So who was it exactly who announced a concerted effort yesterday to oppose the Christian nationalist Project 2025 plan to autocratize and theocratize America?

Oh, right, that’d be the one openly non-believing member of Congress in a country where one out of every five people don’t believe in God.

Not surprisingly, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) is also the co-founder of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, sort of a halfway house for members of Congress who aren’t ready yet to live in the world as open atheists. And yesterday, Huffman announced the creation of a congressional task force to prepare for Project 2025 and start building defenses while it’s still 2024.

The members include Democratic leadership, Caucus Vice Chair Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), and chairs of the Hispanic Caucus, Asian Pacific American Caucus, Equality (LGTBQ+) Caucus, Labor Caucus, and Pro-Choice Caucus. Other prominent Democratic members are Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and #Resistance hero Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who co-founded the Freethought Caucus with Huffman.

Allies of this kind of thing typically include secular stalwarts like American Atheists, the American Humanist Association, the Center for Inquiry, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Secular Coalition for America, all of which are on board, too.

But this time out, the coalition is even broader, reflecting growing awareness among a wide range of constituencies about the dangers at hand but also a growing willingness for mainstream advocacy organizations to link hands with atheists, despite atheist cooties. As a result, the Project 2025 Project got the backing of leaders from the following groups:

• Accountable.US
• Center for American Progress
• Common Cause
• MoveOn Political Action
• Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Here’s what members of the task force had to say for the launch of their task force:

Huffman: “Project 2025 is … a dystopian plot that’s already in motion to dismantle our democratic institutions, abolish checks and balances, chip away at church-state separation, and impose a far-right agenda that infringes on basic liberties and violates public will. This is an unprecedented embrace of extremism, fascism, and religious nationalism, orchestrated by the radical right and its dark money backers.”

Lieu: “…reckless policy proposals include banning abortion, removing protections for LGBTQI+ Americans, abolishing the Department of Education, and abandoning efforts to fight climate change.”

Raskin: “This far-right roadmap for a ‘post-constitutional’ America would make January 6th extremism a governing ideology. They plan to centralize all power in the presidency, exercise political control over the Justice Department, implant Christian white nationalism throughout the government, strip tens of thousands of professional government workers of their civil service protections, create an army of political loyalists and sycophants in government, ban abortion nationwide, set up immigrant detention camps, deport millions of people, repeal all climate safety regulations and exact criminal revenge against reporters, judges and Democrats.”

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), chair of the Equality and Labor caucuses: “I look forward to working with members of this task force to thwart Project 2025’s extreme vision for the country, expose their dangerous plot to the American people, and work to safeguard the rights of the queer community and other minorities against this radical manifesto.”

While the task force can obviously push back by telling voters the stakes before Election Day, it’s less clear what can be done now to stop it in 2025 if DCC3FRFP1 Donald Trump wins.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts responded with a statement saying “Project 2025 will not be ‘stopped.’” Which, lol, because even Trump keeps refusing to sign on.

And Huffman’s new task force isn’t alone.
The American Civil Liberties Union is both (a) still a thing and (b) already working on emergency legal filings in case re-President Trump goes through with his promised mass deportations. Huffman’s group, meanwhile, will focus on educating not just members of Congress, but the general public, creating a central hub for Project 2025 information and preparation.

But perhaps the single greatest factor in their favor: Like so many “libertarian” right-wing efforts that flare and then fizzle, Project 2025 is a collective effort made up of people who oppose collective efforts. Go team! uncompromising individuals!

Published with permission of The Fucking News