Jill, This was one helluva article. Thanks for the reporting, commentary and analysis. And who do we think is the architect of these schemes? The Project 2025 framer himself, the shadow, Russell Vought. It fits in perfectly with the Trump vision of a country of the wealthy, for the wealthy and by the wealthy and it also fits nicely with Steven Miller's white only America dream. Their constituency is made up of wealthy white racists and ignorant gullible fools, That's a big coalition these days. Anyway, leave it to Estonia to make our bureaucracy look like a turtle crossing the Sahara. It's funny how we're the richest country in the world, spending vast sums on bombs and billionaires, but we just can't afford new software to make it easier for the American people to do just about every f-ing thing. Trump has ushered in a Renaissance, of abject stupidity.
"The only questions are how many voters and which party would be hurt more"
In the presidential election in 2024 there was an 18 point gap between the women who voted for Kamala Harris and the men who voted for Trump. This is a consistent trend seen in previous elections, where women generally lean Democratic and men lean Republican.
That's why Trump and the MAGA Republicans want to suppress the women's vote.
Thank you !! Everything they do is intentional to break this country and its people. Otherwise, how does one explain the irrationality of the egregious acts they have and continue to commit?
In Trumpy ideology, government should be doing much less for the basic health and safety of the population, and much more by way of moral policing - except that powerful Republicans get a broad moral indulgence in exchange for promoting the right policies.
Similar priorities seem to shape foreign policy too: Programs that kept people alive were gutted, under the claim that they were politicized and that the money should be spent on Americans - but the administration is apparently using taxpayers' money to support far-right, anti-EU political causes in Europe.
Why are folks at The Bulwark writing articles like this? They are right wing refugees who supported these same destructive policies for decades? The GOP has been putting policies like this in place for my entire life to create a mindset in America that government can't do anything and should be destroyed. Despite how many people it hurts.
Every government oversite regulation like tracking federal man hours on environmental reviews just creates another task that gets in the way of those same bureaucrats getting their job done. Every accountability form and test that teachers and administrators are required to waste time on gets in the way of them doing their jobs, and creates more administrative positions. Looking at you "Head Start".
Fix your own house Bulwark types. Your GOP has always been a rotten fish in the American politic.
This is a continuation of the "Trump is not a unique threat...he is just a continuation of the traditional GOP" argument that is pure nonsense. I am a lifelong Republican who became active during Reagan years. The Reagan agenda and what Trump is doing could not be more different.
Tell me specifically how? How does Trump differ from the party of Newt Gingrich...? Rush Limbaugh? It's all grievance culture wars in defense of big money and power. Government is the only realistic threat against the rich and the GOP has been siding with the rich for longer than I've been alive. Also, Reagan ruined everything.
As good ol grover norquist said, roughly...they want to drown govt in a bathtub. Render it disfunctional as a way to cut programs and take control of certain areas like the pentagon, the military, the DOJ etc. The republicans have been at war w the new deal since it inception and they want to dismantle it and its safety nets for people of need and people of color. They cut medicare and made sure those cuts happen post midterms as to not impact them at the ballot box. Dems are failing to unify messaging on this topic and it should be front and center. Raygun also ripped on the govt and kept those fires burning, and chump has poured gas on this diabolical plan by wrecking programs, defunding govt, etc...this IS their plan, and it always has been to make govt look inoperable therefore it must be left to die. Repubs have been programming their voters for decades and playing the long game on this. Whats ironic, Rs expand govt EVERY time they are in power (homeland sec, spaceforce, etc) Its the minority party (R) forcing themselves into the majority ruling party of the US. They WANT this versus just raising taxes, for instance, to fund govt programs. Can the govt be streamlined? Yes, it can. Dems have an opportunity, if they regain power, to illustrate real change but ANY people that support the dems in this moment dont think they can or will do the "big things" needed. Welcome to yo-yo govts now...bouncing back and forth under two party rule (a third party cant break out either). I am unsure why people didnt see this coming, its been a slow burn up until now w techbro mgmt of move fast and break crap. As JVL says at the end of podcasts, "good luck America"...yeah we need it.
They've been doing it for nearly a decade as well. Yet, the Bulwark types would happily go running back to Rubio if he were the candidate and we'd have this same bag of GOP crap put upon us.
