The following is something I started working on last year shortly after SCOTUS shot down the Texas case on standing. I started to realize at that point that peaceful options for preventing the steal were going to disappear soon. To be fully honest, I was depressed for a long time.

These last few days since the faux-inauguration Ive sort of "woken up" from the post-election fog and been trying to assess where we are. I think one of the things many people are clear about is that were not simply going to "vote ourselves out" of whats happening to the country. The ultimate betrayal of tainting the voting process is one of the last straws before things start unraveling.

In writing the below, I decided to start with the framework of the original. Surprisingly its largely held up over the last 250 years. I think I only changed a dozen words in the first 3 paragraphs, none of which significantly altered their meaning or intent. The grievances themselves are significantly different, but we face a tyranny of the many and not the tyranny of one.

After the grievances in what is commonly called the "failed warnings" portion of the DoI I altered things significantly as our situation is very different from the Colonist. First I establish the "four boxes" framework and state we have been trying to address these issues through those peaceful methods available to us, and how those methods have failed. I also establish that this is not a partisan issue, but one that supercedes partisan division. Finally I establish that tyranny can take many forms and that it does not take a king or dictator to make a tyrant.

Where I have nothing right now is the conclusion. What I see when I look at our movement...at the body of patriots that put Trump in office, is a group that is starting to splinter and come apart. Now that it is clear Trump isnt getting his second term (yet), we dont have a guiding plan. Theres no force carrying us forward. Thats not good, and it also makes it impossible to conclude this declaration.

The original concluded like this:

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

This did 3 things:

• establish who was speaking (the general congress of the colonies) and on whos authority (the people who elected them)
• stated their aim (to become and independent nation) and how they would accomplish it (dissolve their ties to Great Briton and take on the powers of a nation-state for themselves)
• swore to carry out those goals publicly by putting their names to them

I dont know that we are to a place yet were we can do those things. While we can all agree on the issues we face, we have no idea how exactly to solve them. The fact that we have maurauding commie bastards poisoning the well doesnt help. There is a lot of call for "peaceful separation" via movements like Texit and Calexit, but the reality is that such movements will inevitably lead to civil war. I hope and pray that we are at a place were we can still avoid that eventuality, although I fear its probably too late for a large part of the populace.

So if anyone has an idea of a fitting conclusion, Im all ears. In the mean time all I have to present is a list of grievances:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for the People to alter the political bands which bind them together, and to restore separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the change.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by altering the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of the People; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present Political Establishment is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the People. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

They have set themselves apart as a separate class from The People whom they are supposed to serve.

They have refused to subject themselves to the same laws which they subject the People to.

They seek long terms in office, refusing reasonable limits on their Term.

They have instituted laws by decree of unelected Bureaucrats, bypassing the legislative voice of the People.

They allow unelected Bureaucrats to create onerous rules and regulations that force the State into every aspect of the People's lives.

They have reduced the recourse the People have when Bureaucratic authority is abused by making themselves immune, in effect, from Civil or Criminal suit.

They have refused to allow Civil Authorities to preserve the peace by imposing law and order during times of unrest, while utilizing those same Authorities for their own physical security.

At the same time, they have ordered the Civil Authorities to silence the free and peaceful protest of the People as they demand a redress of their grievances by the Establishment.

They have trained and equipped the Civil Authority such that it is an Army in it own right, turning it into an occupying force.

They conduct elections without adequate oversight and refuse a free and open examination of the results.

They have maintained a sustained series of Conflicts with other Nations without a formal Declaration of War.

They have usurped the militia and surrounded themselves with a standing army of National Guardsmen during peacetime to impede the People's ability to protest.

They have repeatedly inflicted lies upon the public, both by direct falsehood and by omitting information that would hinder their goals.

They have ignored the basic freedoms guarded in our constitution against Government infringement. Where these freedoms may still maintain tatters of what was enshrined, they continuously seek to strip what remains away.

They have instituted secret courts whose proceedings are not subject to the Public's scrutiny.

They have instituted extrajudicial imprisonment of Citizens.

Thus, they have deprived the People of the right to Trial by Jury.

They have remanded the People to their homes by executive decree.

They have stripped from the People the ability to work for their own sustenance by their own efforts.

They have imposed edicts barring the peaceful gathering of the People for any reason.

They have restricted the ability for people to worship their Creator in the manner that seems appropriate to them.

They have allowed, ordered, and carried out the extrajudicial killing of Citizens abroad.

They have allowed the People's property to be expropriated by the State without Trial.

They have empowered private corporations that control much of the public discourse, who were founded or subsist on Government subsidy, to constrain free speech.

They have created a patchwork of laws regarding arms such that a legal scholar must be consulted before traveling amongst the States while bearing arms.

They have instituted laws allowing the State to strip a Person of arms by force without trial.

They have instituted laws making certain forms of speech illegal simply because it is seen as distasteful.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. We have petitioned our legislatures at both State and Federal levels for years and been met with a deafening silence. We have protested peacefully only to be met with a hostile Civil Authority. We called for maintaining the sanctity of our voting process only to have the machinations that destroyed our faith in our elections written into law. We pressed our case in the courts only to be turned away without being heard. This should not surprise members of either current Political Party as these injuries supersede political affiliation and affect the People of all political leanings. It does not require a Kingship to bring a Tyranny upon the People. Any Executive Authority, Legislative Body, or Bureaucratic Class can become Tyrants if they rule without a Guiding Principle of the Wellbeing and Freedom of the People. Such Tyrants are unfit to rule.

We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Reformation, and hold them as an illegitimate Authority that is no longer justified to Govern.