The last 10 years has been quite disorienting for me. The rise of Trumpism out of the ashes of the tea party and religious right was extremely perplexing because Trump, of all people, could not (would not) articulate a coherent policy or ideological position - he essentially channeled grievance and resentment with a strong dose of conspiracy theory. There were many investigative pieces during his first term trying to get inside the heads of his supporters and it seemed an impossible task, e.g. they were either advocating for more government involvement in the economy or less, they either wanted to resurrect the culture wars or were tired of them, they either hated the ultra rich or idolized them, etc. There was a similar dynamic with ukip and brexit, but more muted because the Tories were in power and there was much less difference between Tories and Labour. But in both cases grievance, resentment and conspiracy was the common denominator.
In the 2024 campaign, project 2025 emerged, and I must say I was shocked. The "Mandate for Leadership manual" and the "180 day playbook" are remarkable documents, and between them they put the pieces together in a way that was coherent and compelling. In particular the argument made is that racial, sex, sexuality, and gender distinctions have been emphasized in government, not for profits, company HR and by the courts in a way that's divisive and has legalized permanent sanctions against approved targets and elevated an unelected and unaccountable caste to met them out. It also postulates that government has been taken over by unaccountable bureaucrats whose see their primary mission as promoting ideology, and see their secondary mission of as shirking as much work as possible. It also takes on foreign policy to show that the costs to the US of keeping the global trade system running, which benefits the whole world, is far outstripping inflation.
Not only is the project coherent and compelling it also provides meaning for the anger on the right and goes some way to explaining why it might not be well articulated by the man on the streat, but that they have a point.
I would hasten to add that I'm not arguing that Project 2025 is right, but instead that it's coherent and persuasive and unaccountably, the left is totally clueless of its contents, instead it's raised as a thought terminated accusation - if an idea can be linked to project 2025 it has been shown to have no merit.
Another interesting aspect is that many of the reforms in project 2025 originated in Democratic presidencies, which is to say the unaccountability and the inefficiency of the government sector has been seen as a bipartisan problem for some time (project 2025 references failed reforms initiated in the Carter administration!), and there is a very strong case to be made that Biden's weak and blinkered leadership greatly accelerated the dis-regulation. It should be obvious that if progressives are to carry out their many projects to improve society through safety nets, government services to the middle class and wealth equalizing measures, that it must make government more accountable and more efficient, that the current state of affairs puts the progressive project as a whole at risk. But comprehending that seems totally beyond the Democrats or the left more broadly.