Rubio will never be taken back by we Never Trumpers. But would I support a conservative Republican who rejected the corruption and anti-authoritarianism of Trump, and pushed for a return to Reagan-like conservative values? Absolutely.
Well, then we'd still have that same bag of GOP crap put upon us, even by your preferred type of candidate. They don't believe in anything except destroying communities to help out the rich and powerful.
And suppose you think you are ok to vote. You have your original birth cert and no name change. I have my 75 y/o cert but it turns out that it does not list my parents. It is no longer valid for getting a passport. It was in 1972.
I assume many women would think a birth cert and marriage license is enough for a marriage name change. It is not (if the Save Act passes as it is now constructed).
So what we have is at least a lot of voters turned away.
It took me 3 months to get a new birth cert. I could have paid a lot more for expedited handling but all of this is unnecessary.
I'm always amused by the American tax labyrinth and how it compares to methods used in other developed countries. Here in Finland, I'm required to file taxes in the USA because I'm still an American citizen, even though my Finnish income is below the tax treaty threshold that would trigger additional taxation by Uncle Sam. So every year, I dutifully complete my 1040 and associated forms, fill them with zeroes, and mail them to Austin.
A couple of years ago I made the mistake of using the digital signature feature in my PDF reader. The IRS returned the forms full of zeroes and I had to print them again without the signature, sign in ink, and send the forms full of zeroes to Austin again.
My favorite part of this is the inevitable "gee, that looks complicated" comment from the Finnish library worker helping me print the forms -- because this is the only time I need to print physical documents in Finland and I usually don't remember how to do it from one year to the next. Yes, it's complicated. But "complicated" equals profits for everyone but the system users, so don't expect anything to change soon...
It's sort of ironic that there's long been a de-regulation "make there be less bureacracy" movement on the right... and now Trump has morphed this into a deadly combo: smash/destroy whole structures that served the country in various ways (intel, DOJ, USAID, CDC) and if you can't get rid of something that remains... gut it, starve it, and add MORE load onto the "user" end.
Yes, this strategy started under Ronald Reagan and has continued since whenever Republicans get power in any branch of government. They calculated making government not work was the best way to roll back FDR’s New Deal.
This is why MAGA loves his "policies." It's literally everything they've always wanted because they listened to Reagan like all the Never Trump Republicans and decided "government" was the issue.
The thing I wonder about though, is if the SAVE Act was implemented, would red states abide by the law? I think they would apply it selectively. Basically, like Jim Crow laws of the past.
The Felonious Oath-Breaker is, or will, attempt to make our government [function] worse? On Purpose??
If such was the case, what would he and his [Maladroit] Administration attempt? What evidence do we have that they would:
Usurp our Constitution in favor of a government plan authored by a 501c(3) not-for-profit organization rather than a new or modified governing document prepared by a constitutional convention and ratified by voters in the majority of our states?
Seek to deny constitutional liberties such as the writ of habeas corpus or birthright citizenship?
Break our legal treaty obligations to allies?
Rewrite our history?
Establish and loose on our streets an untrained, unaccountable, and misled paramilitary force that is encouraged to shoot and kill U.S. citizens and residents?
Wreck our economy by starving out government of tax revenue needed to finance national obligations?
Conduct corruption schemes that massively and unaccountably defraud U.S. taxpayers?
Criminal Trump is making the country worse on purpose. Making the government worse is just a means to his end.
He hates the United States because our country is supposed to be a democracy. But he thinks he's better than everyone else. Those two views are not compatible.
Eventually, one of us has to go. I'm rooting for the United States of America.
With the SAVE Act, I think the administration isn't very concerned about whose eligibility is affected on paper because they'll put their thumb on enforcement. This administration will ensure blue states and blue enclaves in swing states have DOJ agents or ICE or the tooth fairy watching every voter like a hawk.
If this passes, good luck getting a ballot without 27 forms of ID in Detroit or East Lansing. But voters in Crawford and Wexford counties will get by with pinky swears.
And the people who will have the most difficulty will the Red states where there are fewer people who have passports.
I’m so sorry to hear that you had to endure another family loss this month, JVL. Thank you for continuing to write through it as much as you have.
