At first I was thinking this might be geared more to Trumpist-Republican men since they are being supportive of candidate Trump. But the more I thought about it, I realized this applies to at the very least, to all cis-gendered males in the United States. I say that because the policies of Project 2025 will apply to everyone, not just Trumpist-Republicans. As a national party, the laws won’t apply to one party or another, it will apply to all who remain within our great (or formally great) nation.
Should candidate Trump win, Project 2025 will be enacted. Anyone who argues otherwise is extremely uninformed or just plain ignorant. All 900 pages of its intent will come to pass under a Trump presidency. The far-right wing has already taken over enough people in the judiciary, law enforcement (their union did endorse Trump after all), the U.S. House of Representatives, and statehouses and legislatures across the country, that any guardrails left will be decimated in short time.
So listen up men, you better be ready, because under Project 2025 your duties and responsibilities as a cis-straight man in the United States will become much more than you have even begun to fathom.
First, those of you who belong to a union with pretty decent wages and workplace protections, well those benefits are about to go away. Unions will no longer be allowable, meaning say goodbye to any notion of a raise of any sort and those safety rules you don’t even think about might hit you full force when your boss asks you to do something that may cause the loss of a finger, an arm, or maybe even your death.
Then say goodbye to a regular schedule and overtime pay. I know for many of you, this is already a part of your life. Your employer works your schedule in the way that works for them, not you in terms of stability of hours to be able to schedule a vacation or appointments. Under Project 2025 overtime will become a thing of the past and I know many of you have come to rely on that extra pay from time-to-time, or for jobs that are hard to fill for which you stay late to get that overtime pay.
If you work in construction, you’ve most likely heard of Davis-Bacon, especially when federal funding is involved in paying for the construction, such as federal highways. Well, you can kiss that pay scale goodbye because Project 2025 does away with Davis-Bacon requirements. Ready for a pay cut?
Do you work for the federal government in any capacity? If you do, and you are not a hard liner for Trump, or have ever said anything negative about him on your social feeds, you will most likely be out of a job (and those pretty good benefits). Only those fully on the Trump train and always have been, will have civil service jobs.
The above is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of affecting your livelihoods.
What will you do about educating your children? Project 2025 does away with the Department of Education. This is an agency that does much more than one might expect. One of its major duties is to ensure federal dollars going to states make it to the schools and students as intended. This amounts to billions upon billions of dollars of which almost all inevitably makes it to your child’s public school. Without this oversight, the dollars may still make it to the states, but who will be ensuring the funds go where they are meant to go? What will be the stopper of states giving all of those public funds to private religious schools or even for-profit private schools?
Which brings me to your child’s education. What happens if your child has special needs, such as not being able to process information quickly, has autism or mobility issues? Private schools of all sorts get to decide who attends their schools; unlike public schools who must accept and provide services for students requiring extra services, private schools do not. With the U.S. Department of Education gone, the office that oversees Special Education will also then be gone. There will be no one to ensure your child’s unique needs are being met. States themselves do not have enough money to make up for any loss in federal funding, meaning a lessening of services. You may be on your own if your child needs anything extra to succeed at school.
Then there is the issue of food and other jobs. When Trump deports 16 million alleged “illegals” (and it has already been stated that they may just happen to scoop up American citizens in this sweep, but oh well), that is a large dent to the workforce. Some of you may think hurray, the “illegals” that have been taking jobs “real” Americans should have are gone. On that I ask you, are you going to stand in a hot field under the blazing sun picking vegetables or fruit? Will you stand on the roof of a house being constructed in the heat and the bitter cold nailing plywood and roofing materials? Are you going to go work in some of the lowest paying worst working conditions companies providing essential work to keep us with food on our tables and roofs over our heads?
