What In the World Are They Saying about Us Now?
Some international views on the threat of Republicans' Project 2025
You might agree with me that living through historic times is either very distressing or very heartening, depending on the daily news. We Americans are responding with a lot of emotion to the historic struggle going on around us.
Today, the day before Election Day, 2024, our national instability can feel intensely personal.
This weekend I took a break from local GOTV work and/or worry, to look for a wider perspective. For one, Heather Cox Richardson in her “Letters from an American,” grounds us by linking current events to past historical cycles. American democracy has held.
As for a wider contemporary view, a few weeks ago a friend reminded me that the United States is not the only country in the world; I’ve tried to keep this in mind.
When I was poll greeting this week, I met a voter who has just returned from a trip to Europe. I asked her what the Italians think about us. She told me,
To the best of my recollection, people said, “What is wrong with so many people in your country?”
We would respond, “If only we knew,” then quickly change the subject.
How much do other people in the world depend on a strong American democratic society and healthy economy? Focusing on Project 2025, I decided to look online to find out what the rest of the world thinks about the devastating Republican plan for our nation.
The United Kingdom
The London newspaper, The Guardian, published a detailed article in August about the U. S. Republican Project 2025, titled, “Rightwing manifesto’s key proposals and how they could affect you [the British]: Blueprint outlines extreme, conservative policies for a potential second Trump term and beyond.”
In describing the Project’s plan for education, for example, the article warns about potential changes to America’s economy, which they see as a global concern. It says in part,
… that eliminating Head Start would reduce access and increase costs for childcare, hurting economic stability.
Germany
On July 17 the German public radio station, Deutschlandfunk, outlined Project 2025’s many targets along with their commentary, such as:
… a majority of people in the US support the right to abortion.
They also provided a link to another article titled,
“The European Union must be particularly united in the event of Trump’s re-election”
India
Khabar: your passport to the Indian-American community is a magazine based in Georgia, USA. In September they published an article titled,
Commentary: Project 2025: Why South Asian Americans Should Be Concerned: This overarching right-wing manifesto, besides being a grave threat to American democracy, is also an oblique assault on all marginalized communities. Here are nine ways South Asians in particular could be affected.
Australia
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC iview, published an article on their website about Project 2025, “The Plan for Power”. They quote
Paul Dans, who served as chief of staff in the Office of Personnel Management in the Trump administration:
“We want [in our administration] the person who keeps getting knocked down and is indefatigable. I actually think of Aussies a lot like that. They’re always popping up to the top and they have this kind of shit-eating grin on their face. That is the kind of happy warrior that we want.”
The article goes on to quote Republicans’ ‘Mandate for Leadership’, Project 2025:
“Our goal is to assemble an army of aligned, vetted, trained, and prepared conservatives to go to work on Day One to deconstruct the Administrative State.”
“What will be left will be the grifters and the sycophants,” former Republican congressman Charlie Dent says.
China
On July 21 The China Daily, Global Edition published an editorial, “Project 2025' raises genuine concerns”. Some excerpts:
The two parties' [Republicans and Democrats] indifference to the problems identified in [Project 2025] shows that all they care about is seizing power rather than using power to address real challenges at home and abroad.
Despite the Republicans' emergency PR work to minimize damage done by the report — in which China was defined as the US' enemy and mentioned nearly 500 times in a "shockingly malicious" way — the report reflects the growing far-right sentiment in the US. Symptomatic of this, many in the US political circle hold a wrong perception of China, always viewing China from a hegemonic perspective. But China is not the US. It does not seek to replace the US as the hegemon.
… The US side needs to meet China halfway … and advance cooperation.
The report [Project 2025] shows that the rise of the far right is by no means restricted to the political circle of Europe, but is a trend in Western politics. The world should prepare for the West tilting to the right, which means more self-centered policies that care little about the spillover effects of national policies, less cooperation to address common challenges and hotspot issues, and more international governance reforms stalled in an all-your-fault blame game.
Latinos
And here’s where I get off the train in my pursuit of international views, at an article in Rolling Stone. I’m not a subscriber, so I can only see this much:
Autoritario En Español: The Group Translating Project 2025 Into Spanish to Warn Latinos About Trump
Latino voters could decide the election. A marketing blitz through key swing states hopes to communicate the dangers of another Trump term …
The world really is watching us this week. Vote the Democratic ticket top to bottom. Vote for democracy. Vote for the planet.