In this episode, Koki interviews Peter Montgomery, Research Director at People for American Way, to discuss Project 2025, the Right’s playbook to remake the U.S. government as we currently know it toward authoritarianism. Peter discusses the architects of this plan, the people and movements who have signed on to it, and the implications for the American public if it should be put into place. Koki and Peter discuss how the Right has stitched together such disparate tensions and factions in the Right, in Peter’s words, with the am to do so “long enough just to get the power they need to overwhelm political and legal opposition.” They end the conversation with how useful Project 2025 is to mobilize and organize the Left to take action, and offer what we must and can do to forestall a precipitous decline into authoritarianism.

Episode Resources:

• Project 2025: How Trump Loyalists and Right-Wing Leaders Are Paving a Fast Road to Fascism by Peter Montgomery, The Public Eye, 2024.
• Project 2025: An Authoritarian Conspiracy. Conspirituality Podcast, Episode 187. January 4, 2024.
• Ryan Anderson’s Road Map for Marriage Resisters by Peter Montgomery, Right Wing Watch. July 2, 2015.
• The MAGA enemies list is growing, and so are the odds that you’re on it, by S. Myrick, The Hill. February 26, 2024.
• “Project 2025” Promises Revenge, Oppression, and Autocratic Rule by Thomas Zimmer, Democracy Americana. March 4, 2024.
• Project 2025 is GOPers’ blueprint for destroying the planet. It must be stopped, by Will Bunch, The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 30, 2023. 
• What “Project 2025” Would Do to America by Thomas Zimmer, Democracy Americana. February 29, 2024. 
• Project 2025: The Right’s Dystopian Plan to Dismantle Civil Rights and What It Means for Women by Carrie N. Baker, Ms. February 8, 2024.
• Inside the Next Republican Revolution by Michael Hirsch POLITICO. September 19, 2023.

Episode Keywords:

Alliance Defending Freedom, American Family Association, American Family Association's Center for Judicial Renewal, America First Legal, American Legislative Exchange Council, American Moment, anti-aborition, anti-CRT, anti-immigration, anti-LGBTQ, anti-marriage equality, Article V Convention of States, authoritarianism, Center for Immigration Studies, The Center for Renewing America, Christian Right, Christian Nationalism, Claremont Institute, Corporate Right, Family Research Council, Heritage Foundation, Hillsdale College, Leonard Leo, Moms for Liberty, Project 2025, Republican, Right, Stephen Miller, Students for Life, Trump, Turning Point USA