COLUMN: POINT-COUNTERPOINT: Project 2025 may be necessary for GOP success - Tahlequah Daily Press

COLUMN: POINT-COUNTERPOINT: Project 2025 may be necessary for GOP success | Oklahoma | tahlequahdailypress.com

Project 2025 is created by a conservative organization called the Heritage Foundation, in association with other conservative groups. The project is broken down into what the group refers to as the “four pillars” – policy, personnel, training, and a playbook.

Their policy section includes a book of policy objectives on a vast array of issues. For personnel, some have referred to a “conservative LinkedIn,” where qualified conservatives can post resumes and a conservative administration could find like-minded people to serve alongside them. Training is having that personnel ready for the job, and the playbook is a 180-day outline to hit the ground running.

You can learn more about the project at project2025.org– but let’s discuss why such a project may be necessary for conservatives.

Perhaps it is necessary because in many ways progressives, have already done it. There have only been two Republican administrations in the past 30 years – Bush and Trump. And while Trump no doubt has many flaws, it was Bush who established, enabled, and increased the size of government agencies after 9/11 through the Patriot Act, the National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, among others. Ultimately this strengthened what some now refer to as the “deep state.”

The “deep state” – or more aptly put, the administrative state – is not some shadowy underworld organization with code words and secret handshakes. Nor is it some wild conspiracy theory. It’s simply an unelected bureaucracy that has been built in Washington over decades. Think of Eisenhower’s warning of the “military industrial complex” in 1961. It’s the people who work in the upper echelons of three-letter agencies like the FBI, CIA, DOJ, DOD, DHS, IRS, NSA, and NSC who have no term limits, and are not accountable to the will of the people. And it’s many of these entrenched bureaucrats who saw Trump as a threat to the status quo in 2016.

Before Trump was even elected, FBI agent Peter Strzok was texting FBI lawyer Lisa Page, saying, “We’ll stop him.” and while Trump was president-elect, Chuck Schumer went on “The Rachel Maddow Show” and warned that if “you take on the Intelligence Community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.”

Fast forward nearly four years to when the New York Post broke the story on the Hunter Biden laptop. We soon had more than 50 former senior intelligence officials sign on to a letter, which said the laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” Joe Biden later cited the letter in a presidential debate to convince the American people the laptop story was somehow fabricated. Whistleblower Gary Shapley would later testify the FBI had authenticated the laptop nearly a year earlier.

And last week, I mentioned how Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 was used to surveil members of the Trump campaign. The list could go on. But don’t simply take my word for it; look these instances up for yourself.

So is it not the privilege of presidents to surround themselves with people who will carry out lawful duties instead of attempting to undermine the commander in chief? How can a Republican president – presumably Trump – operate if the administrative state is constantly working against him? and if they truly believe he is “a threat to democracy,” what lengths will they go to in order to stop him?

Project 2025 may be what is needed for conservatives to counter the bureaucrats and wade through “the swamp.” But whatever is done must be done within constitutional bounds, and cannot be weaponized against political opponents as we have seen in the past.

Thomas Sanco is a Cherokee County resident, who deals in vintage cars and parts.