The discussion of civil war primarily comes from groups like Project 2025, which has received considerable press attention over the last couple of years. The issue is, does Project 2025 exist because America is a failed state or because Project 2025 is a profoundly anti-American psyops operation?
State of The United States of America
The United States has never been richer. We have some of the world’s highest household incomes, one of the best-educated populations, and a life expectancy in line with other developed countries. We haven’t missed any elections, and our military is by far the strongest in the world. We are the only global superpower.
There are some challenges: housing is ridiculously expensive, the government doesn’t fund higher education like it used to, 10% of Americans lack health insurance, and our gun laws and inequality lead to a higher homicide rate than one would expect from a highly developed democracy. These are solvable problems.
Our quality of life, on average, is among the best in the world. America is the opposite of a failed state; we are a highly developed country, not only that but the only global superpower today.
So why do people feel like we are behind? Why do people talk about revolution?
The first thing is that our rapidly growing economy has caused massive social shifts over the last 20 years. Gay marriage is legal, people are talking about police brutality in national media, and our country is fundamentally better off than we were 30 years ago.
If the United States were to deepen ties with our allies, we would be unstoppable.
Response to Obama
President Obama was one of the most significant presidents in our history, not just because he was our first African American president. Major civil rights advances were made regarding LGBT rights, and the stimulus package successfully avoided a long recession that occurred in Europe over the 2010s.
Through a combination of poor leadership at the DNC and pure racism directed against President Obama, we saw significant gains by the Republican Party.
But I do not believe Obama alone is enough of a reason to explain the sudden turn of the Republican Party into the party of Donald Trump. In four years, Mitt Romney went from saying Russia was our biggest threat, and he was correct, to Donald Trump doing Russia’s bidding, according to the Mueller Report. Mitt Romney won the primary in 2012 with over 50% of the vote in a four-horse race.
While Romney and McCain were Republicans, when someone in McCain’s audience claimed Obama was a Muslim, code in their mind for terrorist, McCain responded by saying, “No, he’s a good family man.” While Romney is a Mormon and shares their beliefs regarding gender, he did not attack Obama in the way we saw Trump attack Obama. McCain and Romney did not attack Obama with the same racist attacks we see from the modern Republican Party. Their policies had racism in them, such as the war on drugs and police brutality, but they did not do the crude, blatantly racist behavior that has now become the norm in the Republican Party. Both Romney and McCain won the primaries. McCain was 24 points ahead of his closest opponent, and Romney won a majority of the popular vote in the primary.
Obama does not explain what has happened to the Republican Party by himself. If he did, Romney would not have won the 2012 primary. Racism alone does not explain the swing of the Republican Party over the last ten years into a Russophile party.
Russian propaganda
This is where Russia enters the picture.
Russia is in a very different situation. Oligarchs run its economy while average Russians live in poverty. Their life expectancy is on par with Syria. Their population is shrinking rapidly. Russia is a country in crisis, and there is no way out under its current system.
Putin believes that the way to help Russia survive, at least in the short term, is to conquer Ukraine and other former colonies of Russia, but the United States stands in their way. If the United States kept allowing sovereign states who apply to join NATO, Russia would have nowhere to conquer. The solution to Russia’s problem is to make the United States feel like we are in crisis when we really are not.
Vladimir Putin is using every avenue he can to erode trust in our institutions and create distrust between democracies. The tools are deeply intertwined across both domestic policy and international relations. These tools include:
- Convince right-wing politicians that supporting Ukraine is against an “America first” ideology.
- Manipulating politicians on the left and right to pursue non-solutions to our issues will turn small issues into real problems.
- Manipulate politicians of both stripes that America must embrace protectionism, which weakens our economy and distances us from our allies.
- Support state sponsors of terrorism, such as the Taliban, Syria, and Iran.
- Manipulating Americans into believing China is our biggest enemy while Russia is the one spreading weapons to terrorist groups and dictatorships. We see this in Donald Trump’s rhetoric.
- Convince China to support Russia as relations with America decline as a result of Russian propaganda. China supported Ukrainian territorial integrity in 2014, but now they are arming Russia.
- Support politicians across NATO, such as Viktor Orban and Boris Johnson, who oppose NATO and the European Union.
- Convince states like Serbia that Russia is their protector against a hostile United States. This is, of course, a lie.
