Letters to the Editor: The return of McCarthyism? That’s what Trump backers’ Project 2025 sounds like
To the editor: Project 2025 has been recruiting and vetting prospective government employees for an anticipated Republican presidency. Fine, that’s their prerogative. But the idea that current federal employees can be scrutinized and assessed, the results published in a list based on their personal ideas and beliefsm and then the employees subsequently reclassified or fired, is a page directly out of Joseph McCarthy’s playbook. The consensus then was, McCarthy’s practices were “anti-American.” The Heritage Foundation should be ashamed of itself for backing this effort.
Furthermore, the president of the Heritage Foundation was quoted as saying that his foundation was proud to aid in draining the government of “bad actors.” Who decides what a bad actor is?
Many federal employees have opinions and beliefs that are contrary to current government policies, yet they do their jobs as they have sworn to do, uphold the Constitution and support the current president. That’s what makes for a strong democracy: ideas, discussions, compromise and free speech.
If everyone meets a certain standard, set by the ruling party, I think there’s a word for that: totalitarianism.
Julia Springer, Santa Barbara
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To the editor: Wow. It appears the House Un-American Activities Committee is back, and Roy Cohn is resurrected. As part of the Heritage Foundation-supported Project 2025, government employees will be investigated using well-respected tools such as a “gut check” or “instinct” (one activist’s words). Will they uncover my sympathy for democracy and loyalty to our Constitution? To paraphrase the famous lawyer Joseph Welch, from almost exactly 70 years ago today: Have we no sense of decency?
Jon Merritt, Los Angeles
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To the editor: The media need to start publishing more articles on what a Trump second term would look like. We’ve been so deluged with his trials, we are missing a look into our possible future.
Former President Trump has very clearly laid out his plans both in public and in print. The Project 2025 documents, also known as the Presidential Transition Project, lay out plans to reshape the federal government and consolidate power in the executive branch. By inserting only loyalists, he’ll create a “yes, Mr. President” government to eliminate any pushback on his policies.
Included in this plan would be a takeover of the Justice Department — to go after anyone who stood in his way? Imagine partisan control too of the FBI, Department of Commerce and Federal Communications Commission; the dismantling of the departments of Homeland Security, Education and environmental protection; and cutting funding for climate research while reforming the National Institutes of Health along conservative lines.
Terry Priesont, Altadena
