An Evidence-Based Companion to "The Spark of Defiance"
I. The Diagnosis: An American Oligarchy
The central premise that the United States political system has been captured by a wealthy elite, rendering the preferences of ordinary citizens statistically insignificant, is substantiated by widespread public sentiment across the political spectrum. Polling data consistently reveals a deep, bipartisan consensus that the influence of money in politics is a primary national problem, aligning with the diagnosis of an American Oligarchy.
According to research from the Pew Research Center, the issue of “money in politics” ranks at the top of a list of “very big problems” facing the country. This concern is not confined to one political party; “vast majorities of Republicans and Democrats are worried about money’s influence,” indicating a shared perception that the system is no longer responsive to the general populace (1). This sentiment is so strong that an estimated 75% of Americans, or “three out of four,” support a constitutional amendment to end the dominance of large financial contributors in the political process (1). This figure closely mirrors the 77% cited in the primer who favor strict new limits on campaign spending (2).
This broad agreement among citizens, who are otherwise divided on many policy issues, demonstrates a shared diagnosis of the core problem. The perception is not one of partisan disagreement but of systemic corruption, where political outcomes are determined by financial power rather than the democratic will of the people. This alignment of public opinion across party lines suggests that the conventional narrative of left-versus-right political conflict may obscure a more fundamental division: that between the interests of the general public and those of a small, wealthy donor class. The data indicates that a political framework centered on this “people versus the oligarchy” conflict is more reflective of the population’s lived experience and concerns than one based on partisan animosity. It provides an empirical foundation for the assertion that a majority of Americans feel their voices have become “statistically irrelevant” in a system dominated by wealth (2).
II. The Blueprint for Dictatorship: Project 2025
The assertion that a detailed plan exists for a hostile takeover of American democracy is not a conspiracy theory but a documented reality. This plan is known as Project 2025, and its primary source documents, organizational structure, and funding are publicly available for verification.
A. Primary Source: The "Mandate for Leadership"
The foundational document of Project 2025 is a 920-page policy book titled Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise (3). Published in April 2023, this text serves as an operational playbook for a new conservative administration, outlining a comprehensive restructuring of the federal government. The full document is available for public review and independent verification through the Internet Archive (4).
Independent analyses by civil liberties organizations and policy institutes corroborate the radical nature of the plan. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) describes it as a “blueprint for a radical restructuring of the executive branch” and a “900-page manual for reorganizing the entire federal government agency by agency to serve a conservative agenda” (5). The policy group Democracy Forward characterizes it as a “systemic, ruthless plan to undermine the quality of life of millions of Americans” (6).
B. The Architects: The Heritage Foundation and the Project 2025 Coalition
Project 2025 is an official initiative of The Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. (3). The project is not the work of a single organization but represents a broad coalition effort. According to Democracy Forward, the Project 2025 Advisory Board is composed of more than 100 partner organizations that have contributed to its development (6). While the project’s official website does not provide a consolidated list of these partners (8), independent researchers have identified member organizations on the advisory board, including groups such as the Center for Renewing America, Concerned Women for America, and the Conservative Partnership Institute (10).
C. The Financiers: Tracing the Oligarchic Funding Network
The claim that Project 2025 is financed by a network of billionaire families is substantiated by extensive investigative financial reporting. This funding structure confirms that the project is not a grassroots effort but a top-down initiative bankrolled by a small class of hyper-wealthy donors whose ideological and financial interests align with the project's goals.
An investigation by the climate-focused media outlet DeSmog mapped the financial flows from foundations linked to six billionaire family fortunes, Bradley, Coors, Koch, Scaife, Seid, and Uihlein, to the constellation of groups that constitute the Project 2025 coalition. The analysis found that since 2020, these families have contributed over $122 million to 49 nonprofits affiliated with Project 2025 (11).
Specific funding trails to The Heritage Foundation and its key partners have been documented:
At least $9.6 million from foundations and groups affiliated with oil and gas magnate Charles G. Koch (11).
