The press spent years trying to frame the Trump administration as an existential threat to the country. Now that a real threat has emerged, they are nowhere to be found.
During the 2024 presidential race, we were told repeatedly that a Trump victory would mean the end of democracy as we know it. As soon as he won, he’d implement the “mysterious and sinister” (yes, they really said that) Project 2025 and overhaul the institutions that protect our freedoms.
Now, as the midterms approach, the Democratic Socialists of America has released a document of its own. Unlike Project 2025, the Workers Deserve More platform actually does call for the direct overhaul of our country’s foundational institutions. Yet there’s just a slight asymmetry in how the media is reacting.
Let’s examine the press coverage of the two proposals.
Two years ago, The Guardian featured an accusation during the campaign warning that Project 2025 was a “dystopian plot” that would “abolish checks and balances.” There was, of course, nothing in the document that could substantiate this claim in the slightest.
Now here’s a direct quote from the DSA platform: “Replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.” Now I’m no Clarence Thomas, but I’m fairly certain that making two branches of government “subordinate” to the third is the very definition of abolishing checks and balances.
Still waiting on The Guardian to clear that one up for me.
In 2024, Time Magazine wrote that Project 2025 would grant President Trump “absolute power” and that its enactment would constitute “the shredding of the Constitution.”
The funny thing is, we’re halfway through the term and the Constitution is conspicuously unshredded. Not that Time was rushing to publish a retraction at any point over the past couple of years.
It’s especially odd that in 2025, the culminating year of right-wing autocracy, Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral election, kicking off a wave of far-Left electoral victories.
But who can blame Time for the slight overreaction? After all, it’s the responsibility of the media to be vigilant against potential threats to our freedoms, no matter how subtle (or imaginary) they may be.
I’m sure they’ll be here any minute to rebuke the radical project of the DSA.
After all, the platform overtly promises to “draft a new constitution, and create a democratic socialist republic.”
Unlike in the case of Project 2025, where the accusations were based on some combination of “implications,” “microaggressions,” and straight-up fantasy, the DSA has outlined its intentions for all to see. The preamble argues that “complete victory will require building a new society from the ground up.” They hate this country. They hate Western civilization. Ask them, they’ll tell you.
And yet despite this asymmetry, the media has consistently turned a blind eye to the threat that the DSA poses. This is not naivete — it’s malice. It is an insult to the American people and to the democracy they claim to love.
No more can the differentiator be made that these are not official Democratic positions. Project 2025 was created by the Heritage Foundation and a collection of independent conservative organizations. That didn’t stop the media from treating it as Trump’s personal passion project despite his repeatedly distancing himself from it.
By contrast, an increasingly large proportion of Democratic politicians are sworn members of the DSA. They are directly associated with this statement, yet not one notable DSA member has issued a condemnation of it. Perhaps even more troubling, the media has not asked any of them to issue a condemnation of it.
While President Trump was repeatedly bombarded with questions about Project 2025, nobody has asked Zohran Mamdani to comment on his own organization labeling the “entire structure of our society” as an “enemy.”
One day, every reporter in Washington will be the lone dissenter who was always opposed to the ideological mob. Well, I’m calling on all those reporters to take some action now, while it means something.
I’ll be saving the receipts.
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