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How’s everyone liking the golden age here in Colorado? Kind of a mixed bag, right?
Let’s go back to the beginning… I want everyone to try and remember what you were feeling on January 20, 2017. What was your head space like as President Trump took the oath of office?
What was your hope level as you President Trump say:
“Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power…Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another – but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People.
For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.
Washington flourished – but the people did not share in its wealth.
Politicians prospered – but the jobs left, and the factories closed.
The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.
Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation’s Capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.
That all changes – starting right here, and right now, because this moment is your moment: it belongs to you.
It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America.
This is your day. This is your celebration.
And this, the United States of America, is your country.
What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people.
January 20th 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.”
I wasn’t die hard MAGA on that day, but I still get chills when I read or hear that speech. During his first term, President Trump very quickly earned my die hard support for two reasons.
He was the first President in my lifetime to do the things he said he was going to do, and he made all the right enemies.
The unprecedented attacks on President Trump, by every previously trusted institution are not because President Trump is a terrible person or a predator or a super serious threat to democracy.
The attacks on President Trump are very clearly because he is giving the power back to the people.
But what does that mean?
That’s what I want to talk about tonight, and I encourage everyone to join the conversation – jump in, interrupt, heckle, disagree. This is always more fun when it’s a dialogue.
Since the explosion of cable news, Americans have been slowly transferring their attention, and outrage, from local politics to Washington, D.C. It’s been about 30 years, and the results are measurable.
People know their congressman, but they don’t know their state rep. Coinciding with this shift has been a strengthening of party tribalism, even as party membership has declined – for both parties over a decade in Colorado – the instinct of Americans is to vote for the D or the R.
In many ways, party has replaced community. Setting aside the question of elections – which I’m happy to talk about if anyone wants to – this is a sad state of affairs.
If Trump is giving power back to YOU the people, your power is most profoundly exercised in your community. Parties rose as a way to organize and make change based on shared values, but parties today look more like each other than the communities and value systems they claim to represent.
You do not exercise your power by joining a party.
You exercise your power by standing on your rights.
I learned this lesson intimately over the past several years fighting leftist lawfare that appears to have begun in the Secretary of State’s office, was blessed by five government entities, and officially brought by three leftist NGOs: The NAACP, the League of Women Voters, and Mi Familia Vota.
The claims were voter suppression, intimidation, coercion, and threats under the Voting Rights Act and the KKK Act.
They claimed we were sending armed agents to people’s homes to intimidate and interrogate them about their votes.
In reality, we canvassed the 2020 election as an unincorporated association called the US election integrity plan or USEIP. Volunteers, mainly in four counties, went door to door and checked the government’s results on the election. We found many anomalies – statistically 8-11% of the results were anomalous – and we collected affidavits.
The real reason for the lawsuit, in my opinion, is that we were election deniers that dared to exercise our first amendment rights.
The case went to trial last July, I defended myself, and we won, definitively, on a motion for judgement on partial pleadings, or a directed verdict, meaning they didn’t prove their case before we brought our defensive case in chief. The judge entered judgement in our favor and awarded us costs, the plaintiffs appealed and for almost a year we’ve been defending ourselves again in the 10th circuit. Just this week we got news that the case is docketed for the November session.
About a year after the plaintiffs filed their case, they tried to get us to settle. We decided to stand on our rights, attempt to restore our name, and reinforced First Amendment protections for freedom of association, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly for all coloradans.
Your rights are meaningless if you don’t hold the line on them.
Let’s talk about some other examples…
Tina Peters is in prison for nine years. She was convicted, essentially for lying to public officials about a person who was in her office.
Now, prior to COVID, Tina – the elected official – could have whomever she wanted in her office for any reason. But during COVID, Secretary Griswold issued emergency rules limiting the allowable parties to government officials.
Tina was convicted of four felonies. Three of those felonies are for misrepresenting who was in her office one time – to three officials. The fourth is for conspiracy.
She was not convicted of leaking passwords – Jena Griswold was actually guilty of that, but she investigated herself and decided everything was fine – nor was she convicted of breaching election machines or tampering with elections.
Tina Peters, as an elected official, stood up for all of our rights. President Trump gave power back to the American people, and Tina Peters took it and ran with it.
Let’s talk about Dallas Schroeder and Rhonda Braun in Elbert County. Dallas also took images of his voting equipment – doing it himself – and when Griswold found out she flipped out. Multiple press releases accusing the Elbert Clerk and elections director of crimes, sanctions on the office, rule changes to centralize power out of the counties and into the secretary of state’s office, and an elections babysitter, assigned to their office, every election, at a cost of around $30,000 to the county.
No crime has ever been found in Elbert County. And no retractions or clarifications were ever issued by the Secretary of State on her previously slanderous press releases. Instead, the slander of these brave officials continues.
President Trump gave power back to the American people, and Dallas Schroeder and Rhonda Braun took it and ran with it.
We can talk about Erin Lee, Erin for Parents, and the Art Club case where her daughter was being groomed for transgenderism in a deceptive after school art club. Erin went full mama bear, and has been fighting for all our daughters and sons, with a petition pending currently before the Supreme Court.
President Trump gave power back to the American people, and Erin Lee and her husband and Colorado Parents Action Network took it and ran with it.
Then there is Rebecca Lavrens, the praying grandmother of January 6th who prayed inside the capitol, peacefully assembling after being waved in by Capitol Police, who was dragged into DC court and was effectively asked to deny her faith before the court. Lavrens refused, and she was stripped of her internet access and placed on house arrest.
President Trump gave power back to the American people, and Rebecca Lavrens took it and ran with it.
At this point you might be thinking, but Ashe, everyone in your examples had horrible consequences for reclaiming the power, for taking it and running with it, for standing on their rights.
That’s true.
But it’s not just true of our current moment. It’s true of every patriot who has held the line of liberty in the face of tyranny, every patriot since the founding of our nation.
Do you want to be comfortable? Or do you want to be free?
Self governance is our birth right in America. And we shouldn’t be so quick to sell our birthright for comfort. We should never abandon American liberty in the face of fear.
I am not here tonight to ask you to join a party, or vote for a candidate, or donate money to a cause.
I’m here tonight to ask you to take your power and run with it.
So what does that mean for you?
Well, what is that thing for you that, when you’re doing it, you’re intellectually turned on, time is flying by and you feel like you’re doing what you were created to do?
That’s what you should be doing, in your home and in your community, because that’s how we save America.
If we all fought with the courage of Tina Peters, the integrity of Dallas Schroeder and Rhonda Braun, the mama bear instincts of Erin Lee, and the faith of Rebecca Lavrens — the golden age would be here, in Colorado, accelerating – because it’s ours and we’re making it happen.
Over the past 30 years, our attention and focus have shifted away from our communities. And our communities have suffered as a result.
The golden age is — because it must be — self governed.
President Trump gave power back to the American people. How are you going to take it and run with it?
This article was adapted from Ashe Epp’s public remarks to Parker Conservatives, September 3, 2025.
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The post Trump Gave You The Power Back. What Are You Going To Do With It? appeared first on Colorado Free Press.