&akid=393326%2E3735812%2EVQ27__

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