At least $13 million from groups affiliated with shipping supply magnates Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein (12).
At least $21.5 million from foundations linked to the Scaife Family, heirs to the Mellon aluminum, oil, and banking fortune (12).
$2.5 million from the Wisconsin-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation (13).
These financial contributions are often channeled through donor-advised funds, such as DonorsTrust and its affiliate Donors Capital Fund, which have been described as the “dark-money ATM of the conservative movement” (13). This practice allows the original source of the funds to be obscured while directing vast sums of money toward a coordinated political agenda.
D. The Stated Goal: "Deconstructing the Administrative State"
The primer’s assertion that the project’s explicit goal is to “deconstruct the administrative state” is a direct quote from the project’s own leadership. This phrase is not an external interpretation but the self-declared mission of the initiative, revealing its fundamentally anti-institutional and disruptive intent.
In the introduction to the project’s 180-day transition playbook, Paul Dans, the director of the Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project, writes: “Our goal is to assemble an army of aligned, vetted, trained, and prepared conservatives to go to work on Day One to deconstruct the Administrative State” (15). This quote is also cited in numerous independent analyses of the project (17).
This goal is echoed by key ideological allies of the project. Steve Bannon, a former Trump administration strategist, has publicly stated that he has been talking about “deconstructing the administrative state for a decade” (19). This consistency in language confirms that the project’s aim is not merely to reform or shrink government but to fundamentally dismantle the existing structures of federal governance, including its non-partisan civil service and regulatory agencies.
The project’s architects employ a dual-language strategy. In public-facing materials, they use democratic-sounding language, framing their work as an effort to “rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left” and fulfill a “conservative promise” (3). However, in their internal and operational documents, the language shifts to that of warfare and demolition: “assemble an army,” “deconstruct,” and seize the “commanding heights of the administrative state” (15). This rhetorical shift is a key feature of modern authoritarian movements, which often co-opt the vocabulary of freedom and democracy in order to justify plans that are designed to undermine them from within.
III. The Mechanics of the Plan
Project 2025 is not merely a collection of policy ideas but a detailed operational plan with specific legal and administrative mechanisms designed to achieve its objectives. The three central mechanics are the purge of the civil service via Schedule F, the capture of the legal system through an extreme interpretation of the unitary executive theory, and the imposition of a theocratic social agenda.
A. The Purge: The History and Planned Reinstatement of Schedule F
The primary tool for dismantling the professional, non-partisan civil service is an executive action known as Schedule F. This classification scheme is designed to eliminate employment protections for tens of thousands of federal workers, enabling their mass removal and replacement with political loyalists.
Origin and Function: Schedule F was created by President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 13957, signed on October 21, 2020 (21). The order established a new category within the “excepted service” for career federal employees in positions deemed to be of a “confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character” (21). Reclassifying a position to Schedule F would strip its occupant of merit-based civil service protections, effectively making them an at-will employee who could be fired for any reason, or no reason at all (22). This would allow a president to purge the federal workforce of individuals deemed insufficiently loyal to the administration’s agenda.
Revocation and Planned Reinstatement: Executive Order 13957 was formally revoked by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. via Executive Order 14003 on January 22, 2021 (23). However, the architects of Project 2025 have made its reinstatement a Day One priority. A draft executive order, titled “Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce,” has been prepared for a future conservative president. Its text is unambiguous: “Executive Order 13957 of October 21, 2020 (Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service), is hereby immediately reinstated with full force and effect” (25). The existence of this pre-written order confirms a deliberate and calculated plan to execute this purge at the earliest possible moment of a new administration.
B. Capturing the Law: The Unitary Executive Theory and the Assault on DOJ Independence
The legal and constitutional justification for consolidating power within the executive is a radical interpretation of the "unitary executive theory." This theory is used to argue for the complete subordination of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other law enforcement agencies to the political will of the president.
