By Sheila McNeil, chair of the Madison County Democratic Executive Committee
Education is a great liberator. Liberation leads to freedom. There is a move set to rob this country of its hard-fought-for freedoms, and it’s time for this community to be educated and liberated so that we do not go backward. Someone once said that if you are not going forward, you are going backward.
More than most others, this State knows full well what backward looks and feels like. Alabama, known for being the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement, represents the place where the fight to move away from a past that didn’t embody the true values of America is real. There is a new movement afoot that is sure to erase the progress and growth of the greatest nation on earth. The movement I am speaking of, and one everyone should be knowledgeable about, is Project 2025. While it may have been mentioned in a prior article, it warrants more emphasis and education because of its egregious plan to take the country backward. It’s a movement that will force us into the fight of our lifetime, and to win this fight, we must vote this November like our lives depended on it because it literally does.
Project 2025, defined as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, is a political initiative published by the Heritage Foundation that aims to promote conservative and right-wing policies to reshape the United States federal government and consolidate executive power if Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election. The dismantling and overturning of Row v. Wade and the attack on women’s reproductive rights by a stacked Supreme Court are just the initial examples of the intent of the movement. Some call it a blueprint for a radical executive branch restructuring that would undercut decades of progress and constitutional values.
The truth about Project 2025, if enacted, will have major consequences on our local economy. Huntsville, Alabama, is one of the most recognized cities in the Southeast, and it is consistently named one of the best places to live and work by various national publications. Our city is regularly named a premier location for business and quality of life. If we focus on how Project 2025 will impact the major industries that secure Madison County’s economy, we must find the following very concerning. Project 2025 includes a chapter concerning the Defense Department, which recommends that the president usurp Congress’ constitutional mandate regarding national defense, stating, “The President should examine the recommendations of the congressionally mandated Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution Reform and develop a strategy for implementing those that the Administration considers to be in the best interests of the American people.”
It also aims to reinstate Schedule F, a Trump-era executive order that makes federal employees fireable at will, stripping tens of thousands of employees of civil service protections. The plan includes reducing the number of generals and reinstituting policies barring transgender individuals from serving in the military.
Huntsville is also home to the highest number of Ph.D.s and several educational institutions, all of which will be impacted by Project 2025. The proposal calls for reducing the federal role in education policy, including eliminating the Education Department and refocusing higher education policy on job skills. It also requires all students in schools that receive federal funding to complete the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, the military entrance examination. Eliminating the Department of Education will also have major implications on education funding programs like Pell Grants and student loan forgiveness.
The Project calls for “deleting” a list of terms starting with “sexual orientation and gender identity” as well as “diversity, equity and inclusion,” “reproductive rights,” and a host of similar terms. It’s unclear how it proposes that “deleting” would occur, but the 900 pages make it clear that the federal government would stop using them.
This is just the tip of the iceberg regarding how this policy proposal could intrinsically change life in America as we know it. It’s up to us to save our democracy with our vote this November.
