Project 2026 is a direct response to Project 2025**, a republican initiative to take over the U.S. Government. Project 2026, initiated by The Fledge in January 2026, strives to give a road map, an action plan, to the community on how we can respond to the authoritarian tactics being carried out by the current administration. Project 2026 is a reflection of the work [the Fledge](https://thefledge.com) has been doing for the past 11 years.
It starts with a simple concept that we can all be wealthy if we change our mindset a bit and do a lot of work to tae control of building our future. We must first start with the definition of Wealth. We define it as well-being and prosperity. We look at basic human rights as not "entitlements" but rather the responsibilities of the systems we live in. It is the responsibility of these systems to ensure that we all have the opportunity to thrive, and we the system fails us, there should be safety nets to catch us and help us heal as necessary. To this end we see basic needs are basic rights. We use the ALICE Threshold as our guideline for this. ALICE stands for Asset Limited Income Constrained and Employed. The threshold represents the minimum amount a person or couple of family would need to earn to afford all of their basic needs. ALICE identifies these basic needs as Housing, Healthcare, Childcare, Food, Transportation and Technology. Our goal is to turn all of these in to micro-enterprises with Cooperative Principles. The reason we need to have cooperative ownership is because Private Equity owns our basic needs and we need to get them back.
In addition to the basic needs defined in the ALICE thrsehold, it is important to look at some other important factors that may be less apparent: Energy, Education, Justice (Safety and Security) and the Environment. These items are implied or stated as subcategories within the main 6, but we see them as "special."
For each of these categories ALICE and the others, out intention is to create a Causal Loop Diagram withe the community for each. These will help us to see the systems and the root causes or major contributors of each. In some cases these CLDs have been created with the community and point to the need for the following to set up the proper framework to solve our problems quicker and more systemically:
1. Create a True Democracy 2. Decentralize Everything 3. Sovereignty 4. Permeate the Culture 5. Radical Inclusion 6. Starve the Failing Systems 7. Create true opportunity for Prosperity 8. Public Safety is Free 9. Basic Needs are Basic Rights
When we look at the History of Poverty In Lansing we see systemic disparities at the neighborhood level and among women and minorities.
To demonstrate cooperative ownership related to housing issues, we spotlight the [Sunshine House](https://sunshinehouse.collective.thefledge.com); related to farming and food production the [Urbandale Farm](https://urbandalefarm.collective.thefledge.com); and prosperity The Entrepreneurial Journey. [The Fledge Foundation](https://fledgefoundation.collective.thefledge.com) is a 501 C3 that supports community members for their basic needs, socializing, and child and family support. [The Fledge DAO](https://fldg.collective.thefledge.com) is a decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) that will eventually contain all members of all collectives and govern the organization in a decentralized and autonomous manner.
**Important Links** [United Way ALICE](https://www.unitedforalice.org/introducing-ALICE/michigan) [Cooperative Ownership](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative) [Worker Owned Co-ops](https://www.usworker.coop/what-is-a-worker-cooperative/) [Mondragon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation)
First Cave Drawing of Project 2026
**In very simple terms, Project 2025 is a plan to consolidate power in the executive branch of the U.S. government so that a future conservative president can rapidly reshape federal agencies, laws, and enforcement to align with a specific ideological agenda. Stated plainly, it seeks to replace large parts of the non-partisan federal workforce with politically loyal appointees, reduce the independence of agencies, and use presidential authority to roll back regulations, civil rights protections, and social programs that its authors oppose. In essence, I would describe Project 2025 as a detailed roadmap for governing with fewer internal checks, faster unilateral action, and stronger ideological control over the federal government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography