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I examined both its own web-site to see what it says for itself in its own words, and Wikipedia for a more measured extranll view, given that commercial American news serevices are likely to be either pro- or anti it.
It looks like a youth-cult version of the Heritage Foundation, although most of its leading directors are men old enough to be the fathers of the university students they want to influence.
It's hardly short of money, if as estimated it was paying its founder and CEO Charlie Kirk a salary of <$400 000. His widow, Erika, has taken over his role. I suppose if you found and run a hard-line political organisation you can take whatever salary you think an >$8 000 000 budget from sponsors can bear.
Actually its web-site gives little away, unlike the HF's love of explaining how it wants the US Government to rule the nation. It still uses cliches like "American exceptionalism" (does that isolationism, intense nationalism, or what?) and "family values" (these are...?).
It clearly has a desperate fear of anything it calls "leftist" or "marxist", which seems in American terms to mean Democrat Party, and a desperate fear of government. This suggests a sink-or-swim attitude like that of the Project 2025 towards anyone on less than, oh, maybe $400 000 / year.
One worrying aspect is that TP apparently wants it university-student members to control what their lecturers and professors say, not so much in the lecture-room, as in social-media posts and even formal research papers.
......
Now, whether comparisons with Adolf Hitler are fair, albeit of dubious morality, I would not like to say, but the Nazis did form a strong recruitment cult, its "Hitler Youth", and its contemporary, parallel but separate National Socialist organisation in the USA operated something similar.
It's also fair to point out the HF and TP and similar hard-Right attitudes are not confined to campaigners in the USA, nor the governments of the Russian Federation, Hungary and Turkey. There is a rise of such desires for authoritarian rule rather than democratic governance, around many democratic countries, for various reasons.
We see it in the UK with some strands within Farages' "Reform Party"; most notably recently by Steven ("Tommy Robinson") Yaxley-Lennon's bizarre, pseudo-Christian rally. This was a man who has served prison time for past far-Right, highly racist activisim. (There is a slight counter from the Left, the still-vague, fairly hard-line, left-wing party formed by Jeremy Corbyn.)
In the 1960s-80s, hard-Left ideology was fashionable among young people. Despite the Cold War between NATO and the USSR, that was perhaps understandable in America due to conscription and its unwinnable Vietnam War, but it did spread to France and the UK too, to a lesser extent.
In the UK the far-Right of that era existed mainly as small, noisy and occasionally violent irritants - some of the far-Left were just as sanctimoniously bad. Instead the far-Left was expressed more in industrial trades-union activism by leaders too determined to push their personal power to see the inevitable destruction of their own industries. That has fortunately ended and on the whole, British employers and unions are now far more co-operative, albeit helped by laws that HF and TP would likely call "Communist". Laws outlawing racial, sexual, medical and religious discrimination and other cruel or exploitative practices, that sort of thing. Though US-owned companies like Amazon are still terrified of allowing their foreign staff to join unions.
So, Cold War over, other global powers and ideologies rising, are we now seeing a similar wish for hard-line, dictatorial governments, ironically called for by the very people with the most to lose from such rule?
For whose benefit though? Those students? The nation? Or the highly-paid clique in charge of this organisation?
It is sadly ironical that so many who are blessed with comfortable lives in libertarian nations should call for their own lands becoming hard-line dictatorships of Left or Right; and I find it baffling why they would.
It looks like a youth-cult version of the Heritage Foundation, although most of its leading directors are men old enough to be the fathers of the university students they want to influence.
It's hardly short of money, if as estimated it was paying its founder and CEO Charlie Kirk a salary of <$400 000. His widow, Erika, has taken over his role. I suppose if you found and run a hard-line political organisation you can take whatever salary you think an >$8 000 000 budget from sponsors can bear.
Actually its web-site gives little away, unlike the HF's love of explaining how it wants the US Government to rule the nation. It still uses cliches like "American exceptionalism" (does that isolationism, intense nationalism, or what?) and "family values" (these are...?).
It clearly has a desperate fear of anything it calls "leftist" or "marxist", which seems in American terms to mean Democrat Party, and a desperate fear of government. This suggests a sink-or-swim attitude like that of the Project 2025 towards anyone on less than, oh, maybe $400 000 / year.
One worrying aspect is that TP apparently wants it university-student members to control what their lecturers and professors say, not so much in the lecture-room, as in social-media posts and even formal research papers.
......
Now, whether comparisons with Adolf Hitler are fair, albeit of dubious morality, I would not like to say, but the Nazis did form a strong recruitment cult, its "Hitler Youth", and its contemporary, parallel but separate National Socialist organisation in the USA operated something similar.
