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Julie Bolejack is a 72-year-old activist, entrepreneur, and lifelong creative with a passion for empowering diversity, equity and inclusion, championing human and animal rights, and exploring the intersections of business, advocacy, and personal growth. With a master’s degree in business and decades of experience in project management, she now dedicates her time to helping people embrace new chapters in life. She’s a wellness enthusiast, and advocate for meaningful change – Julie is always learning, laughing, and elevating.
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Well, folks — if you were still squinting to see whether the GOP had any shred of empathy left for ordinary Americans, the shutdown just switched the lights on and handed you binoculars. What we saw wasn’t pretty. Picture the Emperor — orange glow, long tie, and all — strutting through the ruins of a government he broke, shouting about “winning.” Spoiler: the only people winning are the ones who already own the board.
This shutdown didn’t just stall paychecks. It exposed something deeper, uglier, and wholly intentional. It revealed — again, for those in the back — that Trump and the Republican Party don’t give a damn about feeding children, protecting seniors, or making sure a single mother can afford insulin without auctioning a kidney. Their sympathy has the shelf life of unrefrigerated milk and the sincerity of a Mar-a-Lago “charity” check.
🧊 Starving the Poor, One Budget Stunt at a Time
When the shutdown hit, food assistance programs were the first to feel the frostbite. Millions of kids who rely on school meals, seniors who depend on SNAP, and working families already stretched thinner than the truth at a Trump rally — all left wondering if they’d be the next “acceptable casualties” of “fiscal responsibility.”
The GOP’s new motto might as well be: If you can’t eat, at least be patriotic while you starve. They’ll tell you “we can’t afford” to feed children — right before voting to extend tax loopholes for billionaires who name their yachts after Ayn Rand novels.
Meanwhile, the same politicians who clutch pearls about the sanctity of life seem weirdly unbothered by the sanctity of lunch.
💉 Healthcare: Just Another Word for Weakness
If the shutdown taught us anything, it’s that Republicans think healthcare is a privilege — like a country club membership or being born in the right zip code.
The Affordable Care Act subsidies? Frozen. Medicare claims? Delayed. Community clinics? Closed. But hey, the billionaire class stayed healthy — their portfolios fattened while actual Americans skipped prescriptions and rationed insulin like it’s 1930s bread lines all over again.
And still, the MAGA crowd cheers. They cheer while their own communities suffer, proudly holding signs that say “Keep government out of my Medicare.” It would be funny if it weren’t so horrifying — watching people defend the very system designed to grind them down.
💰 Power and the Rich: The Only Two Things They’ll Protect
If Trumpism has a moral compass, it points directly toward the nearest donor check. The party of “fiscal conservatism” managed to tank the economy while still giving tax cuts to billionaires, subsidies to fossil fuel companies, and defense contracts to whoever praises Dear Leader loudest.
And when ordinary Americans — teachers, nurses, postal workers — can’t pay rent because of their political theater, the GOP shrugs. After all, they don’t need votes from people who can’t afford gas; they’ve got super PACs for that.
Remember when they claimed to be the “party of the working man”? Turns out, they meant the man who works in private equity.
🏛 The Anti-American Party
Let’s call this what it is. When a government deliberately harms its own citizens to score political points, that’s not “patriotism.” That’s sabotage.
Republicans love to wrap themselves in the flag while dismantling everything that flag is supposed to represent: fairness, opportunity, compassion, democracy. They’ve replaced the stars and stripes with a corporate logo and a “Don’t Tread on Me” sticker made in China.
And yet — their followers stand in the cold, chanting “USA!” while the party they worship sells off the country piece by piece to the highest bidder.
👀 The Real Question
So here we are. The government reopened (for now), the billionaires got their tax breaks, and the rest of us are left with the bill — again.
But here’s the real question: Will their supporters finally see it?
Will they see the naked greed, the cruelty disguised as policy, the indifference to hunger, illness, and poverty? Will they notice that the so-called “patriots” in charge wouldn’t cross the street to save an American child from hunger unless there were a campaign donation waiting on the other side?
