I have a complicated relationship with Project 2025. On one hand, I am diametrically opposed to many of its recommendations. On the other, I love a bold brainstorming session. I tried to talk about it succinctly on More to Say, and eight episodes later, it still rattles around in my head.
The president approaches his 100th day in office later this month. As we creep (or barrel? both?) toward that day, I’m revisiting Project 2025 to assess its impact on the Trump agenda (I’ll do an episode about that). I’m also thinking about competing visions.
In late February, I shared some ideas about creating a competitive document.
More to Say about Competing with Project 2025
(Photo by Sebastian Gollnow/picture alliance via Getty Images)
I don’t mean a Project 2028. Project 2025 was a campaign liability; I wouldn’t recommend a Project 2028 to anyone. I mean a competitive vision, developed in this off-year, to help rally people who (a) are interested in politics but (b) feel pretty disillusioned right now.
I mean a competitive vision, developed in this off-year, to help rally people who are interested in politics but feel pretty disillusioned right now.
I’m not the person to lead a large-scale effort to compete with Project 2025. I do continue to think about my personal vision for the U.S. government, not because it should prevail, but because having one keeps my civic spirit lifted. So today, I thought I’d share with you, in a new format, a little of what I’m thinking the federal government exists to be and do.
I love the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, so it’s my organizing frame.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Form a more perfect Union
Create an agency (my working title is For US) focused on citizen service and making our interactions with the federal government easier and more pleasant. If you need a passport, you go to For US. If you have a tax question, if you are trying to support a refugee, or if you want information about a National Park, For US acts as your concierge to the federal apparatus. If you have a question more properly addressed to your state or county, For US ushers you to the right “door.”
Establish Justice
Modernize the justice system so that it can work for more people. Overhaul the rules of procedure and evidence so that non-lawyers can understand them and cases can move more expeditiously. Allow paralegals to appear in Court for certain stages of proceedings. Provide district and circuit courts with budgets to pay staff fairly and update their technology. Have more hearings outside of courtrooms so that judges are more connected to the cases they’re deciding.
Insure Domestic Tranquility
Focus the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, and Transportation on three priorities:
Protecting ecosystems to keep as many parts of the country habitable for as long as possible
Responding to large-scale emergencies
Connecting us across the country through electricity, transportation, and communications platforms.
Organize around these three priorities and shelve what doesn’t support them. Provide the public with regular, plain-language updates about what’s happening in these three areas.
Provide for the common defense
Pass a privacy bill of rights that meaningfully addresses individual privacy in the digital era. Focus on health and infrastructure security to be ready for pandemics, bioterrorism, and attacks on our electric grids and water supplies. Sustain a focus on domestic violence prevention1 in coordination with the states to bring down crime rates and make our homes and communities safer.
Promote the general welfare
Recognize that the federal government really is an insurer with an army and do insurance better. Examine a transition away from Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs that function as a social safety net to consider how federal poverty insurance might allow people to have basic necessities and a path through difficult periods in life.
Set a goal to partner with the states to eradicate homelessness. All of American life, for everyone, would be improved if people were not in precarious or inadequate shelter.
Create a General Welfare Lab to reorganize and share federal expertise. Research, data collection, and grants could flow through the General Welfare Lab so that tough problems are studied and ideas shared. Make the benefits of consulting more democratic.
Secure the Blessings of Liberty to Ourselves and Our Posterity
Secure: Focus on foreign policy defense rather than offense and rethink our military and intelligence services with an eye toward modern and future warfare.
The Blessings of Liberty:
Remodel Congress. For the House of Representatives, use James Madison’s original formula: 1 representative for every 30,000 people. That would mean we’d have something like 11,000 people in the House. Increase the number of Senators from each state to 10. Have the House of Representatives meet remotely and stay in session all the time. House members would prioritize serving their constituents. More work would happen by committee and through state delegations.
Implement the recommendations of the Carter-Baker Election Commission.
Prioritize peace through trade, treaties, immigration policy, and international involvement. Make peace the overarching goal of our foreign policy and trade policy.
Our Posterity: Focus on fiscal responsibility and environmental sustainability. In all things, consider what future people will need and how to balance future people’s needs with present people’s needs.
This includes much of what already happens in the federal government. It excludes much of what is happening in the federal government. It is not comprehensive, and it is not a vision that everyone would get behind. I share it only because continuing to think about it helps me remember that I am a citizen, not a consumer or politics, and we, as citizens, have agency to reform and refine and create.
Much of the federal government is being destroyed or depleted right now. New things will come on the other side. In addition to being sad/worried/frustrated/angry about the destruction, I want to keep an eye on and participate in the creation. I want to encourage others to do the same. I want us to know that it’s not the last day and to keep planning and dreaming about what comes next.
Happy Birthday to Us!
We are absolutely blown away by your enthusiasm for our 10th Birthday celebration in Cincinnati on July 19th! In-person tickets have completely SOLD OUT (in just days!), but you can still join the party with a virtual ticket for just $25. Watch the live stream from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center or catch the replay at your convenience.
A huge thank you to our amazing sponsors Substack, Fearless Finance, and Martha Bronitsky for making this milestone event possible!
Get virtual tickets or join the waitlist for in-person tickets at pantsuitpoliticsshow.com – we can't wait to celebrate with our incredible community!
Pantsuit Politics 10th Birthday Celebration
We’re celebrating 10 years of Pantsuit Politics with a live show you don’t want to miss! Join us on Saturday, July 19 for a fun and memorable night together as a community.
We are so grateful to Substack for helping sponsor our event and make our virtual option possible.
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We’re immensely grateful to Substack for sponsoring the live show. Across our ten years, we’ve rarely partnered with an organization that understands us and our work as well as Substack does. We’re thrilled to share this special night with you in partnership with their team.
Immigration Cases and Working the System
We have been following the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown closely and wanted to share an update. The Supreme Court upheld that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia (who was wrongfully deported due to an ‘administrative error’) needed to be returned to the United States and given due process. Supreme Court Sides With Wrongly Deported Migrant (New York Times | gift link).
Something Nice to Take You Into the Weekend
A goose nested in Wrigley Field, stealing the hearts of Cubs fans (Washington Post | Gift Link)
What We’re Reading and Listening To This Week
Beth: Not political, but real: How to Build the Perfect Undergarment Wardrobe: Your Ultimate Bra & Underwear Reset (Caralyn Mirand Koch)
Alise: The dangers of Developmental Munchausen by Proxy (Not Just My Own | Gretchen Hughy)
Maggie: Full disclosure: I have a strong belief that everyone in Silicon Valley should have taken a philosophy class before they dropped out of Harvard, and my reading is all reinforcing that conclusion.
Sarah: Sarah’s been on Spring Break with her family this week, but she posted her Spring reading here:
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GIRRRRRLLLLL YES I have been waiting for this kind of articulation of vision! Thank you for putting this together!!!
This post needs to be on every elected Democrat official's desk.