At the outset of the conservative playbook for Trump’s second term, Project 2025, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts took aim at those who he said use power “to serve themselves first, and others second.” ” leader.
He cited the ease with which North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un rules a poor country, the “billionaire climate activist” who flies on a private jet while criticizing carbon-emitting cars, and two people in California who “have died due to COVID-19.” Shutdown Politicians,” who were seen out and about – a hair salon and an upscale restaurant – while urging voters to stay home.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Gov. Gavin Newsom are mentioned by name in the conservative right’s White House blueprint, as Roberts pits them and California against the out-of-touch coastal elites that are ruining the country. A way of linking ideas together.
The concept is a familiar one in American politics, permeating Project 2025, an outlandish 900-plus-page manifesto released last year by conservative thought leaders and Trump followers.
The idea is also more nuanced in the more agile, 16-page Republican platform spearheaded by Trump and adopted by party officials last week, which criticizes U.S. politicians for “avoiding criticism and their own bad deeds.” consequences of behavior” while their performance was average. Americans suffer.
Roberts and other Heritage Foundation officials were unavailable for comment. A spokesperson for the Heritage Foundation said Project 2025 is the product of more than 100 conservative organizations and “does not represent any candidate or campaign.”
Political experts say the conservative tactic of criticizing “woke” liberal ideas has become particularly useful in the current election cycle, as Trump’s supporters have proven particularly receptive to conservative virtue signaling on issues like abortion, many of which Ideas gained traction in California.
Experts say the strategy will only intensify if President Joe Biden drops out of the Democratic race and is replaced by a California politician such as Newsom or former Senator and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“It’s a crucial angle,” said Jon Michaels, a constitutional law professor at UCLA who is about to publish a book on right-wing authoritarianism. “California became a convenient foil, And California’s excesses are exactly what Republicans can object to.”
Problems
Conservatives have long viewed California as a failing state, collapsing under the weight of out-of-control policing, crime and homelessness, sometimes fairly and sometimes not, and the 2024 race has intensified those attacks .
“There are examples around the world of California going in a different direction than what the Republicans want. [Project 2025] Report – From Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, to China Connections, to High Tech [companies] said Bruce Cain, a political science professor at Stanford University. The aim was to portray a country in chaos, an “undemocratic, condescending country controlled by a high-tech elite and completely disconnected from the rest of the United States.”
Both Project 2025 and the Republican platform envision a second Trump presidency, with federal bureaucrats using the power of the executive branch to push back against a range of California policies — including protections for undocumented immigrants, the environment, union workers, people seeking abortions and Transgender youth.
The Republican platform is sometimes hyperbolic in its rhetoric — like Trump, who helped draft it — and lays out a relatively clear framework for how he plans to govern, in stark contrast to California leaders.
“California becomes a convenient foil, and California’s excesses are exactly what Republicans can object to.”
—Jon Michaels, professor of constitutional law, UCLA
For example, Los Angeles and other major California cities have refused to use police forces or city personnel to enforce immigration laws. Trump’s platform promises to “cut federal funding to these jurisdictions.”
California is reining in oil drilling in the state, with leaders raising concerns about environmental and health impacts. The platform calls on the nation to “Drill, baby, drill.”
California requires schools to offer LGBTQ+-inclusive curricula, and the Democratic-controlled state Legislature just passed a law prohibiting school officials from notifying parents of children who identify as transgender in school if the children do not wish to have the information shared. The platform says Republicans support “parents’ rights” and will “defund schools that engage in inappropriate political indoctrination of our children” or promote “radical gender ideologies.”
Project 2025 is even more vocal in its rebuke of California’s policies.
In the preface to his Plan 2025, Roberts talks a lot about American freedom but defines it clearly within the framework of Christian nationalism, saying the Constitution gives every American the freedom to “live according to the will of the Creator—” Not doing what we want to do, but what we should do.
The plan calls on Trump, if elected, to “make America’s civil society institutions hard targets for woke culture warriors” — a process it says should remove all mentions of queer identity, “diversity, equity and inclusion.” content begins. Abortion or “Reproductive Health” in Federal Legislation and Rules.
The plan calls California and other liberal states “sanctuaries for abortion tourism,” says the Trump administration should “do its utmost to protect unborn babies in every jurisdiction in the United States,” work with Congress to enact anti-abortion laws and require State reporting of abortions provides the federal government with abortion data — including the patient’s state of residence and the “reason” for the procedure.
Critics say such action would give conservative states that ban abortion the power to identify and punish women who travel to liberal states like California to get abortions.
The party platform does not call for a national ban on abortion, which has angered some on the right, but it does support state policies restricting abortion and says Republicans “proudly support family and life.”
Both plans criticize the U.S.’s shift to electric vehicles, with Project 2025 saying the federal government should repeal a waiver that allows California to set its own clean air standards around fuel economy, which has underpinned the state’s move entirely to zero by 2035. Emissions vehicle targets.
The battle ahead
Although Plan 2025 was largely written by prominent advisers and former appointees to Trump, he has recently tried to distance himself from the plan.
Trump wrote in an online post on July 5 that he “knew nothing about it,” but that “some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and terrible.” Even so, he gave the president his blessing. Good luck to the mastermind behind the plan.
“This isn’t Alabama or Mississippi. You’re dealing with a very powerful state with a lot of resources and a will to resist.
——Bruce Cain, professor of political science at Stanford University
The Trump campaign referred questions about Project 2025 and the Republican platform and its relationship to California policies to the Republican National Committee.
Committee spokesperson Anna Kelly said the party’s platform “includes common-sense policies like cutting taxes, securing the border and ending ridiculous policies.” [electric vehicle] empower, secure our elections, defend our constitutional rights, and prevent men from participating in women’s sports” — the last of which is an obvious reference to trans women.
“If reporters find these principles contradictory to the values promoted by California’s leaders,” Kelly wrote, “maybe it’s time for Democrats to evaluate how their state is run.”
Democrats, including Biden, have repeatedly linked Trump to Plan 2025, saying his claims to distance himself from the plan are ridiculous given how many people around him are leading the plan. Harris unveiled Plan 2025 at a campaign event in Las Vegas on Tuesday, noting that it calls for dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, cutting Social Security and banning abortion nationwide.
“If implemented, this plan would be the latest in Donald Trump’s sweeping attack on reproductive freedom,” she said.
Experts say if Biden is replaced by Harris or Newsom – considered the leading candidates amid doubts about Biden’s age and ability to defeat Trump – conservative Ridicule of California and its liberal policies will grow and find a receptive audience in many parts of the country.
A Times survey earlier this year found that 50% of U.S. adults believe California is in decline, and 48% of Republicans say it is “not the real America.”
Experts say California is expected to lead liberal resistance to Trump’s agenda if he wins, as they did during his first term. They say such efforts will be hampered by California’s budget woes and a conservative-leaning Supreme Court, but not eliminated entirely.
“California will fight back, and it has the ability to fight back,” Kaine said. “This isn’t Alabama or Mississippi. You’re dealing with a very powerful state with a lot of resources and a will to resist.
