Jack Pichotta

During recent years a political initiative has emerged which no longer agrees that the United States is dedicated to the proposition articulated in the Declaration of Independence that “All Men Are Created Equal”. 

That movement, described by Katherine Stewart in her book “Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy – Money, Lies and God,” is not looking for a seat at the table of American democracy, “The bulk of the movement is best understood in terms of what it wishes to destroy rather than what it proposes to create,”  she Wrote.  “It wants to burn the house down”. 

She identified and detailed the principal actors of the antidemocratic movement into five categories:

The first are “The Funders” – 6  American billionaires already well known and many others less well known;

Second are “The Thinkers,” – many boasting credentials from elite educational institutions that function in right leaning  institutions like The Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation the James Madison Center and many others;

Third are “The Infantry” – drawn mostly  from the millions of Americans in the middle and lower middle sections of the nation’s widening educational, economic and regional divides – with  the “Infantry leaders” that turn the movement’s money into votes and political action.

And, lastly, are “The Power Players”, the small but very effective leaders of  the Christian Nationalist movement, including preachers that outgrew their local congregations and took on a national profile.  Most manage organizations with hundreds of millions of dollars and command media and pastoral ministries that reach millions of people.

Referenced throughout the book is Project 2025; the 900-page document published in April 2023, with the goal of reshaping federal government by consolidating executive power in favor of right-wing policies, and clearly envisions replacing our democracy with an authoritarian Christian Nationalist government.

More than 100 nonprofits, led by the Heritage Foundation, signed on as advisors to the Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership document — a plan to reform, or radically alter, the U.S. government by shuttering bureaus and offices, overturning regulations, and replacing thousands of public sector employees with hand-picked political allies. 

While running for the presidency in 2024, Donald Trump claimed to be unaware of Project 2025. But Russell Vought, one of Project 2025’s key architects, heads Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, which he has likened to the nerve center through which the president can exert his influence across the federal government. Also, according to The 19th, an independent nonprofit news site, Peter Navarro, who wrote Project 2025’s section on trade, is a top trade adviser to Trump; and Brendan Carr, who wrote a section suggesting reforms to the Federal Communications Commission, is now in charge of that agency.  

All of the person’s serving on Trump’s cabinet were selected because of their willingness to follow his lead, not because of their qualifications.

When responding to suggestions that she resign or be impeached following the ICE shooting deaths in Minneapolis, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem chalked up her actions in office to the direction of President Donald Trump and Steven Miller- Trump’s Chief of Staff and hardline immigration advocate.

The movement to destroy American democracy surfaced in 2025 when the Republican party, with its far-right agenda, assumed control of the United States House and Senate, the Supreme Court, the Presidency and many state houses.

If representative democracy is to survive in the United States it will be because Trumps intent to influence or cancel the 2026 mid-term elections fails and a large majority of American voters remove Trump’s MAGA team from public service.

Jack Pichotta of Duluth is recognized as the founder of the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center near Finland, Minnesota. A former social studies teacher, he became director of Wolf Ridge in 1972 when it was located in Isabella. Pichotta also coordinated SCARE, or Students Concerned About a Ravaged Environment, a week-long Earth Day program in Cloquet in 1970.

Published DNT February 8, 2026