Folks in The Bronx are fighters. We care about all the issues that affect our lives and shape our communities. Healthcare, housing, justice, and education are top priorities, but some of the pundits would have you believe that threats to democracy itself are less important to our citizens. Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

I’ve lived and worked in neighborhoods across The Bronx for my entire life. Many of my neighbors and friends are first generation Americans, as am I. Like my own family, many escaped war, authoritarian rule, and ongoing violence in their countries of origin. We get it. That is why the alarm bells are ringing for us as we come to understand the full extent of the MAGA plan to transform our society.

 

Project 2025 is a nine-hundred-page document that methodically describes the plan to end democracy and our constitutional protections here in the United States. It is a playbook for Republicans that outlines steps that they will take if they gain power next year. It’s focused on attacking our rights, undermining our votes, and giving hand-outs to billionaires.

 

The armed forces would be used within our own borders to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants for deportation. When Trump speaks of immigrants “poisoning the blood of the nation,” he’s borrowing a phrase from Adolf Hitler. Trump has repeatedly lauded the Heritage Foundation and the authors of the Project 2025 playbook. At least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in putting together this manifesto for overhauling our government.

 

The threat is real, and the Bronx says no! Vote for Kamala Harris and don’t forget to vote in all the down-ballot races too. We will need a Congress willing to work to restore our rights. Reproductive freedom is just one of those endangered rights. There’s much that’s imperfect in our democracy, but we must preserve it so that we can continue the fight for equality and justice.

 

Together, we can do it, and we can only do it together.

 

Silvia Blumenfeld is a Bronx resident and a member of Northwest Bronx Indivisible.

 

Editor’s Note: Republican candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump has recently sought to distance himself from allegations that he plans to implement Project 25, if elected, though his prior comments would suggest otherwise and some political insiders allege he is very much aware of the project’s goals as they relate to his campaign.