What Is This Article About?
So, first things first, this is a long and detailed piece that is trying to explain to Trump supporters who don’t understand the reaction of their friends and family members on why they are so apprehensive about Trump’s reelection in 2024.
Feel free to skip around to the blurbs in bold to find an issue you are looking for, and please open your mind and heart to see why this election is not a win for a lot of people.
While people are fearing the extremely discussed and controversial Project 2025, Trump has distanced himself from this proposed Republican game plan created by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank dating back to the 1980s, and has released his own road map for his presidency titled Agenda 47. And while Project 2025 is scary and was written by people who were very close to Trump, I want to focus only on what Trump himself has given us to go off of.
With so much bias in the news today, I want to cut out any fearmongering or over exaggerations and clearly explain why I am concerned over quite a few of Trump’s plans for the next four years that were written on his campaigning website from Agenda 47 titled 2024 GOP PLATFORM MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Straight from the Horse’s Mouth
I have read Agenda 47 myself and would like to highlight my main problems with the four-year plan, without using any sort of biased news site like MSNBC or CNN—just exactly what he gave us.
Setback: Climate Change
Trump’s very first proposal is to “Unleash American Energy” (Agenda 47, page 7). He describes doing this by rolling back the Green New Deal, which he claims is socialist, and then unleashing energy production from all sources. Yes, including nuclear. The goal here is for America to provide itself with more energy, which in turn will drive down costs.
This would make restrictions and incentives placed on corporations by the Green New Deal, which were meant to encourage more environmentally friendly practices from corporations, go away completely—making any progress for climate change go back to before the deal was passed.
Religious Freedom… for Christians
While the document claims to stand for all religious freedoms and even says that men and women from every faith and tradition are in his ranks, the text proposes a new “Federal Task Force on Fighting Anti-Christian Bias” that will investigate all forms of illegal discrimination, harassment, and persecution against Christians in America (Agenda 47, page 15).
As an atheist who also happens to be gay, I am terrified by the notion of a Christian-based, government-funded task force whose goal is to persecute those the department deems to be anti-Christian. To a majority of Christian fundamentalists, who make up a large portion of Trump’s voter base, being part of the LGBTQIA+ community alone is anti-Christian. When does intolerance start, and supposed “discrimination” end?
Furthermore, elevating one religion in a country heralding its rich diversity of cultures and faiths—including offering prayers and Bible readings in schools (Agenda 47, page 13)—goes against the long-held belief by many Americans that there should be a separation of church and state.
Immigrants: Mass Deportations
Trump has not let go of building his border wall, and his method to stop what he claims is an invasion from Mexico is to pull and funnel thousands of overseas troops to the border to help on the ground, move massive amounts of federal law enforcement into immigration enforcement, and deploy the Navy to the waters near the border to board and inspect ships to catch fentanyl loads (Agenda 47, page 8).
On top of his increase in physical presence to deal with illegal immigration, he plans to cut federal funding to sanctuary cities, which he claims release “dangerous illegal alien criminals onto our streets” (Agenda 47, page 8). As for his plans on the mass deportations he has been spouting out during his campaign, in the agenda, he just ensures that they will be the largest deportation in American history—with no actual plans besides strengthening the manpower.
One can only hope he does not mean to send this much larger task force into communities to take undocumented people from their homes, lives, and communities—breaking apart families and destabilizing the economy, as predicted by many economists if a purge of illegal immigrants is carried out the way he has been promising while campaigning.
Migration Made Harder
When it comes to those attempting to enter the U.S. legally, Trump wants to weed out what he calls “Christian-hating communists, Marxists, and socialists” (Agenda 47, page 8) by making vetting stricter. He claims the vetting will be extreme to ensure that jihadists and jihadist sympathizers are not let in.
The document on the same page also explains it will prioritize merit-based immigration—basically wanting to let in only immigrants who will benefit the economy. I fear this would keep out any low-income or unskilled laborers, making it even harder for many to come legally to the U.S. in an already difficult system.
Destabilizing Education
from Pexels
Trump plans to literally close the Department of Education and give education decisions to the states. This decision would make what your children learn up to where you live. While claiming to love teachers, the document also states they will end teacher tenure and support schools that focus on “excellence and parental rights,” stripping power and authority from teachers.
Also, defunding schools that teach what he refers to as “left-wing propaganda” and political indoctrination, Trump promises to not let Critical Race Theory (CRT) and what he calls “gender indoctrination” be allowed in schools without funding being pulled (Agenda 47, page 13).
Rollback on LGBTQ+ Protections
Trump promises to “end left-wing gender insanity” by keeping men out of women’s sports—a transphobic talking point that targets parents’ fears that their children might be competing with transgender children—and speaks to the misinformed general public that doesn’t know that professional sports already have bans in multiple states for whether or not trans athletes can compete in the first place. Putting a target on the backs of the already tiny .6% of the US population that is trans people reveals the same tactic that has been used by reactionaries when they need a marginalized demographic to demonize. (Agenda 47, page 15)
Next, he pulls out another anti-trans talking point—he has been inciting this one-sided culture war that calls to put an end to taxpayer-funded “sex change surgeries.” In reality, gender-affirming care, including medical transitioning, is dealt with on a case-by-case basis and is only given if there is a need, which is often denied despite what Trump claims, as seen by the Transgender Law Center advocating for transgender people here.
His last and one of the most terrifying fears for both trans people and women is his promise to reverse Biden’s amendments to Title IX Education Regulations that made many changes, such as eliminating the need for in-person cross-examinations when investigating sexual assault on campuses, and ending the revised definition of sexual harassment that now extends to “protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, and parenting status” as seen from the American Council on Education. This bill also extends jurisdiction to off-campus and international sexual harassment claims.
Agenda 47 promises to end these protections and resources for trans people and anyone claiming sexual harassment in these circumstances, while tacking on at the end that Trump will “restore protections for women and girls”—another transphobic remark that suggests transgender people make biological women and girls unsafe.
Conclusion
So, as you can see, whether you agree with any of my concerns or still feel like nothing I highlighted are problems in the first place, I have listed some of the big threats to a lot of people in the U.S. are feeling about Agenda 47. This plan, along with fears of the even more extreme, but remarkably similar Project 2025 is still causing real tension and uncertainty in the groups that would be affected. Whether that is undocumented folks fearing for their families staying together, trans people losing rights and protections under the law, or climate change activists fearing losing any progress made, these are real fears taken straight from his plan.
If things start looking like he could pass project 2025, which the winds could be blowing that way, I will do a piece highlighting my biggest issue with that plan. As it targets and bans LGBTQIA+ vocabulary it deems as “woke” like sexual orientation and transgender, and goes after women’s reproductive rights like forcing women to report while pregnant to ensure they don’t access medical abortions.
So, before you condemn Kamala supporters for being upset, realize they had stakes in this race—and they lost. The future is turbulent and unclear for a lot of people, and fear is a very powerful emotion to feel for four years, trust me, we felt it in 2016 as well.
