Project 2026: Public Infrastructure for the 21st Century: Building Forward, Not Backward
Build clean rail, broadband, and transit for all. Resist privatization. Public power built America, and it will again. Infrastructure is democracy in motion.
I. Introduction
America’s infrastructure is not just the backbone of our economy; it’s the skeletal frame of our democracy. It carries not only our goods and people but also our values. At our best, we build to include, connect, and uplift. At our worst, we delay, divide, and decay.
The current regime, through its embrace of Project 2025, threatens to roll back public investment and turn infrastructure into a privatized commodity for the wealthy few. In contrast, Project 2026 lays the foundation for a new era of inclusive, climate-resilient, and equitable infrastructure. One that echoes the best of America’s past while breaking ground for a just and sustainable future.
II. Historical Context: The Golden Age of Public Works
New Deal Foundations
During the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal created institutions like the Tennessee Valley Authority and Works Progress Administration (WPA) to employ millions and build roads, bridges, schools, and public buildings. These weren’t just job programs; they were nation-building blueprints. They showed what happens when we believe in collective progress.
Post-War Prosperity and the Interstate Highway System
Under President Eisenhower, the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 built the U.S. interstate system. It was the largest public works project in history at the time, justified by both economic growth and national security. But it also inflicted harm—bulldozing through Black neighborhoods, fueling white flight, and car dependency.
WWII Propaganda: Infrastructure as Patriotism
Posters from WWII urged Americans to conserve fuel (“Is this trip really necessary?”), Grow Victory Gardens, and support rail freight over highway congestion. Infrastructure was framed as a patriotic duty. Efficiency and connectivity were linked to liberty and national survival.
III. What We Face Today: Disinvestment and Disaster
A Failing Grade
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the U.S. infrastructure earns a C− average. Key sectors, such as roads (D), transit (D−), and stormwater systems (D), have shown decades of deferred maintenance.
Digital Deserts
Over 19 million Americans still lack access to reliable broadband, which cuts them off from education, jobs, and healthcare. The digital divide mirrors and exacerbates systemic inequalities in both rural and urban communities.
Climate Vulnerability
Our roads melt in heatwaves. Subways flood during storms. Wildfires destroy power grids. The fossil fuel infrastructure of the past cannot survive the future.
Privatization Threats
Project 2025 proposes slashing regulations and defunding public works, favoring privatization schemes that allow private firms to extract profits while public risks remain, often at the expense of taxpayers. Public infrastructure becomes a corporate playground, not a public good.
IV. The Progressive Path Forward
1. High-Speed Rail: Connect the Country
Launch a national high-speed rail network modeled after Japan and Europe.
Create union jobs, reduce emissions, and connect rural and urban regions.
Example: The California High-Speed Rail, despite political hurdles, could reduce LA–San Francisco travel time to under 3 hours, with zero emissions per passenger.
2. Clean, Public Transit for All
Modernize subway and light rail systems with clean energy.
Subsidize transit access in rural and low-income areas.
Invest in zero-emission buses, bike lanes, and pedestrian-first cities.
3. Broadband as a Public Utility
Treat internet access as essential as water and electricity.
Publicly fund municipal broadband programs to end monopolistic control by telecom giants.
Prioritize tribal, rural, and marginalized communities for immediate access.
4. Electrify Our Roads and Grid
Mass deployment of EV charging stations.
Convert public vehicle fleets (such as postal, school buses, and transit) to electric.
Upgrade the electrical grid for resiliency, local solar generation, and community control.
5. Community-Based Planning
Prioritize equity-first infrastructure; projects that serve historically excluded communities.
Require participatory planning processes at the local level.
Ensure universal design standards for disability access.
V. Economic and Climate Payoff
Every $1 spent on infrastructure creates up to $3.70 in economic growth.
Clean infrastructure reduces carbon emissions, air pollution, and healthcare costs.
Public transit saves Americans over $10,000 per year in car costs and improves public health.
VI. Modern Parallels: The Propaganda of Disrepair
Just as WWII posters inspired sacrifice and solidarity, today’s regime weaponizes disrepair to justify abandonment. “Government can’t do anything right,” they cry, while defunding every system designed to prove them wrong.
Project 2025 isn’t about failure; it’s about sabotage.
They would rather see bridges crumble and broadband collapse than admit that collective governance works. They worship the market and sacrifice the public.
But the people remember. We remember who built the dams, the railroads, the libraries, and the roads. And we will build again.
VII. Conclusion: The Next Generation Deserves Better
The 21st century demands a new American infrastructure. One that is clean, fast, fair, and public. One that does not worship the car or wall off the digital world from the poor. One that reaches every home, every tribe, every child—with dignity.
This is not a radical vision. It is what the greatest generation once believed was their patriotic duty.
It’s our turn now.
*Reading List: Public Infrastructure & Progressive Investment
The Fifth Risk – Michael Lewis
Infrastructure: A Guide to the Industrial Landscape – Brian Hayes
The Power Broker – Robert A. Caro
Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World – Henry Grabar
Transport for Suburbia: Beyond the Automobile Age – Paul Mees
Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution—and Why America Might Miss It – Susan Crawford
Designing Climate Solutions: A Policy Guide for Low-Carbon Energy – Hal Harvey, Robbie Orvis, Jeffrey Rissman
*Linked books are uncompensated, and may only be available used. ALSO: Fuck Amazon.
Top 25 Focus Areas for a Progressive Counter-Agenda
A couple of things - these are just my thoughts - I am not emotionally attached to any of this; it’s a starting place because starting with a blank sheet is torture for most people. FEEDBACK and COLLABORATION are necessary.
Thank you for your inclusion of links! Caro's massive tome needs to be required reading (even as we have less &less time to plow thru it!) & Graber's book is a gem. I wish I could remember the source, but there's another book that ties together the petroleum industry's efforts to persuade the Eisenhower admin to push the interstate highway system over rail travel, increasing our dependence upon gasoline-run automobiles (& sell petroleum-by-product based tires) all the way down to nudge municipalities into making it illegal to cross a street in the middle of the block, thereby prioritizing automotive transportation over even WALKING.
Great outline toward a more balanced approach. Good work.