A lot of attention has been given lately to Project 2025, a 900+ page blueprint for a second Trump administration produced by the collective efforts of many conservative activists and published by the Heritage Foundation.
The report is highly specific, addressing each federal agency on a program-by-program basis. It can be hard to sink your teeth into Project 2025. There is so much jargon, so many specifics, so many agencies and programs, so much detail, it can be hard to understand the broad thrust of the document. This paper looks at just a single federal agency: the Census.
I never appreciated the scope and importance of the Census until my opportunity to serve as Adams County’s Complete Count Director during the 2020 Census. There are few agencies where it’s more important to keep politics out. The Census generates financial information and forecasts that governments and businesses rely on for developing growth plans. The numbers must be trustworthy. All the economic plans in the country are worthless if these numbers are suspect.
But the Census count is even more important. It’s used to determine who gets how much federal resources and it directly affects political power: apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives, electoral votes, and state legislative seats.
So it’s worrisome to read in the third sentence:
… will require that both committed political appointees and like-minded career employees are immediately put in place to execute a conservative agenda.
This is a statement about far more than the conduct of the Census, though it says plenty about that. But it’s really a statement about government: that everything is partisan, that the point of government is to reward your allies and screw your adversaries.
It is indeed true that local communities approach the census count from a self-interested perspective: they want every bit of representation and very federal dollar they can get. But the people doing the counting should be scrupulously non-partisan; they (should) want the most accurate count possible.
It’s important to emphasize that the Census isn’t concerned with the morals of whether you’re living with your boyfriend, or whether that extra “roommate” who sleeps on the couch is in violation of the lease, or whether someone is here legally. Red, white, brown, green, or blue; married or unmarried; gay or straight; citizen or non-citizen: a person is a person is a person. If you live in Adams County, we want to count you.
Reading on, we find a concern about “lack of conservative participation” in the partnership program during he 2020 census. The partnership program, according to the document, aims to “promote responsiveness to the census by employing trusted voices in various communities.” It’s hard to emphasize how much against Census norms – and how wrong-headed – that statement is. There is general consensus that disadvantaged communities, Hispanics, the homeless, Native Americans, low income families, immigrants, and other disadvantaged groups are the hardest to count and represent the highest risk of an undercount. Little point would be served by pushing turnout aggressively in affluent white suburbs – they already filled out the form. In Adams County, we concluded at the outset of our effort that our biggest challenge was likely to be the community of Spanish speakers concentrated around the fruit industry. And, indeed, the highly detailed analyses from the Census showed us exactly where our count problem was: Spanish speaking households in York Springs and other up-county areas. And to communicate with them, we needed people they knew and trusted. Hiring someone to do outreach at The Links would have been pointless.
Of course, we need to understand that the authors of the 2025 report are the aggrieved group who contend that there indeed is a victim class in America that needs civil rights protection from rampant discrimination: white men. So perhaps it’s unsurprising that their complaint about 2020 is that “lack of conservative participation was one factor in an undercount …” Oh, if only they had been able to reach those hidden masses in The Villages.
Other worrisome comments include:
- Any successful conservative administration must include a citizenship question … which won’t gather any information the Census needs – unless it’s being made part of the immigration enforcement apparatus – but will suppress the count among immigrant groups.
- The data under Biden Administration proposals could be used to bolster progressive political agendas.
This is a Blueprint for an administration that views the Census not as an objective data collection and analysis group, but as an instrument of the partisan, redistricting project – and possibly immigration enforcement. When we were working on the 2020 census, we found a surprising level of suspicion – from all sides of the political spectrum – of the Census Bureau’s motives. Militia types thought it was a precursor to gun confiscation and FEMA Camps; immigrants feared deportation. In 2020, it was at least possible to assure suspicious people that their data was totally safe. In 2030, my counterpart might have to say, “Well, yeah, you’re quite right to be concerned.”
One small agency, but it makes the point. This is Project 2025: a deep digging, sophisticated effort to politicize EVERYTHING the government does. But I suppose if you grew up believing Steve Bannon’s nonsense about a “deep state” developing your weather forecasts and inspecting meat packing plants, then I suppose a “do it to them before thy do it to you” view of the government makes sense. For those of us living in the reality-based world, it’s a scary vision.
Leon Reed, freelance reporter, is a former US Senate staff member, defense consultant, and history teacher. He is a 10 year resident of Gettysburg, where he writes military history and explores the park and the Adams County countryside. He is the publisher at Little Falls Books, chaired the Adams County 2020 Census Complete Count Committee and is on the board of SCCAP. He and his wife, Lois, have 3 children, 3 cats, and 5 grandchildren.
Project 2025, overall, is a big reason to Vote Blue across the board. Seeing one party so determined to gain and retain power forever by this plan is scary. Trump claims he doesn’t know about it or support it, but it’s many in his staff who created it and Vance certainly supports it. Does anyone seriously believe Trump?
I’ve been registered and usually voting red most of my adult life. I’m still registered red, but wow, has my party changed under Trump, and not for the better.
