Democratic Party of Jeff Davis County
Democratic Party of Jeff Davis County, TX
Our Main Office is located at 103 State St Fort Davis, TX 79734
Our Mailing Address:
PO Box 79
Fort Davis, Texas 79734
Our Phone: (432) 244-1034
Our Email Address:
Or
LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN
Heather Cox Richardson
7-26-2024
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You won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians
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Tonight, speaking to Christians at the Turning Point Action Believers’ Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump made his plans to become a strongman clear:
“Get out and vote. Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what: it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians…. Get out, you’ve got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”
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What's New
(Re)introducing Kamala Harris – Dan Rather and Team Steady, Substack
The vice president is largely unknown to most of us.
The summer of ‘64 was known as “freedom summer,” reflecting a movement to register Black voters in the South. This effort, too, was met with violence, especially from the Ku Klux Klan.
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It was into the chaos and change of 1964 that Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California. Her Jamaican father, a Stanford economics professor, and Indian mother, a world-renowned scientist at Berkeley, did not shy away from political activism. Harris was bussed across town to an all-white elementary school. Her parents took her to civil rights protests throughout her childhood.
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It is from this history that Kamala Harris’s ethos was born: a belief that she had a responsibility to enact change. She has spent her career trying to do that, as a district attorney, state attorney general, senator, and vice president.
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Despite her extensive credentials, Harris has been called the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) candidate by sitting members of Congress. She has been maligned by the future Republican vice presidential nominee, among others, for choosing not to have children. A 2020 study that tracked more than 335,000 instances of misogynistic attacks against 13 women running for office found that 78% of them were aimed at Harris. Trump has called her crazy and unfit and ridicules her laugh.
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The differences between the two candidates could not be more stark. Donald Trump wants to go back to what he considers a better time. He has not convinced me of when that might have been. Kamala Harris says she wants to look forward and forge a new future. The question is, will that theme and her personal history win in November?
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the vice president discusses protecting abortion rights post-Roe and tackling immigration, along with how, as a woman of several firsts—from DA to AG to VP—she hopes to “create a path and widen the path for others.”
She is the first female, first Black and first South Asian American vice president. But before that, she was the first female district attorney in San Francisco and first female attorney general of California. “In this year of our Lord 2022, it is a shame that we are still making firsts,” Harris said, recalling how her mother would say that while she “may be the first to do many things,” she should make sure she’s not the last. “That’s why it is very important to me to make sure that I create a path and widen the path for others,” she said.
Text of Video Ad:
In this election, we each face a question.
What kind of country do we want to live in?
There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos. Of fear. Of hate.
But us. We choose something different.
We choose freedom.
The freedom not just to get by, but get ahead. The freedom to be safe from gun violence. The freedom to make decisions about your own body.
We choose a future where no child lives in poverty. Where we all can afford health care, where no one is above the law.
We believe in the promise of America and we are ready to fight for it.
Because when we fight, we win. So join us.
Go to kamalaharris.com and let's get to work.
We Better Get to Know Project 2025 Fast
Democracy Forward provides legal representation and expert counsel to people and communities who make up the very fabric of American democracy — free of charge. We’re likely going to need it. The courts are now a frontline in the battleground for democracy, not merely the last resort protectors of it. The document below from Democracy Forward is an excellent introduction -- free of charge -- to the problem Project 2025 poses to our democracy. After reading, click on the document to go to the Democracy Forward webpage and the full People's Guide to Project 2025. ​
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Liz Cheney -- New Anti-Trump Ad
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Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) has launched a campaign ad in New Hampshire warning 2024 voters against backing former President Trump.
“Donald Trump has proven he is unfit for office. Donald Trump is a risk America can never take again,” Cheney says in a voiceover atop clips of Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
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You can watch the video here: Liz.
If you have not yet read Liz Cheney's book, Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, click on the book cover above.
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If you visit Cheney's new PAC, Our Great Task, the home page features another terrific ad, Noble Purpose.
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Speaking at Gettysburg, Lincoln described our Great Task, “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this earth.”
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Today, that remains our greatest and most important task. Founded by Liz Cheney, Our Great Task is dedicated to the most important cause of our time: defending our Constitution and defeating Donald Trump and his enablers.
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More New Videos: courtesy of
Here are two of the best:
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The Lincoln Project is dedicated to the preservation, protection, and defense of democracy. In December 2019, The Lincoln Project entered the political arena with two stated objectives: first, to defeat Donald Trump at the ballot box in 2020. (Done.) The second was to ensure Trumpism failed alongside him. The real fight against Trumpism is just beginning.
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Founded by former Republican strategists who understood the grave threat of Trumpism to our nation, the Lincoln Project team has expanded to include individuals from across the political spectrum. They are first and foremost: pro-democracy.
in the November General Election
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Learn more about our Democratic candidates
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Here are links to access important Democratic websites:
We will add more links shortly.
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American Bridge 21st Century, the largest research, tracking, and rapid response operation in the Democratic Party, is focused on holding Republicans accountable and helping deliver Democratic victories. American Bridge 21st Century not only brings to light what Republicans are saying behind closed doors, but also runs large-scale paid media programs that center storytellers and utilize a data-driven approach to achieve the greatest impact.
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This cycle, American Bridge 21st Century is tracking Republicans’ anti-abortion positions, protecting democracy by focusing on extremist down-ballot Republicans threatening our elections, and touting the Biden administration and Democrats’ record of results for families and businesses.
