Kevin Roberts believes he’s a noble defender of “real America” against a totalitarian “woke,” “globalist” assault from without and within.
“Project 2025” is his declaration of war on multiracial pluralism.
I wrote about his extremist worldview here:
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thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/project-20...
Heritage Foundation president celebrates Supreme Court presidential immunity ruling: "We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be" www.mediamatters.org/project-2025...
I took a deep dive into the “Promise to America” Heritage president Kevin Roberts has offered in his foreword to the "Project 2025" report: It perfectly captures the siege mentality, self-victimization, and grievance-driven lust for revenge that are fueling the Right's plans. 2/
Kevin Roberts is not some moderate imposter who pretends to be hardcore so that he can blend in with the MAGAs because that is the direction the wind is blowing. He is a reactionary Catholic and part of the Religious Right – a true believer in the reactionary political project. 3/
“Project 2025” isn’t just about power in Washington. The Reactionary Right’s goal is to re-establish political, societal, and cultural dominance in all spheres of life and turn the clock back to before what Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts calls “the Great Awokening.” 4/
The Right’s plans for a return to power are driven by a desperate sense that nothing short of a reactionary counter-revolution will suffice to save nation from the onslaught of fundamentally anti-American woke,” “globalist” forces - and that there is very little time left to pull it off. 5/
There is, in this view of the world, no room for compromise, no justification for restraint: “Time is running short. If we fail, the fight for the very idea of America may be lost.” 2024, according to Roberts, is the “last opportunity to save our republic.” And destroy the “woke” Left. 6/
According to Roberts, the domestic “woke” agenda is connected to America’s foreign enemies. He sees only two underlying dangers that are constantly colluding and conspiring to bring America down: Totalitarian China abroad and totalitarian “woke” elites at home, working together. 7/
There is, in Kevin Roberts’ view of the world, really only one enemy, one devil, that seeks to destroy America, this once great nation of freedom and virtue: Communism, fascism, progressivism, “wokeism,” it is all just the same, all just different disguises of socialism. 8/
Analytically, this is complete nonsense. But such an understanding of the enemy is pervasive on the Right. It provides the basis on which Republican Party, conservative establishment, and reactionary intellectual sphere have all given themselves permission to radicalize. 9/
It is difficult to convey to people who don’t pay much attention to politics how much the power centers of conservative politics have been taken over by anti-democratic extremism. Meanwhile, rightwing leaders are maximally clear about the reactionary vision they want to impose on the country. 10/
Much of this sounds like Marjorie Taylor Greene might have said it to rile up the base. “This is Heritage, you know, not some fringe group on the right,” Roberts said in a New York Times interview. He is correct: This is what defines the center of conservative politics today. 11/