Clarity of thought and mssaging: an example of how Democrats can break through

  Here is an example of being clear on issues that was devised by my local Democratic Party...in Grand County, Colorado.  It may not have a one-word umbrella, but it is at least a step in the right direction and a political plank that local candidates can run on. https://grandcountydems.org/?utm_source=Grand%20Dems%20email%20list&utm_campaign=a20073d1d2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_04_30_06_49_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-0560435747-522472729    )

Go home, JD Vance. By my definitiion you are not a real American

 In 2025, JD Vance attempted to make the case that the real Americans were those born before the Civil War, in the most absurd claim that real Americans, as he defined them, were descendants of such settlers. It was one of the most racist and white nationalist concepts one could imagine, but it also was evidence to me that MAGA's core contained many like him. The nation was founded on an idea that people could govern themselves and that "all men were created equal" with the inalienable right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.  It was not founded solely by white immigrants from England, and even my ancestral immigrants from Yorkshire settling in the colonies had already married a few Germans before the American Revolution, as recent DNA and past research into ancestors by family members and my own at the Library of Congress indicated.  So let us define who is a real American, Vance, and with my own (absurd ) definition, I proclaim I am a real American, and you are not. In fact, Vance, go home.

My (Absurd) Definition of who is a real American: If you cannot trace your ancestry to before 1776, you are not a real American. Only real Americans are those who are members of the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) , who take pride in the fact that they were already in the colonies before 1776.  There was a time in my eastern Oklahoma childhood in the Jim Crow 1950's when such ancestry counted in defining social status, and, yes, I even had a small scholarship from the local DAR chapter for college tuition. So take that, Vance. By my definition, just finding your roots in Civil War Appalachia does not count. Go home, Vance. You are not a real American as I (arbitrarily) define it.

https://thereconstructionera.com/j-d-vance-on-the-civil-war-and-citizenship/

My list of grievances against Trump in 2026 eerily resemble those lists in the Declaration of Independence from the KIng in 1776

 July 4 this year is not for me a celebration with joy and pride, but trepidation that we are on the verge of restoring the kind of tyranny we revolted against in 1776.  In 1776, the reasons for the Declaration were laid out in a list of grievances against the King in that historic document.  Many of those reasons are similar to the deeds and actions of President Trump, who has amassed  such power and wealth even our founders could never have envisioned.  I wrote the following exactly one year ago: I could have written it today.    

July 4, 2025

My Declaration of Independence from King Trump and a List of Grievances.

As we celebrate the Declaration of Independence from a king in 1776, we also decry the re-establishment of one who thinks and acts like one in 2025. In the Declaration of Independence of 1776, a list of grievances against the King (a bill of particulars) was presented as the reasons for declaring independence.

Here are mine (in no particular order of importance.

• He claims his executive orders are the law of the land and acts accordingly.
• He accumulates vast wealth from enterprises that include customers who are foreigners..
• He uses "his" active army to repress protestors and put fear into the hearts of those who would show their anger toward his policies
• He forces by threat and fear his parliament to pass legislation that does not reflect the will of each member's own constituents
• He sets up prisons to contain those who have no chance to protest and builds concentration camps which deprive persons of their rights or send them to foreign, harsh prisons, without any evidence that they committed crimes other than having documents of status violations.
• His masked, unmarked, street-clothed federal agents snatch those off the street to arrest targets or those who look like they are from south of our border without warrants, sometimes using excessive force...
• He threatens to delist media that do not toe his line and calls all media that criticize him liars
• He threatens to remove federal funding from education that does not reflect his ideology or the ideology of his core supporters in his political party, while his legislative initiatives are approved by around 30% of those polled who know what is in it, the contents about which he lies on the favored media outlets he owns or approves.
• He abuses his power by using "his" Department of Justice to investigate opponents without any probable cause as a tool to threaten opponents to his reign or make examples of them to frighten others into silence.
• He reverses the rights of minorities, religious or love preferences, and non-whites by removing all references to diversity, equity, and inclusion in any federal documents he controls... reinstating the ability of the federal government to discriminate against them again. He wants to imprison those he plans to expel from this country without the right of habeas corpus.
• He adopts all policies of white Christian nationalists written in a document as a blueprint for the takeover of the federal government and institutes them by installing their authors in key positions
• He refuses to confirm whether he would honor treaties or come to the defense of allies who are attacked and have signed such a treaty...NATO
• He ignores court orders of any court lower than the Supreme Court if he does not like the ruling..
• He tries to sell off public lands, institutes tariffs, deprives the poor of health care and nutrition programs to compensate for the loss of income to the treasury due to tax favors and reductions granted to the very rich. 
• He pardons criminals who were found guilty by jury trial or had already confessed to crimes because they were his supporters, contributors, or friends of his. In so doing, he encourages those to commit crimes on his behalf in the future, believing they, too, would be pardoned..

Declaration of Independence: A Transcription | National Archives

If the Trump regime attempts to interfere the nidterms, the State AG's will be ready for the fight

 Nicolle Wallace's interview the week before the 4th with Jack Smith, the prosecutor in the Jan. 6 insurrection, warned about the November 2026 elections and feared interference by Trump's feds. The only institutions still able to prosecute and deal with this are the 50 state attorneys general and prosecuting under state statutes. https://www.yahoo.com/.../jack-smith-says-very-concerned...

Heads up, everyone. Lucky for Colorado, Phil Weiser is still Attorney General and Jena Griswold is the Secretary of /state and chief election official for the state. They have successfully defied Trump's feds in the matter of Tina Peters by using state statutes to prosecute. That kept the feds at bay (until Gov. Polis caved on the terms of her sentence and now fired the parole board members who defied him.) Weiser is the Democratic candidate for Governor per the primary, and Griswold is likewise the winning Democrat in the primary, seeking to replace Weiser as AG. Both have got invaluable experience in matters like this, thanks to the Peters case.. I have no doubt that the FBI and ICE will try to confiscate and control the election results and the ballots on Trump's orders and behalf. Expect fireworks if they try. All AG's but the Trump loyalists in the other states are geared up for the fight for democracy, too.