Legal Theory: The unitary executive theory, in its most extreme form, posits that the president possesses sole and absolute constitutional authority over the entire executive branch (26). A central tenet of this theory is the president’s unfettered removal power, which asserts that the president can fire any appointed official within the executive branch at will, without needing to provide a cause (26).
Application to the Department of Justice: Project 2025 explicitly calls for the dismantling of the post-Watergate norm that the DOJ should operate with a degree of independence from the White House to ensure the impartial rule of law. Key figures associated with the project have openly expressed contempt for this principle. Jeffrey Clark, a former Trump administration DOJ official and a contributor to the project’s legal thinking, has publicly stated that the idea of an independent DOJ is an “illusion” and a “very pernicious” norm that is both “ridiculous” and “unconstitutional” (20). He has dismissed the foundational principles of post-Watergate reforms by asking, “Who cares about post-Watergate norms?” (20). This statement directly confirms the primer’s claim that the plan is to transform the DOJ from an instrument of the people into a personal weapon of the president, to be used to reward allies and punish political enemies.
C. The Theocratic Crusade: Documenting the Policy Assault on Personal Freedoms
With the machinery of government captured, the Project 2025 blueprint details a sweeping crusade to impose a narrow, theocratic social order on the country. This involves using the full power of the federal government to roll back established rights related to reproductive freedom, LGBTQ+ equality, and secular education.
Reproductive Freedom: The plan outlines a strategy to enforce a nationwide ban on abortion, even without new legislation from Congress. It calls for reviving the archaic, 19th-century Comstock Act to criminalize the mailing of any medications, supplies, or materials related to abortion (5). This would effectively outlaw medication abortion in every state. The plan also calls for the executive branch to reverse the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) long-standing approval of mifepristone, a safe and effective abortion medication (5).
LGBTQ+ Rights: The project details an administrative assault designed to erase the legal existence and rights of LGBTQ+ people, particularly transgender individuals. It proposes a legal redefinition of “sex” across the federal government to mean only biological sex assigned at birth, a move intended to invalidate the identity of transgender people (3). This would be used to justify the removal of federal non-discrimination protections in healthcare, housing, and employment, and to permit faith-based organizations with federal contracts to discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals (5).
Education: The blueprint advocates for the systemic dismantling of public education. It calls for promoting school voucher programs that would drain public tax dollars from secular public schools and redirect them to private and religious institutions, including those that are permitted to discriminate (5). The plan also targets early childhood education, calling for the complete elimination of federal programs like Head Start, which serves over one million children annually (6).
IV. The True American Center: Evidence for a Coherent Vision
The policy agenda outlined in Project 2025 stands in stark contrast to the expressed preferences of the American public. An examination of public opinion data reveals that the primer's alternative vision, built on the pillars of true democracy, economic dignity, justice as repair, and planetary duty, is not a fringe or partisan fantasy but reflects the true American center. The data empirically demonstrates that the agenda of the oligarchic machine is deeply unpopular, while the vision of a more democratic, fair, and inclusive nation commands a broad, often bipartisan, majority.
A. Pillar One: True Democracy
Across the political spectrum, Americans agree on the urgent need to repair and strengthen our democratic process. Large majorities support reforms that reduce the influence of money in politics and ensure fair representation for all.
Roughly three-quarters of Americans (75–77%) favor imposing strict new limits on campaign spending, with strong bipartisan agreement (1). Ending partisan gerrymandering draws similar support, 75% overall, including 83% of Democrats, 76% of independents, and 66% of Republicans (27). Likewise, 63% support using independent commissions to handle redistricting, a reform backed by a majority of Republicans (57%) (28).
Practical measures to increase voter access also receive broad endorsement. Seventy-six percent favor guaranteeing at least two weeks of early voting (2), and 72% support making Election Day a national holiday (2).
These numbers reveal a rare point of unity: the people want a democracy that works for everyone, not just the powerful.