Jill, This was one helluva article. Thanks for the reporting, commentary and analysis. And who do we think is the architect of these schemes? The Project 2025 framer himself, the shadow, Russell Vought. It fits in perfectly with the Trump vision of a country of the wealthy, for the wealthy and by the wealthy and it also fits nicely with Steven Miller's white only America dream. Their constituency is made up of wealthy white racists and ignorant gullible fools, That's a big coalition these days. Anyway, leave it to Estonia to make our bureaucracy look like a turtle crossing the Sahara. It's funny how we're the richest country in the world, spending vast sums on bombs and billionaires, but we just can't afford new software to make it easier for the American people to do just about every f-ing thing. Trump has ushered in a Renaissance, of abject stupidity.
"The only questions are how many voters and which party would be hurt more"
In the presidential election in 2024 there was an 18 point gap between the women who voted for Kamala Harris and the men who voted for Trump. This is a consistent trend seen in previous elections, where women generally lean Democratic and men lean Republican.
That's why Trump and the MAGA Republicans want to suppress the women's vote.
Thank you !! Everything they do is intentional to break this country and its people. Otherwise, how does one explain the irrationality of the egregious acts they have and continue to commit?
In Trumpy ideology, government should be doing much less for the basic health and safety of the population, and much more by way of moral policing - except that powerful Republicans get a broad moral indulgence in exchange for promoting the right policies.
Similar priorities seem to shape foreign policy too: Programs that kept people alive were gutted, under the claim that they were politicized and that the money should be spent on Americans - but the administration is apparently using taxpayers' money to support far-right, anti-EU political causes in Europe.
Why are folks at The Bulwark writing articles like this? They are right wing refugees who supported these same destructive policies for decades? The GOP has been putting policies like this in place for my entire life to create a mindset in America that government can't do anything and should be destroyed. Despite how many people it hurts.
Every government oversite regulation like tracking federal man hours on environmental reviews just creates another task that gets in the way of those same bureaucrats getting their job done. Every accountability form and test that teachers and administrators are required to waste time on gets in the way of them doing their jobs, and creates more administrative positions. Looking at you "Head Start".
Fix your own house Bulwark types. Your GOP has always been a rotten fish in the American politic.
This is a continuation of the "Trump is not a unique threat...he is just a continuation of the traditional GOP" argument that is pure nonsense. I am a lifelong Republican who became active during Reagan years. The Reagan agenda and what Trump is doing could not be more different.
Reagan also picked his issues. Trump doesn’t have any issues of principle: the only thing he’s interested in picking is the U.S. Treasury.
Reagan just put a prettier face on it and was much smoother: difference between a screen actor and a reality TV actor.
Tell me specifically how? How does Trump differ from the party of Newt Gingrich...? Rush Limbaugh? It's all grievance culture wars in defense of big money and power. Government is the only realistic threat against the rich and the GOP has been siding with the rich for longer than I've been alive. Also, Reagan ruined everything.
As good ol grover norquist said, roughly...they want to drown govt in a bathtub. Render it disfunctional as a way to cut programs and take control of certain areas like the pentagon, the military, the DOJ etc. The republicans have been at war w the new deal since it inception and they want to dismantle it and its safety nets for people of need and people of color. They cut medicare and made sure those cuts happen post midterms as to not impact them at the ballot box. Dems are failing to unify messaging on this topic and it should be front and center. Raygun also ripped on the govt and kept those fires burning, and chump has poured gas on this diabolical plan by wrecking programs, defunding govt, etc...this IS their plan, and it always has been to make govt look inoperable therefore it must be left to die. Repubs have been programming their voters for decades and playing the long game on this. Whats ironic, Rs expand govt EVERY time they are in power (homeland sec, spaceforce, etc) Its the minority party (R) forcing themselves into the majority ruling party of the US. They WANT this versus just raising taxes, for instance, to fund govt programs. Can the govt be streamlined? Yes, it can. Dems have an opportunity, if they regain power, to illustrate real change but ANY people that support the dems in this moment dont think they can or will do the "big things" needed. Welcome to yo-yo govts now...bouncing back and forth under two party rule (a third party cant break out either). I am unsure why people didnt see this coming, its been a slow burn up until now w techbro mgmt of move fast and break crap. As JVL says at the end of podcasts, "good luck America"...yeah we need it.
