DANIEL MCCLOUD

“The world has changed. I see it in the water.
I feel it in the Earth. I smell it in the air.
Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien

These words are from the opening monologue of the first film in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, “The Fellowship of the Ring,” based on the novels by J.R.R. Tolkien.

So, has the world changed, and what was lost now forgotten? Could those things have stayed the same and only forgotten? Maybe those things weren’t forgotten, only reimagined and introduced to a new generation.

If we use this movie analogy as a lens to view the current political climate, then Project 2025 would be a sequel to the Southern Strategy. It would continue the story with different actors and more shock and awe.

The Southern Strategy was a campaign maneuver of the Republican Party that sought to increase support from White voters in the South by embracing racial segregation and racial discrimination at the expense of Black voters. The strategy promoted “conservative” views on immigration, social welfare programs, law enforcement, taxes, and states’ rights.

The prequel

However, before I go further, let me start by providing context:

Before the Civil War, up through the 1940s, the Democratic Party supported traditional slavery and the racist views of segregation, discrimination, and oppression of Black voters. While the Republican Party was against slavery’s expansion into the West and post-Civil War Reconstruction, it promoted equal civil rights for Blacks.

But, just like any good movie, there is a plot twist. During the late 1930s, portions of the Democratic Party began to separate and begin to embrace policies focused on ending racial, economic, and religious discrimination. Out of protest, the Democratic Party splintered and formed a group that remained focused on racism and segregation.

The States’ Rights Democratic Party, also known as the Dixiecrats, was led by Strom Thurmond, who was ultimately defeated in the 1948 Presidential election won by Harry S Truman. However, despite the loss by Thurmond, it sent a message that the views of this new party were not to be ignored, resulting in the Democratic Party losing more Southern White voters because of their embrace of a more equality focused platform.

Meanwhile, Western Republicans had begun to adopt more conservative and racially biased views as opposed to Eastern Republicans, who still embraced and supported civil rights. The Western Republicans’ views began to align with Southern politicians, who started to take harder stances on (Chinese) immigration, (lower) taxes, smaller government, and reduced government spending. Sound familiar?

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were sponsored primarily by the National Democratic Party, which infuriated Southern Democrats and played a huge role in the Southern voter’s shift from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.

With this shift, the Republican Party’s message was that it was the Democratic Party that promoted racial division (while using the Democratic Party’s history as evidence and ignoring the shift in both parties’ philosophies) and supported special interests such as civil rights and Blacks.

The Republican message further expanded to include attacks on the federal government, which the party said supported social justice issues such as inclusion (sound familiar? See DEI) and increased taxes. At the root of the Southern Strategy was the message that the Democratic Party’s policies were unAmerican and took away the rights of “real Americans.” Ironically, if executed properly, the Southern Strategy would cause “true Americans,” to view “the others” as people who sought to undermine the definition of what it means to be an American. During the 1960s Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon relied heavily on these strategies in their presidential campaigns, as did Ronald Reagan, years later.

Fast forward to 2025, and we see from the sequel, Project 2025, that all was not forgotten, and there are those who still live who remember. An examination of this document will show many of the strategies and philosophies of the original Southern Strategy, although far more expansive and detailed (more shock and awe).

But much that once was, thankfully, was not lost. For just as hope was present before, hope remains now. In these times of uncertainty, we must ask ourselves — not our leaders — what is good and right. We must recognize that we are all Americans and not “others.” Otherwise, the next film in this series will be titled “The Divided States of America.” And as we all know, the third sequel is usually terrible and not worth the cost.