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Indeed, there is some public data, such as from YouGov earlier this summer, pointing to how information on Project 2025 had started to emerge from closed-off partisan bubbles. “Overall, 20 percent of U.S. adult citizens say they’ve heard a lot about Project 2025, while 39 percent have heard a little and 42 percent have heard nothing at all,” the YouGov report reads. “Most Independents with an opinion about Project 2025 dislike it (7 percent favorable, 38 percent unfavorable), while Republicans are more positive (26 percent favorable, 12 percent unfavorable).”
This all explains why Trump and his senior staff have — falsely — claimed that he has nothing to do with the conservative project, to the point that he got his supporters to boo Project 2025 during a campaign stop. Trump and his ilk realize how much attention the project is receiving from voters and how woefully unpopular many of the outlined policy prescriptions are to the average citizen. In recent weeks, as Rolling Stone previously reported, Trump had privately vented to political advisers that Project 2025, specifically the abortion-related components of it, risked tanking his electoral chances ahead of November.
It was fine until the SC immunity ruling. Nobody was reading the 900 page policy book, and it sounded like conspiracy theory crap to normal folk.
This was actually very clever, since there’s so much braying about conspiracy bullshit everywhere, most not-terminally-online people just react with eyerolls to anything that sounds too outrageous, which this did. Remember that the prevailing wisdom out there is that politicians are liars and both sides exaggerate to score political points, with us calling them fascists and them calling us communists, etc etc.
But then the SC came around and said Presidents get to commit crimes. This is a simple principle everyone can understand, so it can be communicated very easily, and that’s exactly what happened. And lo-and-behold, it was not an exaggeration, that is exactly what the SC said.
This made everyone take the proj 2025 thing much more seriously, turning what had been fodder for supporters and under-the-radar for everyone else into a pretty big across-the-board loss. John Roberts and his more “moderate” conservatives essentially torpedoed the Heritage Foundation. lol
The real question for future historians will be: Did he do it on purpose? Before that ruling, the nation was largely sleepwalking towards authoritarianism. Now it’s a fight, and that SC ruling was the tipping point, a bit of an “is this what you want?” sort of wakeup call. I don’t think so personally, but it’s a fun question. Either way, the two things combined into a collosal self-own for the authoritarian movement.
The only good thing about fascism is that it destroys itself. If it destroys itself because of that SC ruling before it even really gets going, I won’t complain.
Hopefully it implodes soon.