There is also the tax base to think about. The humans called “illegals” pay taxes on good and services just like all who live in the United States, to the tune of over $96 billion dollars (that is just at the federal level). Think about how much tax money will all of a sudden drop. Funds that pay for schools, for roads, for police, for firefighters, for disaster relief, and so much more, are now gone. What happens then, fewer people to protect us, or higher taxes for those remaining to make up for the revenue loss (and do you really think the billionaire class is going to be helping with this)? Some may say hurray as it means all of that welfare money going to the “illegals” will make up for it. Legally, an undocumented person, an “illegal,” is not allowed to access the social safety net. They pay into these funds through taxes, but receive none of the benefit.
Next question, are you ready to take full financial and legal responsibility for women and girls in your life, your wives, and any unwed close female relative. The plan appears to go back to the 1950’s or even further back, when it comes to women’s rights. This means the unwed women in your life won’t be able to, without your permission (and your liability), have a credit card on their own, won’t be able to take a loan out on a car, can’t rent an apartment or own a house, just to name a few. I really feel sorry for those of you men who are married to a women who earns more than you do or whom are dependent on a second income to make ends meet. Remember, during that era, women were woefully dependent upon the men in their lives for everything. Are you ready to shoulder that responsibility?
Finally, are you ready to lose the loved ones in your life? If you have a gay, lesbian, or transgendered child or relative, are you ready for them to be imprisoned, bullied, or even killed because of how they were born. Even if you don’t like it or are confused, even angry at your loved one, those emotions can pass over time and allow for healing, but if that person is dead, they are gone to you forever.
What about those of you in families in which your wife is undocumented or are biracial? When the above purge of “illegals” happens, your wife and any children may be ripped from you with no legal recourse. What will you do when the persecution your biracial children may already be enduring becomes the norm of the nation, when it gets worse, and it can always get worse, than it is now?
What will you do when your wife becomes pregnant (remember your wife’s periods are now being monitored by the government and birth control of any sort has been banned) and the option of abortion is no longer there, but needed for so many reasons for your family? What about when your 10-year-old daughter becomes pregnant by a rapist and now must live through that trauma each and every day of her life along with the huge medical risks of giving birth at such a young age, then caring for a baby when she herself is just a baby? If your wife (and I say wife because I’m pretty sure “living in sin” will no longer be a thing), has complications during pregnancy, so much so that neither the fetus, nor your wife, will survive because abortion has been banned nationwide?
Sadly, the above barely scratches the surface of what is detailed in Project 2025. As with anything, if you are a straight white Christian male, Project 2025 may not sound too bad since you’ll now be the “man” of the house again, the “king” of your kingdom, someone who appears to be able to do what he wants without question. But, there are always unintended consequences. Some of those unintended consequences were shown above, but no one truly knows how much our lives will be negatively affected by Project 2025.
I for one, know enough, and can think into the future what Project 2025 will mean to me and my family. Let’s just say it won’t be pretty and may even end with me in prison, a concentration camp, or even death because I have dared to speak out against Trump, Christian-Nationalists, and the bigots who follow him. I do fear for my future, but I fear more for the future of my family, my children, my spouse, my grandchildren, along with your family, your children, your spouse, your grandchildren, and the future of our great nation.
This is why I speak out, why I do everything within my power and capabilities to defeat the likes of Trump and his ilk at the ballot box. I have seen the future because it is repeating the past almost verbatim. That past, Facism, was not a good one for the world, and it becoming our future does not bode well for just about anyone.
Join me in defeating Trump, right-wing Republicans, and white Christian-nationalists at the ballot box.
I have cast my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris for president, and for every Democrat for any office from dog catcher to the presidency. I believe in freedom, I believe in choice, and I believe in the greater vision of our founding fathers and the ideals they may not have lived up to, but strived to make our country a better place for all.
I invite you to do the same. See you at the ballot box!
P.S.—As election day approaches, make sure to check your voter registration status. Republicans across the nation are purging voter rolls, kicking hundreds of thousands of people off voter rolls, thus hindering their legal right to vote. Check your status at vote.org at least weekly to make sure you have time to take any necessary action to have your vote counted should you no longer show as being registered.
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 