Proof of Concept: The Case of "Voters Not Politicians" in Michigan
The public’s desire for democratic reform is not merely a polling artifact; it has been translated into successful political action. The case of Michigan’s anti-gerrymandering movement provides a powerful example of how a citizen-led initiative can overcome entrenched political interests.
In 2016, following the presidential election, a 27-year-old citizen named Katie Fahey posted a message on Facebook asking if anyone was interested in taking on gerrymandering in Michigan (31). That single post ignited a non-partisan, grassroots movement called Voters Not Politicians (VNP). The all-volunteer organization undertook the monumental task of amending the state constitution via a citizen-led ballot initiative (33). After collecting over 425,000 signatures and surviving legal challenges from the political establishment, their proposal to create an independent citizens’ redistricting commission was placed on the November 2018 ballot (31).
The proposal passed with 61% of the vote, winning in 67 of the state’s 83 counties and demonstrating broad, cross-partisan appeal that transcended the state’s traditional political divides (31). Today, Michigan’s electoral maps are drawn by a commission of ordinary citizens in a transparent process, resulting in some of the fairest and most competitive elections in the state’s recent history (37). The success of VNP serves as a living blueprint for how the public’s overwhelming support for democratic reform can be channeled into concrete, system-altering change.
B. Pillar Two: Economic Dignity
The core principles of economic fairness, a living wage, the right of workers to organize, and a strong social safety net, are not radical or divisive. They are supported by a durable majority of Americans, who believe the economy should serve the well-being of all citizens, not just the wealthy few.
Support for raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour ranges from roughly 62% to 67%, and in 2020, 60.8% of Florida voters approved a $15 wage despite the state’s conservative lean (38). Approval of labor unions stands at 71%, the highest point in over half a century (41).
Americans also overwhelmingly reject cuts to key social programs. Seventy-nine percent oppose cuts to Social Security, with 85% of Americans aged 50 and older strongly opposed (44). Similarly, 85% of Americans over 50 oppose cuts to Medicare, including 86% of Republicans and 87% of Democrats in that age group (45).
Proof of Concept: The Case of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU)
The resurgence in public support for organized labor is reflected in a new wave of organizing, exemplified by the historic victory at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York. In March 2020, an Amazon worker named Chris Smalls was fired after organizing a walkout to protest unsafe working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic (49). Rather than being silenced, Smalls and a small group of fellow workers formed the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), an independent, worker-led organizing committee (49).
With minimal resources and no backing from an established national union, the ALU engaged in a years-long, on-the-ground campaign, building solidarity through thousands of one-on-one conversations with their coworkers (49). They withstood a multi-million-dollar anti-union campaign waged by Amazon, which included mandatory propaganda meetings and intense corporate pressure (50).
In April 2022, the workers at the JFK8 warehouse voted 2,654 to 2,131 to unionize, marking the first successful unionization of an Amazon facility in United States history (50). The victory, a modern-day David-and-Goliath story, sent a shockwave through the national labor landscape and has inspired further organizing efforts. The ALU has since voted to affiliate with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to leverage greater resources in its ongoing fight for a contract (52). This case demonstrates that even in the face of overwhelming corporate power, the principles of solidarity and collective action can empower workers to reclaim their economic dignity.
C. Pillar Three: Justice as Repair
The narrative that America is irredeemably fractured by “culture wars” is a strategic falsehood meant to preserve division. On foundational questions of social justice, the American public has shown a clear and growing consensus for inclusion, equality, and personal freedom.
Support for marriage equality stands at 71% as of 2023, and has remained at or above 67% since 2020 (54). On reproductive freedom, 63% believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, with support consistent across age, race, and education levels (56).
During the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, the largest protest wave in U.S. history, 67% of Americans expressed support (57).
Proof of Concept 1: The 2022 Kansas Abortion Referendum
Direct electoral evidence confirms that the public’s support for reproductive freedom is a powerful political force. In August 2022, just weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the conservative-leaning state of Kansas held a statewide referendum on a constitutional amendment known as “Value Them Both” (58). A “yes” vote would have removed the right to abortion from the Kansas Constitution, allowing the state legislature to ban it entirely (58).
