Day 3 of reading and sharing my notes on Project 2025 (the long title is Mandate for Leadership 2024: The Conservative Promise, in case you're searching for it). Here’s a description of why I’m doing this and my approach.

SUMMARY

We're still in the foreword, written by Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation. We're starting the section: "Promise #4: Secure our God-Given Individual Right to Enjoy 'the Blessings of Liberty.'"

Roberts argues that the intent of the phrase the "pursuit of Happiness" should be understood as the "pursuit of Blessedness." "That is, an individual must be free to live as his Creator ordained--to flourish. Our Constitution grants each of us the liberty to do not what we want, but what we ought."

MY OPINION

This is an interesting argument, but the Constitution isn't strong on "oughts." It's much more articulate about what the government is not allowed to do and how it should be structured. This is something Roberts does a lot. He writes things that can (and maybe should) be argued, but I think he gets the context wrong.

SUMMARY

This quote continues directly after the one above: "This pursuit of the good life is found primarily in family—marriage, children, Thanksgiving dinners, and the like."

MY OPINION

As someone who was single until 38, I find that statement incredibly alienating.

SUMMARY

He adds other things that make up "the good life"--work, doing a job well done, religious devotion and spirituality, and volunteering. He writes passionately about America's "radical equality" that the rich and powerful have always hated about democracy.

MY OPINION

He says, "Religious devotion and spirituality are the greatest sources of happiness around the world." It's a sweeping statement, but I don't disagree. It raises a huge red flag for me, though, in a document that's about government policy. We'll see where he goes.

SUMMARY

"Left to our own devices, the American people reacted European monarchy and colonialism just as we rejected slavery, second-class citizenship for women, mercantilism, socialism, Wilsonian globalism, Fascism, Communism, and (today) wokeism. To the Left, these assertions of patriotic self-assurance are just so many signs of our moral depravity and intellectual inferiority--proof that, in fact, we need a ruling elite making decisions for us."

MY OPINION

Let's break this down. We didn't just reject slavery. We had to fight a war over it, and there are still people who fly the flag that represents it. We've done better on women (though it took a very long time, left to our own devices), and women still don't make as much money as men. And we've rejected fascism. Really? We have people marching in the streets with Nazi flags. Most of these in the list are not partisan causes, and many are overtly championed by the Left. Certainly no one on the Left is going to see the end of slavery, equality for women, and the end of fascism as "signs of moral depravity." So he should just call it what it is. He doesn't like "wokeness," and he thinks the Left is condescending. Which is fine. He's entitled to his opinion. But he shouldn't ascribe opinions to the Left that they obviously don't have. It's dishonest and undermines his credibility.

SUMMARY

He praises America's culture, liberty, and economic system. "Government should stop trying to substitute its own preferences for those of the people." Those preferences are not defined. I'm guessing we'll get to them in the meat of the document. "And the next conservative President should champion the dynamic genius of free enterprise against the grim miseries of elite-directed socialism."

MY OPINION

I'm curious here. Yesterday I read that corporations are a big problem. Now it's the genius of free enterprise. I think you can hold that paradox, but I hope somewhere there's some explanation of how to fix the problems with corporations while still having free enterprise.

SUMMARY

He says socialism in any of its forms has never ensured equal outcomes for all people. "There is no such thing as 'the government.' There are just people who work for the government and wield its power and who--at almost every opportunity--wield it to serve themselves first and everyone else at a distant second. This is not a failing of one nation or socialist party, but inherent in human nature."

MY OPINION

About the first point, there are some democratic socialist countries in Europe who have ensured more equitable outcomes for all people than we have. It's fine to say that's not how we want to go about it, though.

And the second is another statement that sounds true, and it's hard to argue because it can't be proved or disproved. But anecdotally, I can speak to this. As a reporter, I interviewed a lot of government workers, mostly at the local level, although I also talked to federal reps and senators. People's motives are always mixed. But I can't think of one of them who was there to serve themselves first. Not one. There were lots I disagreed with and a few I didn't like, but I found that most people who go into public service have some notion of the service part of it. But he's absolutely right that the government is just people. That's why it's critical to elect people with character and to pay attention to who they're appointing. And to have robust, enforceable codes of ethics.

SUMMARY

Roberts criticizes hypocritical socialists and environmentalists and points to socialist failures. He argues that the private economy, including charities vs. welfare, is friendlier is because it relies on cooperation. He argues for antitrust enforcement against corporate monopolies.

MY OPINION

How will you have antitrust enforcement if you have dismantled the Administrative State?

SUMMARY

The rest is a recap and summary, along with a call to free speech.

We move into the "Best Effort" section, which is a call for conservatives to unite. The foreword ends, "(italics) The Conservative Promise (end italics) represents the best effort of the conservative movement in 2023--and the next conservative President's last opportunity to save our republic."

That's it for today. Tomorrow we'll be in Section One: Taking the Reins of Government.