- Have their pundits tell Americans how our country is failing daily but never look at the complete picture.
This has been happening ever since Gerard Schröder was in office 20 years ago. https://www.dw.com/en/putin-and-schr%C3%B6der-a-special-german-russian-friendship/a-55219973
The United States of America is a free democracy with one of the strongest economies in the world. We have seen immense progress in civil rights over the last 15 years, and we were one of the only developed countries not to do austerity after 2008, and our economy shows it.
Again, we have a few issues that need to be dealt with. We need to build housing units to keep up with population growth, deal with climate change, and increase gun control. We also need a public option for health insurance to get our uninsured rate as close to 0 as possible.
But do not be fooled into believing populists who push us away from our friends, which means they are moving us toward corrupt dictators who want to harm our country. They have no real solutions to the problems we face.
Remember that the fundamentals of the American economy are strong. The inflation episode we saw over the last two years was global and focused on the oil market, which was a nice bonus for Putin when he invaded Ukraine. Inflation is almost down to 2% again today. We will hit our target by the end of the year. We also have not fallen into recession over this period, which is remarkable. If America elects a progressive who would reduce tariffs and visa restrictions with NATO allies, Russia would lose significant leverage, and Russians would start to wonder if the propaganda they are being spoonfed is realistic.
Project 2025 is the American wing of Russia’s propaganda machine. Why else would their book Mandate for Leadership include the following:
- Another school of conservative thought denies that U.S. Ukrainian supports in the national security interest of America at all. Ukraine is not a member of the NATO alliance and is one of the most corrupt nations in the region. European nations directly affected by the conflict should aid in the defense of Ukraine, but the U.S. should not continue its involvement. This viewpoint desires a swift end to the conflict through a negotiated settlement between Ukraine and Russia.
- Thus, with respect to Ukraine, continued U.S. involvement must be fully paid for; limited to military aid (while European allies address Ukraine’s economic needs); and have a clearly defined national security strategy that does not risk American lives.
Project 2025 and the rest of the Russian machine have taken over the Republican Party, which is why they support abandoning Afghanistan and Ukraine. They want to continue supporting Israel for purely religious reasons to prepare for the second coming of Jesus. Aside from that, the Republican Party has followed its desire to become an isolationist party.
Parts of the Republican Party will claim Russia is a threat to keep votes, all the meanwhile advocating for reduced support for our allies.
The Heritage Foundation, which was so hawkish in the 2000s, and part of Project 2025, is a dove regarding supporting Ukraine.
This is why Project 2025 exists.
We must understand that Putin’s attempts to undermine democracy and strengthen his authoritarian rule in Russia are larger than any one piece, and one must understand both the domestic and international aspects of the Russian propaganda machine to see the complete picture.
Russia has proven itself to be the most significant threat to democracy in the world time and time again for over 16 years. Project 2025 is their most nefarious project yet, as they have continuously refined their propaganda.
Conclusion
The most effective way to defend our country is to vote in every election for politicians who are not allies with Putin. We need clear-spoken defenders of democracy who, when interviewed by the media, will directly counter Putin’s lies.
As America becomes more prosperous and more free, the ability to roll back progress and go back to a country where civil rights are restricted will disappear.
We must ensure Project 2025 and their support of Donald Trump fail this year as badly as possible. It is a profoundly anti-American organization and must be defeated.
The goal of Russia is to undermine democracies around the world through covert operations. Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation are obvious covert operations of the Russians to undermine American democracy.
The most impactful way to ensure they fail is to vote for Democrats.
Donald Trump does not offer solutions, only more problems.
Biden is far from a perfect president; his Israeli policy is foolish, and his Ukrainian policy is half-assed (fitting for a Democrat), but he can be convinced of better policies.
Biden is highly flawed and bad at public speaking.
Trump is an evil sexual predator.
America is better off with a Democratic trifecta so we can solve the three problems facing our federal government, which are the war in Ukraine, the crisis in Palestine, and our uninsured rate.
Only Democrats support abortion rights and gay marriage.
Three years into Trump’s presidency, we had a pandemic.
Three years into Biden’s presidency, inflation is coming back under control.
Trump will play right into Putin’s hands.
Biden will do his best to protect our friends and allies, even if I wish he had more qualified advisors.
The choice is obvious.
Happy Independence Day. Let freedom ring.
Slava Ukraine.