By MIKE MAGEE

In order to save the Republican party, we all need to vote Democratic this year.

Without hyperbole, Project 2025 feels similar to Germany in the early 1930’s. Their website introduction reads:

“It is not enough for conservatives to win elections. If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on Day One of the next conservative Administration.”

Alabama’s 73-year old Justice Tom Parker is clearly one of those “right people.” He did not flinch in his February 16, 2024 decision in “LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine.” Citing an 1872 Alabama state law that allows for individuals to sue over the “wrongful death of a minor,”  he confidently declared that 8-cell embryos cryopreserved in fertility clinics were people. He then added insult to injury. He tied  the decision to declaring that individuals responsible for the mistaken loss of the cells liable for damages to the state’s (Dobbs decision enabled) 2019 law banning abortion. A messy backlash against and for IVF soon followed.

Not content to be both lawyer and doctor, Parker added theologian to his credentials stating in his decision: “In summary, the theologically based view of the sanctity of life adopted by the People of Alabama encompasses the following: (1) God made every person in His image; (2) each person therefore has a value that far exceeds the ability of human beings to calculate; and (3) human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself.”

Determined radicalized leaders, fueled with a religious fervor, long ago rejected the Founding Fathers commitment to separation of Church and State.

Consider the words of James Madison, in a speech to the House of Representatives in 1789: “The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed.”

As we now turn the corner on our way to a November election, it is important to acknowledge that the threat we face is larger than Trump alone. To not acknowledge the leaders of Project 2025 and beyond at this moment in our history would be equivalent to believing that WWII was only about Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito, when in fact the challenge was far greater than that.

Stated simply, the human species in the Axis societies had gone off the rails and channeled themselves into a death spiral. “Breaking the spell” required unprecedented force and ultimately the use of atomic bombs, followed by multi-decade investments through the Marshall Plan to reestablish civilized human societies.

It is for this reason that “limping to the finish line” is no longer an option for our nation. Project 2025, the Supreme Court’s recent Chevron decision, and the multi-pronged assault on women’s reproductive freedom all suggest that an overwhelming defeat of Republicans down ballot will be required to lay the ground for recovery of a healthy two-party Democracy.

Anything less will embolden an already captive Supreme Court and MAGA insurrectionists. A two-party system of Democracy has delivered reliable and peaceful transition of power for over two centuries until 2020. One of those parties has been usurped, placing our treasured Democracy at risk. The quickest way to reset a viable two-party system is to decisively defeat Trump and all MAGA down-ballot allies across the United States in November.

Mike Magee MD is a Medical Historian and regular contributor to THCB. He is the author of CODE BLUE: Inside America’s Medical Industrial Complex (Grove/2020).