In the year since Donald Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2025, we saw the unfolding of a decades-long plan to reshape America.
For some, namely the crafters of Project 2025, this was a moment to implement the policies that best represented their values and to establish the America of their dreams.
For others, 2025 was far from a dream. It was a rude awakening, with many lingering questions about who belongs in America and who should benefit from its bounty.
The writers and supporters of Project 2025 had years to develop this multi-pronged “America First” plan – rolling back DEI, dismantling the Department of Education, limiting immigration and enacting mass deportations and detainments.
One of my biggest takeaways was just how fragile the infrastructure is that undergirds America. Some of our most necessary systems were already broken, such as health care, housing, and education. The upending of these sectors illuminated the weak spots that had been there for years.
We experienced one of the most extended government shutdowns in history. As Democrats held out for more sustainable terms for health care subsidies, I couldn’t help but to think that we may be missing a solution because we haven’t been asking the right questions. Why do we need subsidies anyway?
The disruption of SNAP benefits in the latter part of 2025 showed the vast disparities between Americans. Many believed that some folks were hungry because they just weren’t working hard enough. Others knew too well that many Americans are working full-time and not earning enough money to feed themselves or their families. Again, I wonder if we’re even asking the right question.
Instead of asking the government why they would take away benefits from hardworking Americans, can we start asking why these hardworking Americans aren’t earning a living wage? Why would people who are working 40 or more hours per week, living in one of the richest nations in the world, need government assistance to eat?
This year we saw the questioning of museum exhibits and cultural institutions that did not align with the “America First” ideology. Even the Smithsonian was under investigation, being accused of “revisionist history.” But the question we ought to ask is why accurate American history was not taught from the beginning.
Stacey Abrams, an attorney, voting rights activist, and a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives, shared the playbook for authoritarianism. Abrams is on a nationwide campaign to “resist and reverse” this from occurring.
The U.S. is not immune to succumbing to this playbook, as many other countries have done over time.
Here are the 10 steps to autocracy and authoritarianism according to Abrams.
- Win the last fair election.
- Expand executive power.
- Capture the other branches.
- Gut the government.
- Install loyalists.
- Attack the media.
- Scapegoat vulnerable communities.
- Destroy support systems.
- Normalize violence.
- End democracy itself.
Since Trump began his second term, we learned that 1) the president has a lot more power than we thought and 2) checks and balances only work if you work them.
If we’ve learned nothing else, we cannot take for granted the institutions that collectively form America. And we are all responsible for upholding the America we envision.
Camike Jones is Indianapolis Recorder editor-in-chief