Recently, including today, I’ve seen more and more memes, statements, etc., about all the horrors that Trump will unleash if put back into office. Most of that appears to be based on completely ridiculous and spoon-fed reports from people that are again working to gaslight. So, I’ve been looking into this a bit myself.
Let’s start with a general assumption: Those of you that believe all you are being fed is absolutely true, raise your hand. Okay – since I can’t see all the hands up in the air, let’s assume that no matter what I write, no matter what links I may provide, you will never believe otherwise. Never. Because the GOP nominee is bad. Evil. Corrupt. A threat. Will lock up women and separate families. Will get us into another war. Will (fill in the blank)…
Let’s continue with another focal point: Project 2025. I’ve seen all kinds of posts about this one, so I have downloaded all 922 pages of it. I have seen posts on what it will do to VA cuts – then I pulled the fact-check and double-checked it – the cuts were proposed for 2023 and almost none of them made it into the 2025 doc. I’ve read the VA section (along with most of the doc). But no matter – you’ll be gaslit into thinking the cuts are part of 2025. They’re not. Here is one of several articles dealing with that: Assessing Claims About Project 2025’s Proposed Cuts to Veterans Benefits – Alex Demas – The Dispatch
The other statements that describe the watered-down policies in the VA for the last 3.5 years (including allowing for non-military related disability payments, etc.), the shift in veteran locations nationally, the aging facilities, the shift to more VA choice and leasing of more modern spaces, etc. – most of the statements make sense. It also calls for increases in pay and benefits, hiring more vets and spouses, moving away from the current administration preference of hiring union-backed workers, etc. People should actually READ it, not be told about things that aren’t true.
There are plenty of sections within the project doc, some I agree with, some I don’t. But it should also be noted that the Trump campaign (and several other right-leaning organizations) have all said they didn’t participate in the document creation, and do not have anything to do with it. The foundation itself says it’s not affiliated with any candidate, and a statement from Trump himself, “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying, and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” Trump wrote. “Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”
But if the document says, “we believe, as conservatives, the sun will rise in the east tomorrow, and you should eat your fruits and vegetables”, if anyone (especially Trump) notes that the sun did come up in the east while they were eating fruits and veggies, you will, by default, say “he is totally tied to it”. Yeah. I know.
It also calls for eliminating at least 50,000 government jobs. Did you know the fed employs over 2.87 MILLION people? 1.85 million of those are civilian. 400,000 of those work in the VA alone, BTW. I do not disagree with trimming it down – a lot. Funny thing about fed agencies: If they have 100 people or 10,000 people, the same amount of work appears to get done. But it’s almost impossible to fire many of them.
Let’s move on to the GOP platform adopted this week:
Did you know the platform calls for opposing late term abortion only? Didn’t read that, I assume? No national abortion ban. But I know you won’t believe that, of course. Trump has even said the same over… and over. From the platform: “Republicans Will Protect and Defend a Vote of the People, from within the States, on the Issue of Life”
Did you know the platform does not call out opposition to same sex marriage? At all. No mention of “marriage is between a man and woman.” It instead has a blanket statement to protect the foundational roles of families and supports working parents.
The take-away is noting what’s not there as it was in years past. It has become far more inclusive, but also protects Title IX. But you won’t believe any of that until you read it. And even then, most of you will say “well, it still doesn’t mean they won’t do bad stuff”. Okay. As I mentioned before, no matter what I research, no matter what you see and read, if it tries to bolster a side you inherently think is horrible, you won’t believe at all. By the way: The moderate direction is thanks, in large part, to Lara Trump getting involved as the Vice Chair. Believe it or not, the extreme tone is being tamped down to moderation by .. yes .. a Trump.
Again, I ask: Four years ago were we in new wars? Were the Tiawan Straits in peril with Chinese bases popping up? Did we get a vaccine out years ahead of normal? Did we have peace accords across the Middle East? Was inflation at 1.6% (yes- it way – 9% was 18 months into Joe)? Were we net-exporting energy, effectively putting Russia in a box and Iran on the brink of failure? Were we much stronger with USMCA than NAFTA? Was our border far more secure? Were wages rising faster than inflation across every demographic (because they absolutely aren’t now)? Was North Korea halted in ICBM testing? Was China paying massive tariffs for their market restrictions, yet our prices remained low here? Did we have the largest tax cut in history AND the fed took in more revenues as a result, due to the expanded economy? I could go on, but these are facts. Again.