For what it is worth, I think it is the citizens’ lack of knowledge of how the legal system works and how one “consents” to be governed by and subject to the government’s civil laws that are causing so much anger and hatred being expressed among the people. If you are registered to vote as a citizen of the United States, and, even if you do not vote, it is my understanding that by registering to vote you are presumed to have “consented” to be governed by the civil policy, rules, and regulations – i.e. civil laws – put in… Read more »
You obviously are devoted to the letter of what is written, no doubt. I see the documents you cite written centuries ago by intelligent men who would be turning over in their graves if they were to come back and see how unwilling many currently are to have updated their views based upon what we know now, via science, experience, etc. Would we do the same with medicine? Technology? Keep these, and other things like it, only current to the 1700s (or 1800s) era? I doubt they would want to see so many dying in our country due to the… Read more »
What do you now know by science, experience, reason, and common sense that makes you think you know that “most of these people coming across the southern border [illegally] are “interested in helping the country” as you wrote? How exactly are the ones that have already illegally come across the border presently helping the country? Scientifically speaking and using your experience and common sense, what percentage of these people entering the country illegally are actually harming the country? What do you mean by saying, “All people should be equal?” Equal – Means alike with respect to rights. The word “equal”… Read more »
Mr. Reed, what evidence do you have to support your position that for 24 rounds of the census, every human body was counted unless specifically excluded.” Decennial Census of Population and Housing – The U.S. census counts every resident in the United States. It is mandated by Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution and takes place every 10 years. – Census Bureau. Resident – Any person who occupies a dwelling within the State, has a present intent to remain within the State for a period of time, and manifests the genuineness of that intent by establishing an ongoing physical… Read more »
I’d like to thank Jim Neely for a perfect illustration of exactly the problem with the possible “conservative” takeover of the Census. For 24 rounds of the census, there was no confusion about who gets counted: every human body unless specifically excluded. Excluded were “Indians not taxed” and of course the notorious 3/5s clause. No debates about “of” or “in.” No reference to dictionaries that weren’t written until 40 years later. We count everyone. That’s never been at issue in any census. Mr. Neely has laid out a logical and plausible rationale for changing all this, presumably to exclude non-citizens.… Read more »
What is the legal definition of the term “census?” Census – The official counting or enumeration of people of [not “in”] a state, nation, district, or other political subdivision. Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th. Edition. What is the legal definition of the term “Federal census?” Federal census. A census of each state or territory or a certain state or of any subdivision or portion of any state provided it is taken by and under the direction and supervision of the Census Bureau of the United States and approved and certified by it as the census of that state or subdivision. Black’s… Read more »
I’d like to thank Mr. Neely for his civil manner. But at the risk of unleashing another torrent of quotes from dictionaries, I have to get the discussion back to my point: the census. My original point is that Project 2025’s view of a “conservative census” was a vision to make the Census part of the partisan redistricting project – and perhaps the immigrant deportation project. The Census DOES NOT limit itself to citizens or people with green cards. It counts every resident. In my answer I carelessly used the term “every human body” but the distinction we’re arguing about… Read more »
Mr. Reed, we now agree that “residents” are to be counted, not every”human body” in the State as you wrote. I am not arguing with you I just wanted to point out that only residents in the State are to be counted. . My question was, are illegal aliens by legal definition “resident aliens” or “nonresident aliens?” Would you agree, that if they are “resident aliens” they are to be counted in the Census? If they are “nonresident aliens” do you think they also should be counted? At the risk of upsetting you with a torrent of definitions from a… Read more »
There is nothing in the least bit complicated about THAT question. Yes, they are to be counted. And if Project 2025 brings in a “conservative census,” they won’t be. The result on the economic analysis side will be, those studies will pretend they’re not there. So for developers, those potential shoppers or homeowners won’t exist. Those potential students won’t exist for the people planning school expansions. And so forth. And, of course, when it comes time to divvy up school aid and the like, the formula will pretend those students don’t exist. So we’ll still be educating them, we just… Read more »
The 2020 Census forms were addressed “TO RESIDENT” at a certain address in PA. These Census forms were not addressed and sent “TO NONRESIDENTS. But, to you, there is nothing in the least bit complicated about the question as to who is to be counted. You wrote, “Yes, they [nonresident aliens] are to be counted” even though the Census forms are sent only “TO RESIDENTS.” at a certain address. You want to continue counting nonresident aliens as “resident aliens” for commercial purposes so developers will know those potential shoppers, homeowners, and potential students exist for people planning school expansions. If… Read more »
Jim, I run up the white flag. I surrender. You own more dictionaries than I do and you are a human border collie of argumentation. No matter how many times I answer you, no matter how many times I point out your errors, there is always one more dictionary, one more definition that has utterly no relevance to the matter at hand. Before I start, I caught you. You denied you’re a sovereign citizen, but then you write this “Amendment 14 claimed to have been ratified in 1868 …” Gotcha!!! I know that BS sovereign citizen argument. First to deal… Read more »