The pressure is building

250 years since the American Revolution began when the people took matters into their own hands. History may not repeat itself but it's got a familiar beat.

Author’s Note: Welcome new free subscribers to On Democracy! Every post is free but your paid upgrade is crucial to helping me continue my work. We are growing the On Democracy content family with ‘Too Late to Cancel’ and more. Your paid upgrade will help us expand! I hope you’ll consider it. We have big plans for our next phase of growth!

---

Frustration spills out of the most unlikely places

There was a growing frustration across the country. More and more Americans were facing increasing repression and outrageous actions by the government. Tariffs that made basic staples almost impossible to buy. Deportations to foreign lands without any due process at all. Growing threats of retribution against those that stood up.

It was all made worse as Congress argued and debated every single thing and couldn’t make any decisions. More and more of the grassroots were sick of waiting for their elected officials to step up and fight.

Finally, it broke and they took things into their own hands at the local level. More and more gathered in organized groups to share ideas, train for conflict, and prepare for what they say as an inevitable showdown that would only be won if the people themselves took charge.

Does this sound familiar?

A totally fake protest poster from 1775

Yeah, that was actually the 13 colonies in 1775 and not this first three months of 2025. Anger was growing as the British in Boston began flexing their muscles and introduced increasingly draconian rules on the population. Colonial militia’s formed. Training was conducted, arms stored, and plans made to oppose the authoritarian government.

On the fateful morning of April 19th all hell broke loose as over 700 British troops marched west to seize arms caches in Lexington and Concord. Instead they met a ferocious resistance from citizen soldiers and the famed ‘shot heard around the world’ was heard.

That was 250 years ago this weekend.

I know it well as my great ancestor Joseph Wellman was a member of the Mansfield Minute Militia Company and answered what was called the “Lexington Alarm.” He and his fellow farmers and merchants grabbed their muskets and marched to Boston to lay siege to the British forces.

They marched north when the call rang out.

Congress was left scrambling to catch up. They had not been at all prepared for this grassroots outbreak of protest and violence. They met only weeks later to create a national army and send George Washington to Boston to take command.

The people led the the moment and their leaders scrambled to catch up.

That should indeed sound familiar.

The Second American Revolution

We find ourselves in one of the most precarious positions in our history. Our Founding Fathers never imagined a scenario where nearly all of the three branches of government would all but bend the knee to an autocrat yet here we are. A flood of monsters have been unleashed to implement their Christian Nationalist, Project 2025, billionaire kleptocratic, fascist fantasies on all of us.

Look, don’t take my word for it. Here is Kevin Roberts, the leader of the Heritage Foundation, and one of the key Christian Nationalist authors of Project 2025, speaking on Steve Bannon’s War Room just last year about what they planned for a new Trump Administration.

Yes, you heard that correctly. They “are in the process of the Second American Revolution which will remain bloodless if the left allows it.”

It felt like a threat then. It feels like a promise now. It’s time for us to take him at his word and act accordingly. You see, they think they are the good guys. They think that they are the brave men lining Battle Road and harassing the British back to Boston.

They are gravely mistaken. They are the Redcoats burning private citizens property. They are the team deporting people without due process and moving to deport citizens as well. They are the ones imposing impossible laws and regulations undermining our freedom.

Presidential advisor and Temu Movie Villain, Seb Gorka is very clear on where they want to go:

Appearing on Rob Schmitt Tonight on Newsmax, Donald Trump’s senior director for counterterrorism, Sebastian Gorka, suggested critics of Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s incarceration in a Salvadoran megaprison might even be committing a federal crime.

He said: “It’s not left and right, It’s not even Republican or Democrat. There’s one line that divides us: Do you love America or do you hate America? It’s really quite that simple.”

Gorka, born in the U.K. to Hungarian parents, suggested in the Tuesday interview that Democrats who argue that Abrego Garcia should be returned to the U.S.—per the Supreme Court’s orders—don’t “love America.”

The former Newsmax host added that those who dissent against the Trump administration’s actions are “on the side of the cartel members, on the side of the illegal aliens on the side of the terrorists.”

He went even further, saying: “And you have to ask yourself, are they technically aiding and abetting them? Because aiding and abetting criminals and terrorists is a crime in federal statute.”

Yes, by supporting the rule of law and due process for anyone in the United States as outlined in the Constitution and supported by multiple rulings…we are against America.

That is some deeply fascist stuff.

We must stand up

We will not sit idly by while our nation is stripped for parts.

The good news is that we are now seeing a mass rally to oppose this creeping authoritarianism. Once again the grassroots Americans are the ones stepping into the breech to protest and raise our voices against this dismantling of our government in every aspect.

Now the leaders in DC are getting the message. The Democrats have been on the road in a big way with the DNC hosting People’s Town Halls across the country and especially in districts where Republican’s refuse to meet with their constituents. They have had thousands of American’s show up for dozens of these events with national political figures from Senator Chris Murphy to Rep. Maxwell Frost and many more.

I’ll be the Master of Ceremonies for one in Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District this Friday myself as Senator Chris Murphy comes to town. Long time Republican Representative Ann Wagner hasn’t bothered holding a town hall in over 12 years now. So, we will have our own.

I know a lot of folks are scared but we have only one choice. We band together, put aside our pettiest differences, and push back on the assault on our fundamental rights. There is power in our numbers and our collective voice. Time and time again we are seeing Trump back down when faced with true public outrage.

He needs to see a lot more.

My dream is that as desperate as MAGA is for violence, we never give it to them. As scared as people are, that we never give into taking up arms against our fellow Americans. As long as we believe in the strength of our long history of peaceful democratic action we can overcome.

I have lived in a country that was beset by political violence and I cannot imagine it coming here. The hints are there with the attack on Governor Shapiro last week. We must not give in to their bait.

Don’t seek violence…but the counter-revolution is now. Will you step up?

---

Yesterday, the Department of Veterans Affairs issued an email announcing the launch of an ‘Anti-Christian Bias Task Force’ and listing a host of actions of “bias” they wanted employees to report to them. I had the email within in minutes of it being sent out and did a video on it.

Be sure to follow our YouTube and other channels to keep up. We are growing and this Sunday’s ‘Too Late to Cancel’ is going to be an amazing live show!