They've been doing it for nearly a decade as well. Yet, the Bulwark types would happily go running back to Rubio if he were the candidate and we'd have this same bag of GOP crap put upon us.
Rubio will never be taken back by we Never Trumpers. But would I support a conservative Republican who rejected the corruption and anti-authoritarianism of Trump, and pushed for a return to Reagan-like conservative values? Absolutely.
Well, then we'd still have that same bag of GOP crap put upon us, even by your preferred type of candidate. They don't believe in anything except destroying communities to help out the rich and powerful.
And suppose you think you are ok to vote. You have your original birth cert and no name change. I have my 75 y/o cert but it turns out that it does not list my parents. It is no longer valid for getting a passport. It was in 1972.
I assume many women would think a birth cert and marriage license is enough for a marriage name change. It is not (if the Save Act passes as it is now constructed).
So what we have is at least a lot of voters turned away.
It took me 3 months to get a new birth cert. I could have paid a lot more for expedited handling but all of this is unnecessary.
I'm always amused by the American tax labyrinth and how it compares to methods used in other developed countries. Here in Finland, I'm required to file taxes in the USA because I'm still an American citizen, even though my Finnish income is below the tax treaty threshold that would trigger additional taxation by Uncle Sam. So every year, I dutifully complete my 1040 and associated forms, fill them with zeroes, and mail them to Austin.
A couple of years ago I made the mistake of using the digital signature feature in my PDF reader. The IRS returned the forms full of zeroes and I had to print them again without the signature, sign in ink, and send the forms full of zeroes to Austin again.
My favorite part of this is the inevitable "gee, that looks complicated" comment from the Finnish library worker helping me print the forms -- because this is the only time I need to print physical documents in Finland and I usually don't remember how to do it from one year to the next. Yes, it's complicated. But "complicated" equals profits for everyone but the system users, so don't expect anything to change soon...
It's sort of ironic that there's long been a de-regulation "make there be less bureacracy" movement on the right... and now Trump has morphed this into a deadly combo: smash/destroy whole structures that served the country in various ways (intel, DOJ, USAID, CDC) and if you can't get rid of something that remains... gut it, starve it, and add MORE load onto the "user" end.
Yes, this strategy started under Ronald Reagan and has continued since whenever Republicans get power in any branch of government. They calculated making government not work was the best way to roll back FDR’s New Deal.
This is why MAGA loves his "policies." It's literally everything they've always wanted because they listened to Reagan like all the Never Trump Republicans and decided "government" was the issue.
The thing I wonder about though, is if the SAVE Act was implemented, would red states abide by the law? I think they would apply it selectively. Basically, like Jim Crow laws of the past.
Sort of like FEMA allocations possibly…..to be honest anything is possible unfortunately.
The Felonious Oath-Breaker is, or will, attempt to make our government [function] worse? On Purpose??
If such was the case, what would he and his [Maladroit] Administration attempt? What evidence do we have that they would:
Usurp our Constitution in favor of a government plan authored by a 501c(3) not-for-profit organization rather than a new or modified governing document prepared by a constitutional convention and ratified by voters in the majority of our states?
Seek to deny constitutional liberties such as the writ of habeas corpus or birthright citizenship?
Break our legal treaty obligations to allies?
Rewrite our history?
Establish and loose on our streets an untrained, unaccountable, and misled paramilitary force that is encouraged to shoot and kill U.S. citizens and residents?
Wreck our economy by starving out government of tax revenue needed to finance national obligations?
Conduct corruption schemes that massively and unaccountably defraud U.S. taxpayers?
Conduct war at will or whim?
Say it ain't so...
Criminal Trump is making the country worse on purpose. Making the government worse is just a means to his end.
He hates the United States because our country is supposed to be a democracy. But he thinks he's better than everyone else. Those two views are not compatible.
Eventually, one of us has to go. I'm rooting for the United States of America.
Now how do we get this type of factual reporting to the Cleti???
With the SAVE Act, I think the administration isn't very concerned about whose eligibility is affected on paper because they'll put their thumb on enforcement. This administration will ensure blue states and blue enclaves in swing states have DOJ agents or ICE or the tooth fairy watching every voter like a hawk.
If this passes, good luck getting a ballot without 27 forms of ID in Detroit or East Lansing. But voters in Crawford and Wexford counties will get by with pinky swears.