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American Bridge has developed a robust Donald Trump Opposition Research Hub that should be highly useful to Democratic Party organizations and pro-Democracy groups this election year. Originally launched before the 2020 election, this website exists to help allies find the research needed to defeat Donald Trump. It's organized into multiple reports designed to help you tell the full story about Trump's failed presidency and make the case against his 2024 campaign.
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Another essential tool in this upcoming election is American Bridge’s Repro-files, a mechanism for holding anti-abortion Republicans accountable. This site is meant to serve as a centralized research hub, containing tracking footage and information on Republicans who have taken positions to end abortion access and restrict reproductive rights and health care options. Repro-files.com will be a resource for allies in the fight to protect abortion access and reproductive health care by exposing anti-choice legislators in order to hold them accountable at the ballot box.
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Another feature of the American Bridge 21st Century website is Republicans We’re Watching, an online database that allows the user to target Republicans by selecting a state, a political office, and an issue. We tried it on Ted Cruz, and this tool returned a wealth of information: Lyin’ Ted on IVF, abortion, and LGBTQ+ issues.
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Note: We can only hope that heartfelt, well-meaning letters to the editor like these two will stimulate some of us to try our hand at a letter or two!
“Strongman” Letter to the Editor
L.P. Martin in the Big Bend Sentinel
This year we have a presidential election as we are all aware. One presidential candidate in particular has been telling his audiences that he will “Be a dictator for one day.” And, he ends his speeches with the statement that he will be a “Strongman.” On its face value, being a strong leader sounds like a good thing, one who would not bend with the wind.
The term STRONGMAN is explained in Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s book, Strongmen, as a person who, as president, asserts executive power at the expense of the legislative and judicial branches of government. History gives us many examples of Strongmen, such as Hitler, Mussolini, Putin, Pinochet and Franco, who have destroyed democracies and become dictators.
In this election cycle it behooves each and every one of us, if we value the world we have grown up in, where we have the freedom to gather, the freedom to travel, the freedom to voice our opinion, the freedom to worship according to our own conscience, and education for all our children, then, we MUST vote to secure the continuation of this democracy we have inherited.
L. P. Martin
Fort Davis, TX
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"Christian America" Letter to the Editor
L.P. Martin in the Alpine Avalanche
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The historian Kevin M. Kruse wrote One Nation Under God in 2015. Recently, I ran across a term new to me. “Christian America”. It was coined in the 1930’s when businessmen enlisted religious activists in their fight against FDR’s New Deal.
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Big corporations paid conservative clergy “to attack the New Deal as a program of ‘pagan statism’ that perverted the central principle of Christianity: the sanctity and salvation of the individual”. They were able to get Dwight D. Eisenhower elected president in 1952. But President Eisenhower started a religious movement and religion moved in with government. The phrase “Under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” became our official motto.
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Historically, we are a nation forged from the experiences of immigrants fleeing religious persecution. Immigrants were coming from countries with a State sanctioned religion. They simply wanted to worship according to their own beliefs since they were persecuted for it in their mother country. So, it’s not surprising that as the Founding Fathers fashioned the rules for our nation, they separated church from state. That has worked in our favor throughout the course of our history. So, it defies reason to learn that there is a movement afoot to recreate our nation as a “Christian America” and ignore the rights of other religions.
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L. P. Martin
Fort Davis
What We Stand For
Our Jeff Davis County Democratic Party stands for the rule of law, the right to vote, separation of Church and State, a woman’s right to bodily autonomy, and our children’s right to be free of gun violence. We support quality public education and teacher salaries commensurate with other states, affordable health care and much improved rural health care, common sense reforms to ensure clean air and water, a strong US as a leader of a community of nations, and equal opportunity for everyone to reach their potential. These values we hold dear!
We want a fairer, more honest government for Texas. One way is to encourage a clean slate of leaders without partisan agendas, without law breakers, and without those beholden to special interests. We want leaders we can be proud of – leaders we can trust to represent us.
Our Core Values
â– An economy focused on the middle class and small businesses, not the super-wealthy and large corporations.
â– Equal opportunity and justice under the law for everyone.
â– Available and affordable healthcare for everyone.
â– The right to privacy in reproductive health and other personal decisions.
â– Support for essential industries while protecting our health and the environment.
â– Advancements in public and higher education for our children's futures.
â– Respect and care for our Veterans.
â– Security, safety, and health for our nation and people.
â– Honesty and transparency in leadership.
Acknowledgments
Our website is dedicated to John Bane, our website guru and WIX expert, who corrected our mistakes and taught us just enough to get the site up and running. He has been invaluable to our efforts. John lives in Alpine and is a member of the Brewster County Democrats, but we consider him one of us.
Before constructing this site, we reviewed many other county party websites, both in-state and out of-state, as well as the Texas Democratic Party site. Websites are an evolving process, but many of these Democratic county sites are exemplary in both content and design, and really speak well of our party’s grassroots efforts. In both content and design, we borrowed shamelessly from others, and we would like to especially acknowledge the following:
• Presidio County Democrats
• Kendall County Democrats
• Travis County Democrats
• Parker County Democrats
• Bexar County Democrats
• Harris County Democrats
In addition, we accessed and linked to many extremely helpful resources (especially VAN, and other database and training resources) offered by the Texas Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee, and the Biden administration.
Our gratitude to all. THANKS!