We are a little over 100 days from the November elections. These elections will decide if our democracy, as we know it, survives. Last week, on the House floor, Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) accused the “angry feminist movement” of emasculating men and said the U.S. should “work our way back to where America was in the 1960s,” calling for a return to a time white men exercised virtually complete control of American society.
Also last week, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo) said, “Some will say now that I am calling America a Christian nation. So I am. And some will say that I am advocating Christian Nationalism. And so I do."
Amanda Tyler is the executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Freedom. She sees Christian Nationalism as the greatest threat to democracy and religious freedom. In a recent interview with Joyce Vance on Civil Discourse, Tyler said Christian Nationalism seeks to transform our democracy into an authoritarian theocracy. She said, the movement “seeks to reverse modern advances in areas such as women’s rights and LGBTQ equality, perpetuating a caste system that provides full citizenship rights only to the people who held power at the founding.”
If you have any doubts that Trump and the Republican Party have an extremely radical agenda aiming to lead us towards autocracy, decimating civil rights and reproductive freedom, and turning our country towards extreme Christian Nationalism, I urge you to read Project 2025. This 920-plus page policy roadmap, published by the Heritage Foundation and backed by more than 100 conservative groups, has three core areas:
Structural Regime Change:
• Force out 50K civil servants and replace them with political appointees.
• End independence of the FBI and the Department of Justice, giving the president
• the power to use all resources of the federal government to investigate and
• prosecute anyone, including political opponents.
• Gut the system of checks and balances to consolidate power in the presidency.
Stripping away of fundamental personal freedoms:
• Ban abortion nationwide, including restricting access to contraception, a ban on in vitro fertilization and criminalizing medication abortion.
• Eliminate civil rights protections for millions of Americans, including LGBTQ+ people, women, and people of color.
• Dismantle pro-worker protections, allowing employers to hold down wages, bust unions, and exploit child labor.
• Ban books in the classroom and control what local schools can teach.
Penalizing the middle class and rewarding the wealthy:
• Eliminate overtime pay.
• Raise the retirement age, cutting Social Security benefits for a majority of American workers.
• Increase taxes on middle class and working families.
• Cut corporate taxes from 21% to 18% and cut taxes for the wealthy.
• Ban Medicare from negotiating with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices.
• Eliminate the Department of Education and end more affordable student loan repayment plans.
• Eliminate the Head Start program, closing preschools across the country and stripping comprehensive services for low-income families.
• Force patients to pay more for preventative health services and weaken protections on preexisting health conditions.
• Raise mortgage insurance premiums making it more expensive to buy a home.
Maya Angelou once said, “When someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time.” With Project 2025, conservatives have laid out their vision and we have to believe them. They are marching towards a Christian Nationalist state, a theocracy. And, despite Trump’s recent attempts to distance himself from it, many of his key allies have been directly involved in producing the project and see it as a blueprint for the next Trump presidency. In 2022, speaking at a dinner sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, Trump said, “This is a great group, and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.”
To be able to defend our democracy, our personal freedoms, our work force, climate, voters rights, and much more we must recognize this threat and actively work to combat it. If implemented, it will immediately upend our lives and will have enduring repercussions for future generations. Right now, too many of our family and friends are still unaware, so please help us get the word out and make sure people are paying attention and recognize what’s at stake.
In closing, I want to thank all our WDC members who joined our annual meeting at the end of June. We had the opportunity to hear from Sen Chris Van Hollen and were joined by two outstanding women candidates who need our help to hold the US Senate and retake the House of Representatives: We must make sure Angela Alsobrooks is our next Maryland senator, and that April McCain Delaney wins in Congressional District 6 -- We can’t retake the House if we lose existing Democratic seats! Look out for multiple opportunities to volunteer with both campaigns this summer and into the fall.
Over the past several months WDC has had a series of events on issues ranging from maternal health to climate change and its impact on our economy, to using microfinancing to empower women in the global economy. We have also brought you several candidate forums to provide an opportunity for you to make educated decisions at the ballot box. You can revisit these events on YouTube.
As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions.
Stay Strong. Stay Focused. Stay United.
Tazeen Ahmad, President