Two paths confront the American people. One path is the continuation of a constitutional democracy with all its shortcomings and weaknesses. The other is the path of Trumpian dictatorship, the path of a MAGA future. It is no longer possible to pretend this formulation is some hyperbolic hysteria from the left of the political spectrum. “Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership," the creation of the MAGA Heritage Foundation, removes any illusions that there is some third path available for this country, and perhaps the entire world. Project 2025 is indeed the blueprint for a MAGA dictatorship under the command of Donald Trump.
With the recent Supreme Court decisions on abortion, voting rights, the use of regulatory agencies of the Federal government, and now the hideous expansion of presidential immunity, the outcome is clear: We will no longer be living in a democracy should the MAGA forces win this Fall. Our political, social, cultural and economic rights will be stripped bare. This attack isn’t limited to the unionized workforce; it is an attack against all working people, regardless of union status.
To illustrate this possible reality, one need only examine the role of organized labor and the part it currently plays in society. Project 2025 is approximately 900 pages long. 37 are dedicated to the agencies of the Federal government that regulate labor management relations and which protect the economic and social rights of the working people. Here is a list of some changes proposed in Project 2025:
- Revision and reinterpretation of the National Labor Relations Board definition of protected pro-union activity;
- Giving the Office of Labor Management Standards the green light to investigate union activity without receiving any allegations or complaints;
- Elimination of card check in organizing campaigns; mandating secret ballots as the only way to form a union
- Eliminating the the first contract ratification Bar rule which prevents decertification of the union one year after organizing and 3 years after the first contract
- Turning national labor laws into ”negotiable defaults” rather then enforceable requirements, thus allowing employers to propose sub legal conditions in bargaining
- Allowing local and state governments to ignore federal labor law by providing waivers (opening the way to eliminating prevailing wages, PLA’s and the like);
- A purge of the Federal civil service: politicizing the NLRB, DOL and EEOC, filling open positions with MAGA loyalists.
In 2016, there were many who chose a third-party candidate as a protest against the Clinton campaign. This in spite of the clear reactionary orientation of Trump. They were on the wrong side of history. Trump won and one clear result was a Supreme Court that has become the harbinger of an authoritarian government. The line of thinking at the time was that there was no real difference and that Trump’s bark would be a lot worse than his bite. Today, there is no excuse for such thinking. We can take the path of continuing to struggle for a better world within the confines of a constitutional democracy or we can throw up our hands and give way to a country where lies become the coin of the realm and where government becomes the plaything of a brutal dictatorship where barbarism has no restrictions.
The future can yet be decided by the forces of democracy if we unite and defeat the wolf that is at our door.
You can read and watch more about Project 2025 and how it could impact the lives of workers HERE.