The introduction of the conservative plan Project 2025 has been presented as something to fear for the future. Looking at legislation passed in Republican controlled states like Iowa, it is clear that the Project’s intended changes to society have already begun. There is a very effective plan underway to have each state pass the same laws regardless of the constituent majority wishes. Interference with reproductive health care options, transfer of funds from public schools to private and religious schools under the guise of parental choice, interference with the civil rights for the LGBTQ+ citizens and immigrants, removal of books ignoring parental choice are only a sample of the work of this movement. Looking at the big picture, what is being revealed is the decades long effort to use the tools of our system to re-shape our society; reshape education, the courts, individual rights, religious freedoms, redefine family units, demonize immigrants—the list goes on.

Make no mistake, should Trump win a second term the far-right conservative entities behind the common legislation adopted by multiple states and behind the content of Project 2025 will see their dreams come true. He will empower the movement to create havoc for immigrants, legal and undocumented, which will have immense consequences to families, to employers depending on their labor, to our sense of decency as a country. He and his loyal minions will pass laws and rules that will essentially eliminate the ability for family planning, interfere with medical responses to women and girls of childbearing age, and take the rights of the LGBTQ+ families to make decisions in their best interest. The movement will provide only their loyal believers to Trump for installation in positions of power and in the court system at every level. Voices of dissenters will be silenced.

Your vote is your power. Do not sit this one out. You can help stop this movement by voting for Democrats at all levels of our government in order to begin to undo the damage that has already been done and to prevent further harm.

Linda Kemp

Mount Vernon