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“Project 2025” is a far-right manifesto, officially titled “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” produced under the auspices of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and supported by over 100 partner organizations to guide a potential second Trump White House. It lays out a sweeping policy playbook to dismantle our democratic institutions, abolish checks and balances, erode church-state separation, and impose a fascist agenda that violates basic liberties. To counteract this dystopian plot, the Forum’s panel of nationally eminent experts will examine key policy themes in Trump’s Project 2025 and expose their prospective painful ramifications on American lives.

SPEAKERS:

• Anne Nelson, Prize-winning author and journalist, research scholar at the Columbia School for International and Public Affairs and member of the Council on Foreign Relations currently on a national tour speaking about the documentary Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy, largely based on her book Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right, will address social issues affected by implementation of Project 2025, including irreversible climate and environmental policy threats and the likelihood of their implementation under a Republican administration.
• Dean Baker, Senior Economist and Co-founder of The Center for Economic and Policy Research, will reveal the many contradictory and/or impossible Project 2025 economic policy items, such as balancing the budget while cutting taxes, maintaining and/or increasing military spending while not touching social security and Medicare, and the certainty that a second Trump administration will lower taxes for rich people and corporations.
• Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works, and the convening member of the Strengthen Social Security Coalition comprised of more than 340 national and state organizations representing over 50 million Americans, will discuss that in his first-term efforts to undermine Social Security, Donald Trump attempted to unilaterally seize its dedicated revenue – a move without precedent – and that the authoritarian power Project 2025 intends to confer on Trump will enable him to more easily fulfill many of the long-stated goals of the conservative movement including the destruction of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
• Matthew Duss, Executive Vice President at the Center for International Policy and previous foreign policy advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders, will explain how Project 2025 describes a US foreign policy that refuses to learn the lessons of the last twenty years – prioritizing military intervention over diplomacy, increasing America’s nuclear arsenal in defiance of important treaty obligations, and defunding important development and humanitarian aid efforts that contribute to global security and stability. In short, it’s a recipe for more war.
• Jason Stanley, The Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and bestselling author of six books, including How Fascism Works, How Propaganda Works, and Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future, writes about authoritarianism, democracy, propaganda, and free speech, and will emphasize the global threat of fascism, authoritarian attacks on education, and the urgency for action to defend democracy in the USA and globally.

MODERATOR:

• Sandra J. Klassen, FCDC National Affairs Committee Chair

COSPONSORS:

Accomack County Democratic Committee, Alexandria Democratic Committee, Arlington County Democratic Committee, Charlottesville Democratic Committee, City of Fairfax Democratic Committee, Clarke County Democratic Committee, Culpeper County Democratic Committee, Essex•Richmond County Democratic Committee, Fauquier County Democratic Committee, Gloucester County Democratic Committee, Goochland Democratic Committee, Greene County Democrats, Halifax County Democratic Committee, Hampton Democratic Committee, Hanover Democratic Committee, Loudoun County Democratic Committee, Madison County Democratic Committee, Manassas and Manassas Park Cities Democratic Committee, Martinsville-Henry County Democratic Committee, New Kent County Democratic Committee, Newport News Democratic City Committee, Nottoway County Democratic Committee, Orange County Virginia Democratic Committee, Powhatan County Democratic Committee, Prince Edward Democratic Committee, Prince William County Democratic Committee, Richmond City Democratic Committee, Roanoke City Democratic Committee, Lexington Rockbridge County and Buena Vista (LexRockBV) Democratic Committee, Scott County Democratic Committee, Shenandoah County Democratic Committee, Southampton County Democratic Committee, Stafford County Democratic Committee, Tazewell County Democratic Committee, The Bedford Democratic Committee, Virginia Beach Democratic Committee, Warren County Democratic Committee

This is a free event; donations to FCDC are much appreciated.