Faculty Affiliate Nancy MacLean, Ph.D. was quoted in opinion article assessing the strategies behind Project 2025 based on her analysis in her 2017 book, Democracy in Chains. Her book identifies traces how Charles Koch and his network have redirected capitalism away from public regulation to allow a wealthy minority to rule. As Ned Barnett writes in the News & Observer, MacLean’s scholarship offers crucial insight into today’s political landscape.
In her words:
What we’re seeing now with the Trump administration is a kind of chaos like the film title, Everything Everywhere All At Once. The things they are breaking are the things that hold many people’s lives together. I guess I never expected such extreme callous recklessness.”
But her outlook is not without hope. She believes the public’s response to proposals like Project 2025 signals a turning tide:
I think we are really beginning to see the pushback on all of this. People don’t like it. They are horrified, they are outraged and they are scared. This is not going to go down well with the American public. I am absolutely convinced of that.”
Read the full article here: Duke professor’s 2017 book predicted Trump’s extreme policies. Now she has hope.
