In 2021, I grew so frustrated by the state of things in gerrymandered red states like Ohio, I started writing a book about them.
I was so fired up, I finished the basic draft in about four months. It was available to buy a month later.
And from the moment I started writing it, I knew what the title would be: “Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines.”
That’s pretty dark, I know.
But the story I was telling, backed by more than 800 footnotes, was as dark as the title.
In the book, I describe just how broken these places are up close and in person. (Sadly, we in Ohio live it every day, as do millions of Americans in so many other states).
Extreme in every way—and out of touch with their own constituents on everything from abortion to gun safety.
Corrupt.
A rule of law so frayed it’s essentially non-existent—at least in politics and related matters. This includes the undermining of independent courts as a meaningful check and balance whenever they can.
The favoring of a few special interests at the expense of everyday citizens.
A corresponding disintegration of public outcomes on everything from public education to health care to population growth.
The replacement of qualified professionals in important public positions with political and partisan cronies (be it as judges, university presidents and boards of trustees, and the like).
And a ceaseless attack on the the essentials of a healthy democracy, because keeping the voters locked out is the essential step in continuing all of these untenable and often toxic outcomes.
I know some of you who follow me here have read the book. Or you’ve seen presentations where I frame these broken states as the far right’s front-line in the unending attack on democracy and freedom. In the same way that states, state laws and state legislatures were the front line in the destruction of democracy in the South for nearly a century of Jim Crow.
The end of Laboratories (which you can buy here) and its less dark sequel, Saving Democracy (get here), lay out the broader approach I recommend that those who care about democracy undertake if we are going to fight back successfully. (Many democracy champions are undertaking these strategies, which is good news—but we have far more to do, this cycle and beyond).
A Preview
But I write this today because whether or not you’ve read Laboratories, it now brings an added (if disturbing) benefit I didn’t even expect when I wrote it.
It’s no longer just a diagnosis of how we got to where we are today.
It’s also a preview.
A preview of what will happen if Trump wins and the far right gets to implement the specific proposals within “Project 2025,” which is beginning to get so much attention. (And needs a lot more).
Because if you look at the above list of what’s happening in corrupted states like Ohio, every aspect is mirrored in what’s laid out in the 900+-pages of Project 2025.
And then some.
And I say “and then some” because if weaponized by the federal government—which controls everything from the prosecution of federal crimes to hurricane response to pandemic prevention to cancer research to our military—the “Laboratories of Autocracy” model would devastate the nation in a whole new set of ways, even beyond these deeply damaged states.
I briefly talked about this risk with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi yesterday morning (to his great credit, Ali is dedicating much of his show to Project 2025). You can watch the clip HERE:
The bottom line is: we already know how much of this will play out nationally, because it’s already playing out in disturbing ways in states—from attacks on workers, to attacks on public education, to the taking over of government by far-right partisans, to plunging outcomes, to the running down of democracy itself.
So when you talk about Project 2025, and someone asks skeptically: “do you really think they would do all that?”
Tell them: “They already are. All around us. Project 2025 is just ushering into the federal government what they’re doing in every state they control.”
We’ve got 100 days to keep it from happening.
Keep going.
Democrats should make “Project 2025” and what it would do a central, repetitive talking point and hammer it incessantly every day between now and November. Take a page out of the Republican playbook (But her emails!) and turn it right back on them!
Project 2025 is and has always been the Republican party’s dream of what to do to remove all public assistance programs from Americans. That includes Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Snap, Obama Care, and you name it.
That's why I have this great "Reject Project 2025" t-shirt 👇
libtees-2.creator-spring.com/listing/reject25
Excellent read today David and I will be ordering your books. It just drives me to tears of frustration and yes, fear that we allowed this to happen while we were comfortable while coming of age in the era of prosperity and nonchalance. As a ‘boomer’ it just frustrates me that I saw this happening, knew we were dumbing down in America, and I failed to act. I will do what I can, certainly vote, and hope to the powers that be it’s enough.