I hope you had a positive holiday week and transition back. While we took a break from the newsletter for a couple weeks, we have been hard at work on something big - our soft launch of the new and improved Fulcrum website! If you haven't visited it yet in July, I encourage you to do so. I welcome and hope to receive feedback as well.

If you're a regular Fulcrum reader, you have likely already noticed the refresh - and you have also noted a lot of discussion about Project 2025. If you hadn’t heard much about Project 2025 prior to this month, you no doubt have heard about it now. Since actress Taraji P. Henson called for the audience to look at the project while hosting the annual BET Awards, Google searches for the term have increased 500%. 

Although the project plan was released in April 2023, it has gained more prominence in our country’s consciousness as the 2024 election approaches. Project 2025 is the latest iteration of 40 years of conservative policy recommendations from the Heritage Foundation. Historical implementation of these recommendations is notable: Ronald Reagan adopted half of them, and Donald Trump, despite claims of unfamiliarity with the project, enacted 64% of that version’s recommendations in his first year in office. Given this track record, a thorough examination of the proposals is essential for those interested in their potential impact on policy.

The relationship between Project 2025 and efforts to bridge political divides and promote civic engagement is multifaceted. On one hand, the project offers a clear agenda that can serve as a foundation for discussions and debates on policy issues. This can be an opportunity to foster dialogue and understanding by using these proposals as starting points. However, Project 2025’s highly partisan nature poses risks. It may deepen ideological divisions, stifle diverse thought, and marginalize certain groups . This dual potential necessitates careful consideration and balanced discussion.

Political Violence

In addition to the ongoing discussions about Project 2025, we must acknowledge last week’s shocking event: the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. This incident is a stark reminder of the volatile political climate we are navigating. It also underscores the importance of our mission to foster dialogue and promote understanding across divides.

The Fulcrum has been running a diverse set of pieces written by our contributors and partners as we all have processed the shooting, and will continue to publish pieces that explore the connections between polarization, policy discussions, and political violence. Political violence is never acceptable. At the same time, those who engage in political violence should never be given the power to stop the respectful dialogue about those issues. It is our job as practitioners and citizens to continue to have principled conversations about policy proposals that will affect all of us and are on the table for the November 2024 election. 

Project 2025 Analyses

For over a month, The Fulcrum has been dedicated to facilitating these discussions about potential policies. We are publishing analyses of each of the 30 chapters of Project 2025, as well as on overarching topics addressed across multiple chapters. Our approach is cross-partisan, examining the validity of the issues raised and exploring less partisan solutions.

Cross-Partisan Project 2025 series analyses to date include:

• A cross-partisan approach
• An introduction
• Affirmative action
• Managing the bureaucracy
• Department of Defense
• Department of Education
• Department of Energy
• Department of Homeland Security
• Department of Veterans Affairs
• Education Savings Accounts
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Federal Parents’ Bill of Rights
• U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

We do not shy away from the project's most controversial elements and call out dangerous thinking that threatens democracy when necessary. Our commitment to intellectual honesty requires that our analyses are both informative and compelling.

Explore our published analyses on Project 2025 in The Fulcrum, and make sure to subscribe to The Fulcrum weekday newsletter for updates on future installments in this series.

By engaging with these topics through informed, honest dialogue, we can better understand the implications of Project 2025 and work towards a healthier democratic republic.

Featured Content

• ActiVote (Blog) July 1th: Trump Only Narrowly Ahead
• AllSides (Blog) July 14th: Were Media Outlets Biased or Responsible in Initial Trump Shooting Coverage?
• American Values Coalition (Blog) July 14th: Political Violence Undermines Our Democracy
• Ballotpedia (Resource) July 16th: More states banned ranked-choice voting in 2024 than any other year
• BillTrack 50 (Article) July 7th: Introducing Ballotpedia's AI Deepfake Legislation Tracker
• Divided We Fall (Article) July 10th: Judicial Divide: Exploring Supreme Court Partisanship
• Horizons Project (Video) June 30th: Sensemaking with Horizons: What's the Ask?
• Independent Voter (News) July 15th: Trump's Chance to Temper the Hyperbolic Rhetoric
• Issue One (Article) July 16th: States on Deadline: Can Electoral Count Reform Act Updates Prevent Another January 6?
• RepresentUS (Statement) July 10th: Bipartisan effort to ban congressional stock trading a step in the right direction
• Unite America (Article) June 28th: Nonpartisan Primaries Increase Primary Turnout
• Veterans for All Voters (Newsletter) July 12th: July Updates 2024

Podcasts

• Ballotpedia (On The Ballot) July 18th: Polling update: Vance's impact + Biden's prospects
• Common Ground Committee (Let’s Find Common Ground) July 11th: Finding Common Ground in a Divided Congress
• DaviesContent (How Do We Fix It?), June 26th: Jim & Richard: A Friendship Across Divides
• Issue One (Democracy Fix) July 2nd: The High Costs of 'Free Speech' in the Digital Age ft. Dr. Mary Anne Franks
• Politics in Question, July 1st: Is American democracy in crisis?
• The Democracy Group (Democracy in Danger) July 10th: The Struggle Continues

Citizen Connect Featured Events

• Unify America (July 24th @ 8:00 pm EDT) Unify Challenge
• Fix Democracy First (July 24th @ 5:00 pm PST) Democracy Happy Hour
• Citizen Discourse (July 25th @ 11:00 am CDT) Conversation Collective
• American Public Square (July 25th @ 5:30 pm CDT) Cocktails & Politics with Esther George
• Convergence (July 30th @ 1:00 pm CDT) Convergence Book Launch Celebration
• Resolutionaries (August 5th @ 12:00 am PDT) Productive Disagreements