It's also fair to point out the HF and TP and similar hard-Right attitudes are not confined to campaigners in the USA, nor the governments of the Russian Federation, Hungary and Turkey. There is a rise of such desires for authoritarian rule rather than democratic governance, around many democratic countries, for various reasons.
We see it in the UK with some strands within Farages' "Reform Party"; most notably recently by Steven ("Tommy Robinson") Yaxley-Lennon's bizarre, pseudo-Christian rally. This was a man who has served prison time for past far-Right, highly racist activisim. (There is a slight counter from the Left, the still-vague, fairly hard-line, left-wing party formed by Jeremy Corbyn.)
In the 1960s-80s, hard-Left ideology was fashionable among young people. Despite the Cold War between NATO and the USSR, that was perhaps understandable in America due to conscription and its unwinnable Vietnam War, but it did spread to France and the UK too, to a lesser extent.
In the UK the far-Right of that era existed mainly as small, noisy and occasionally violent irritants - some of the far-Left were just as sanctimoniously bad. Instead the far-Left was expressed more in industrial trades-union activism by leaders too determined to push their personal power to see the inevitable destruction of their own industries. That has fortunately ended and on the whole, British employers and unions are now far more co-operative, albeit helped by laws that HF and TP would likely call "Communist". Laws outlawing racial, sexual, medical and religious discrimination and other cruel or exploitative practices, that sort of thing. Though US-owned companies like Amazon are still terrified of allowing their foreign staff to join unions.
So, Cold War over, other global powers and ideologies rising, are we now seeing a similar wish for hard-line, dictatorial governments, ironically called for by the very people with the most to lose from such rule?
For whose benefit though? Those students? The nation? Or the highly-paid clique in charge of this organisation?
It is sadly ironical that so many who are blessed with comfortable lives in libertarian nations should call for their own lands becoming hard-line dictatorships of Left or Right; and I find it baffling why they would.
markinkansas · 61-69, M
@ArishMell and i might be just a little worried for next few generations tho
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@markinkansas Indeed!
DeWayfarer · 61-69, M
@ArishMell Please. The heritage foundation IS the out right sponsor of project 2025. And here is the link that proves it. It's stored on the heritage foundation own site.
https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
They don't even bother hiding it any more. Just do a search for project2025 and you will find that same link.
For decades they attempted to hide the fact. When Trump came around in 2021 they finally created a direct website:
http://project-2025.org/
Yet now the domain up for sale. Notice it's no longer a secured link.
https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
They don't even bother hiding it any more. Just do a search for project2025 and you will find that same link.
For decades they attempted to hide the fact. When Trump came around in 2021 they finally created a direct website:
http://project-2025.org/
Yet now the domain up for sale. Notice it's no longer a secured link.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@DeWayfarer I knew Project 2025 describes the Heritage Foundation's aims. I have read their website and about a third of the 900+ plus page "Mandate".
I gained the impression the latter takes the Project 2025 manifesto described in the web-site, and adds considerably more detail including the backgrounds to HF's ambitions.
It web-site implies a strong desire to dictate policy to the elected Congress and President. I may have misjudged it there but that was how it reads to me, without American political-party affiliations or loyalties.
I'd not known the organisation had been hiding for so long though. I "found" it only after it emerged from the darkness enough to be mentioned in news and current-affairs programmes. Perhaps it was lying low until really sure of its manifesto, and had a suitable opportunity to publish it?
I gained the impression the latter takes the Project 2025 manifesto described in the web-site, and adds considerably more detail including the backgrounds to HF's ambitions.
It web-site implies a strong desire to dictate policy to the elected Congress and President. I may have misjudged it there but that was how it reads to me, without American political-party affiliations or loyalties.
I'd not known the organisation had been hiding for so long though. I "found" it only after it emerged from the darkness enough to be mentioned in news and current-affairs programmes. Perhaps it was lying low until really sure of its manifesto, and had a suitable opportunity to publish it?
DeWayfarer · 61-69, M
@ArishMell please read the added edits...
Google won't show unsecured links.
I posted once those same project 2025 links on this very site back then. I was one of the first to do so.
For decades they attempted to hide the fact. When Trump came around in 2021 they finally created a direct website:
http://project-2025.org/
Yet now the domain up for sale. Notice it's no longer a secured link.
http://project-2025.org/
Yet now the domain up for sale. Notice it's no longer a secured link.
Google won't show unsecured links.