Despite the state’s conservative political landscape, voters rejected the amendment by a decisive 18-point margin, with 59.16% voting “no” to protect abortion rights and 40.84% voting “yes” (58). The result was driven by a surge in voter turnout, particularly among women and young people, demonstrating that when the right to choose is put directly to a vote, a pro-choice majority emerges, even in unexpected places (58).
Proof of Concept 2: The Removal of the Robert E. Lee Monument in Richmond
The work of “justice as repair” involves confronting and correcting historical falsehoods that perpetuate harm in the present. For over a century, the monumental statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, stood as a powerful symbol of the “Lost Cause” mythology and the endurance of white supremacy (61).
Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the space around the monument was reclaimed by a multi-racial coalition of protesters and community members. The graffiti-covered pedestal was transformed from a symbol of oppression into a living monument of protest art and a site for community gathering (61). After a series of legal challenges were overcome, the state of Virginia officially removed the 60-foot statue on September 8, 2021 (61). The removal was met not with riots but with widespread public celebration, as citizens cheered, sang, and wept (65). This act represented a community’s collective decision to stop honoring a monument to a treasonous rebellion fought in defense of slavery, and to begin the difficult but necessary work of telling the truth about its past in order to build a more honest future.
D. Pillar Four: Planetary Duty
Despite the common narrative of partisan division, Americans share a broad consensus on the need to confront the climate crisis and transition to a clean energy economy. The desire to act as good ancestors, protecting the planet for future generations, forms a clear mandate for bold climate action.
Eighty percent of registered voters support increased funding for renewable energy (66). Sixty-six percent favor a full transition from fossil fuels to 100% clean energy (2). Roughly 77% support developing more solar and wind power, including 90% of Democrats and 65% of Republicans (2).
Proof of Concept: The Case of Held v. Montana
The moral and legal imperative to protect the planet for future generations has been powerfully articulated by the youth climate movement. In a landmark case, Held v. Montana, sixteen young plaintiffs, ranging in age from five to twenty-two, sued their state government (67). They argued that the state’s policies actively promoting the extraction and burning of fossil fuels violated their right to a “clean and healthful environment,” a right guaranteed in the Montana state constitution (67).
In August 2023, a Montana court issued a historic ruling in favor of the youth plaintiffs. For the first time in American history, a court affirmed that a stable climate system is a constitutionally protected right and that the government’s actions promoting fossil fuels were unconstitutional (67). The ruling established a powerful legal precedent and a profound moral victory, demonstrating that future generations have a legal and constitutional right to a livable planet, and that current governments have a sacred duty to protect it. The case embodies the principle of planetary duty in action, led by the very generation that will inherit the consequences of our choices.
V. The Method of Liberation: The Strategic Efficacy of Non-Violence
The primer's advocacy for strategic non-violence is not based on a utopian ideal but on a rigorous analysis of historical data and strategic logic. A substantial body of academic research and a deep well of American historical precedent demonstrate that disciplined, non-violent resistance is not only the most ethical means of struggle but also the most effective.
A. The Unarmed Truth: Academic Evidence for the Superiority of Non-Violent Resistance
The strategic advantage of non-violence has been empirically established by the landmark research of political scientists Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan. In their book, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, they analyzed an original dataset of 323 major violent and non-violent resistance campaigns that took place between 1900 and 2006 (68).
Their findings are conclusive: non-violent resistance campaigns are more than twice as likely to achieve their stated goals as violent insurgencies (68). The data shows that non-violent campaigns achieved full or partial success 53% of the time, whereas violent campaigns succeeded only 26% of the time (68).
