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Volume 1. No. 1 August, 2024
LEXROCKBV Democratic Committee
Welcome to The Blue Ridge Democrat, a new monthly publication by the Chair of the LEXROCKBV DEMOCRATS, a group of people who are changing the political landscape of Virginia. The phrase “The Blue Ridge Democrat” has only been used ONCE in the history of the internet, and the term “Blue Ridge Democrat” has only been used three times on the internet. Starting now as you read this these terms will become not only something that lives and breathes on the internet, I hope it will live and breathe in the lives every day of many Virginians.
July was one heck of a political ride. Blue Ridge Democrats went from a people scared to put up a yard sign to people who not only began to bravely put-up yard signs but began to find their voice to help straighten out this country. Our local committee of Democrats membership and volunteers increased by 20% in just one month. And we are now on the march. We have almost completed the building of a new, interactive website. We have started using artificial intelligence and computers in a new way, improved operations, expanded our leadership and we feel the momentum in not only our office but in our lives. The agony of losing political race after political race in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia has turned into determination to defeat those who think women are second class citizens, think minorities should stay in “their place,” and think that the government of the United States of America is somehow bad, or worse yet, their enemy, and claim that they won an election where 7,000,000 more voted for the other candidate.
Democrats and the public are catching Republicans lies about nearly everything from crime, which is down 50% this year, inflation which is down more than 50% this year, election fraud which over sixty separate, independent courts based on the actual evidence presented ruled was never proven or even supported by the evidence. Our ally Ukraine was attacked, its people murdered, women raped by Russians, their cities and towns were destroyed, and Republicans don’t even want to help Ukraine defend itself. Republicans tell women they don’t have the right to manage their own bodies and pass laws to put women and doctors in jail for managing their own bodies. Republicans want to cut the greatest government program in history, Social Security. Republicans blindly support the industry which makes weapons that kill more children in America than any other cause of death of children in America.
As Democrats we support the right of responsible citizens to own firearms for hunting, recreation and protection. I used to own a gun and was trained by a volunteer NRA member on how to be a pretty good shot. Ken Mitchell, our Congressional candidate was in the military for 24 years and he owns a gun. (And he has a Harley Davidson, but that is another topic). And like most gun owners, Democrats support reasonable regulations to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of people who are a threat to themselves or others.
Blue Ridge Democrats Fight Back. In July Blue Ridge Democrats held fundraisers, walked the streets of Lexington, Rockbridge County and Roanoke for our great Congressional candidate, Ken Mitchell, Tim Kaine our great Senator, and our great Vice-President Harris who will be the first female President of the United States. We met with former Republicans, even a Republican Chair of a local committee who is now a proud Democrat who has endorsed Ken Mitchell. We saw the leadership of the national Democratic Party turned over to a new generation of leaders in a single day. New people, and people we have known for fifty years here in Lexington, came to Democratic Party headquarters at 11 Jefferson Street and have asked to volunteer in such numbers we had to develop brand new volunteer and member intake systems, and improve many of our management systems. There was not an empty seat at the July meeting at headquarters and our August meeting will be held in a place that will hold four times the number of people we had at our July meeting, the First Baptist Church in Lexington.
This is more than just a new day. From being scared and worried, Blue Ridge Democrats have become proud, outspoken Democrats. Blue Ridge Democrats now include people who own Harleys, gasoline powered cars and electric vehicles. We are people of all colors, ages, genders and religions. In July, we stopped counting pennies and started counting dollars, thousands of dollars. We paid our rent, six months in advance, had sufficient funds in our bank account, that instead of holding a fundraiser for our own local committee, we organized a fundraiser where the funds raised all went to a Blue Ridge candidate.
This new effort by The Blue Ridge Democrats to help shape the future of the Blue Ridge and the future of the America builds on the great work of Democrats who have been courageously standing up for Democratic ideals of justice and liberty in the trenches for the past fifty years. We need a renewed commitment by our longstanding troops. We need new troops, younger troops and more volunteers who will take leadership roles in areas like Veterans Relationships, Information Technology, Office Management, Canvassing, Communications and monitoring what happens on election day and in counting ballots.
Early voting in Virginia starts September 20th. It is now August. It will be hot in August as the world continued to rack up record after record heat globally and in the United States while Republicans deny that climate change even exists. We will sweat as we walk the streets and go door to door connecting with our neighbors and those who live in the far corners of Rockbridge County. We will tell people we are Democrats. We are a big tent of middle of the road Democrats and liberals. We will never let Republicans turn the word “liberal” into a dirty word. We have conservative Democrats, and we are very proud they are in our tent. We will never turn the word “conservative” into a dirty word.
Most important of all, we Democrats are good people, veterans, care for our neighbors, and no one will push us around or make us fearful in the Blue Ridge or anywhere in America ever again. We will never, never let a rapist, felon, professional business swindler, proven serial liar, and someone who will not even show the American people their tax returns in the White House again. That is our pledge. America is counting on The Blue Ridge Democrats to do their part to win elections, heal our nation, reach across the aisle and be civil to Republicans even when they call us names, attack our nation’s capital, try to intimidate us and prevent us from voting.
In the name of the original seven great Blue Ridge Democrats, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Marshall, James Monroe, Patrick Henry, and George Mason, I close by saying that we Blue Ridge Democrats mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor to rid ourselves of the Despotism, and the kind of Government that Donald Trump, JD Vance, Glenn Youngkin, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ron DeSantis and Mitch McConnell, the seven Republican leaders, want to inflict on America. America became free of George III when we cast him and the aristocrats of England aside. We kept our Republic alive by winning free and fair elections beginning in the Blue Ridge and spreading across our great nation. America, we will have freedom and liberty again for all who are graced to live in the Blue Ridge, for all Americans in rural and urban America, and all immigrants who help make the United States a great nation every day. God Bless America.