I posted once those same project 2025 links on this very site back then. I was one of the first to do so.
DeWayfarer · 61-69, M
@ArishMell Post that I made one year ago with a similar link....
https://similarworlds.com/politics/5054957-Politics-Reed-Galen-Co-founder-of-The-Lincoln-Project-on
Link from that post
https://www.project2025.org/about/about-project-2025/
Link which it now reroutes to, with the heritage foundation support...
https://www.mandateforleadership.org/
https://similarworlds.com/politics/5054957-Politics-Reed-Galen-Co-founder-of-The-Lincoln-Project-on
Link from that post
https://www.project2025.org/about/about-project-2025/
Link which it now reroutes to, with the heritage foundation support...
https://www.mandateforleadership.org/
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@DeWayfarer Sorry, I didn't spot that immediately.
Interesting... Perhaps the HF felt it no longer needs the Project site.
Its main web-site differs from as I first saw some months ago, and is a lot slimmer, with its manifesto broken to short, easily-reached chunks. I can understand why HF would have done that: it made it far more likely to be read widely, by potential electors, sponsors (its has a vacancy for a "Chief Gift Officer" paid $80k to $170k to solicit donations!), prospective employees and "members".
Notably, one of its most visible chunks is education, with language that indicates regarding that as a political weapon.
HF claims to have been succeeding for fifty years, but I wonder if they thought what these say:
(My underlining.)
Politicians should seek advice when and where necessary, but HF claims further, telling the President what to do. Whether Democrat or Republican, the President and Representatives are your elected ones, not shadowy lobbying companies.
Recommended senior judges on what criteria? Isn't the US Judiciary supposed to be apolitical? The rest of that sentence, in a section headed "Impacts", uses as an example, and praises, its overturning the Roe v. Wade judgement. I do know that is one the USA's most delicate matters.
....
I wonder....
Is the Heritage Foundation attempting to become a political party in its own right (!), a bit like the UK's "Reform" party but far wealthier, far more sophisticated and possibly further Right-wing; or simply to be the controller of the USA's government... hence country?
Interesting... Perhaps the HF felt it no longer needs the Project site.
Its main web-site differs from as I first saw some months ago, and is a lot slimmer, with its manifesto broken to short, easily-reached chunks. I can understand why HF would have done that: it made it far more likely to be read widely, by potential electors, sponsors (its has a vacancy for a "Chief Gift Officer" paid $80k to $170k to solicit donations!), prospective employees and "members".
Notably, one of its most visible chunks is education, with language that indicates regarding that as a political weapon.
HF claims to have been succeeding for fifty years, but I wonder if they thought what these say:
The Trump administration’s embrace of 64% of Heritage policy prescriptions through its annual budget, regulatory guidance, or other actions.
Recommending candidates for vacant seats that ultimately shaped the future of the Supreme Court....
Recommending candidates for vacant seats that ultimately shaped the future of the Supreme Court....
(My underlining.)
Politicians should seek advice when and where necessary, but HF claims further, telling the President what to do. Whether Democrat or Republican, the President and Representatives are your elected ones, not shadowy lobbying companies.
Recommended senior judges on what criteria? Isn't the US Judiciary supposed to be apolitical? The rest of that sentence, in a section headed "Impacts", uses as an example, and praises, its overturning the Roe v. Wade judgement. I do know that is one the USA's most delicate matters.
....
I wonder....
Is the Heritage Foundation attempting to become a political party in its own right (!), a bit like the UK's "Reform" party but far wealthier, far more sophisticated and possibly further Right-wing; or simply to be the controller of the USA's government... hence country?
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@DeWayfarer Thankyou for that. These organisations are probably quite supple, prepared to change tactics as and when necessary, but not aims and strategy.
It was likely around a year ago, maybe a little longer, that I first heard of the HF.
It was likely around a year ago, maybe a little longer, that I first heard of the HF.
DeWayfarer · 61-69, M
@ArishMell please read my post from 1 year ago. It has a direct quote from that old project2025 page...
https://similarworlds.com/politics/5054957-Politics-Reed-Galen-Co-founder-of-The-Lincoln-Project-on
https://similarworlds.com/politics/5054957-Politics-Reed-Galen-Co-founder-of-The-Lincoln-Project-on
DeWayfarer · 61-69, M
Here is a archive of the old project 2025 website. Unfortunately they didn't archive the" about project 2025" yet the forward has much of the same things...
https://libguides.scu.edu/c.php?g=1452798&p=10934730#
https://libguides.scu.edu/c.php?g=1452798&p=10934730#