Further analysis of this data led Chenoweth to identify what is now known as the “3.5% rule.” This principle holds that no government or regime has been able to withstand a challenge when at least 3.5% of its population has actively and sustainedly participated in a non-violent campaign (70). This is not because 3.5% constitutes a majority, but because this level of active, disruptive participation signals a profound loss of legitimacy and makes it impossible for the regime to continue governing. Non-violent movements are more capable of achieving this threshold because they have lower barriers to entry, they do not require physical fitness or access to weapons, and can therefore mobilize a much broader and more diverse coalition of participants.
B. An American Heritage of Non-Violent Struggle: Historical Precedents
The practice of strategic non-violence is not a foreign concept; it is a core component of the American tradition of liberation. Every major expansion of freedom in United States history was driven not by conventional warfare alone, but by organized campaigns of non-violent civil resistance.
The Colonial Revolution: Long before the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, American colonists waged a successful decade-long campaign of economic non-cooperation against the British Empire. Through organized boycotts of British goods following the Stamp Act of 1765, non-importation agreements, and the promotion of homespun goods by groups like the Daughters of Liberty, the colonists inflicted severe economic damage on British merchants (74). This mass civil disobedience functionally established a state of independence and, as John Adams later argued, constituted the true revolution that took place “in the minds and hearts of the people” before the war ever began (2).
The Abolitionist Movement: The movement to end slavery wielded powerful non-violent weapons against a system of brutal violence. Abolitionists organized petition drives that flooded Congress, conducted boycotts of goods produced with slave labor, and used newspapers and pamphlets to expose the moral horror of slavery to the nation (75). The most courageous form of their resistance was the Underground Railroad, a massive, clandestine network of civil disobedience. By defying the federal Fugitive Slave Act, thousands of ordinary citizens, Black and white, risked imprisonment and violence to help enslaved people escape to freedom, asserting a higher moral law over the unjust laws of the state (75).
The Women's Suffrage Movement: After decades of being ignored, the women’s suffrage movement escalated its tactics in the early 20th century. Led by organizers like Alice Paul, the National Woman’s Party engaged in confrontational, yet peaceful, acts of moral witness. In 1917, they became the first group in U.S. history to picket the White House (76). These “Silent Sentinels” stood vigil for years, enduring arrest and imprisonment. In jail, they launched hunger strikes and were subjected to brutal force-feedings by authorities (76). When the story of their suffering became public, it created a wave of revulsion that shamed the government and President Woodrow Wilson, forcing him to finally endorse the suffrage amendment. They demonstrated how the state’s violence, when met with disciplined non-violence, can backfire and expose its own moral bankruptcy.
The Labor Movement: The foundational rights of American workers, the eight-hour day, the weekend, and basic workplace safety, were not granted by corporations but won through struggle. The primary weapon of the labor movement was the strike, a powerful form of non-violent non-cooperation (77). By collectively withdrawing their labor, workers could bring the most powerful industries to a standstill. Strikes like the “Bread and Roses” strike of 1912 demonstrated how organized solidarity could force powerful corporate interests to concede to demands for better wages and human dignity (2).
The Civil Rights Movement: The Black freedom movement of the mid-20th century was a masterclass in strategic non-violence. Facing a system of apartheid enforced by terror, the movement, under the philosophical guidance of leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., chose the weapon of “soul force” (78). This was not passive acceptance but a meticulously planned campaign of non-violent direct action. Organizers like Rev. James Lawson trained students in Gandhian methods in church basements, preparing them to endure violence without retaliation (79). The sit-ins, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the Freedom Rides were designed to expose the brutality of the Jim Crow system to the nation and the world (79).
This strategy of “political jiu-jitsu” turned the segregationists’ greatest strength, their capacity for violence, into their greatest weakness. Televised images of peaceful protesters being brutally attacked by police dogs and firehoses shocked the national conscience, eroded the legitimacy of the segregationist regime, and ultimately compelled the federal government to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (2). The movement provided an undeniable, American-made blueprint for how a dedicated, non-violent movement can defeat a deeply entrenched system of oppression.
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