Or will they keep cheering, convinced that their suffering is “freedom,” that cruelty is “strength,” and that empathy is “socialism”?
Maybe it’ll take one more shutdown, one more empty fridge, one more denied insurance claim. Or maybe they’ll never see it — blinded by the orange glow reflecting off the gilded towers of the men who sold them a lie.
Either way, the rest of us saw it clear as day:
The shutdown stripped them bare — and there’s nothing underneath but greed, cowardice, and contempt for the very people they swore to serve.
If this doesn’t wake America up, nothing will — except maybe the sound of another “patriot” voting against their own dinner.
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Julie Bolejack, MBA
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We are witnessing a full-throttle campaign of delegitimization being waged against anyone who dares to resist the presidency of Donald Trump and the Republicans backing him. Make no mistake: this is not about a policy disagreement. It’s not even merely about vehement critique. What we are seeing is the systematic branding of us — those who oppose the Trump agenda, who question his motives, who reject his authoritarian impulses — as un-American, dangerous, and illegitimate. That is the message. And the message is being blasted out constantly.
We are being called communists. We are being called traitors. We are being painted as some sort of fifth-column, unpatriotic mob. They have the gall to say we “hate America,” even though our love for this country is precisely what drives us to resist this administration. We believe America must live up to its ideals: equality under law, freedom of speech, accountability, protection of the vulnerable, a democracy of, by, and for the people. But the Trump-Republican machine wants us portrayed as the enemy of all that. That’s not a coincidence. It’s a strategy: delegitimize the opposition so the power grab can proceed unchecked.
Let’s catalogue a few of the lies and the hateful rhetoric being hurled at us:
- We hear it again and again: “If you criticize the President, you hate America.” The insinuation is clear: dissent = betrayal. That’s a direct assault on the principle that civic engagement, protest, and questioning authority are hallmarks of American democracy.
- We are smeared as “socialists” or “communists,” as though opposing corruption, cronyism, authoritarianism and naked self-enrichment were equivalent to embracing a one-party communist dictatorship. That slander is not about accuracy—it’s about scare tactics.
- We are described as “radical leftists” who aim to dismantle everything good in America. We’re accused of wanting to erase the Constitution, bash the military, and tear down the flag. None of that is true; and yet the rhetoric is repeated so widely and so loudly that harmless citizens begin to doubt whether they’re the crazy ones.
- We’re told we’re supporting “illegal immigrants,” “open borders,” “lawlessness,” and that we don’t care about American jobs or American children. In reality we oppose policies that exploit vulnerability, we value civil rights, and we believe a truly just economy and immigration system protects the weak rather than weaponizing them.
- We’re characterized as haters of the police, haters of the military, haters of “good Americans.” Meanwhile, the people doing the smearing are shielded behind law enforcement memorabilia, “patriotic” flags and MAGA hats. The inversion is glaring: they claim to be the defenders of “law and order” while undermining constitutional order by delegitimizing dissent.
- We are painted as conspiracy-theorists, “deep state” warriors, professional protesters, paid provocateurs—anything other than engaged citizens exercising our rights. The goal: make us seem bizarre, extreme, disconnected from “real America.” So the speech becomes: “If you’re not with us, you’re the other.”
- We are told we’re ushering in chaos, anarchy, the downfall of civilization. Because if you can frame your critics as society-destroying agents, then any crackdown—any authoritarian move—can be justified as “defending” the republic. And that is profoundly dangerous.
And dangerous it is. Because delegitimization doesn’t stay in the realm of language. It seeps into public institutions, into law enforcement behavior, into media coverage, into the culture of intimidation. When you tell half a country that their fellow citizens are “unpatriotic” or “traitors,” you invite harassment, you invite suppression of free speech, you invite erosion of democratic norms.
Yes: we’ve been called traitors, called enemies of America. People think that it’s hyperbole—but no. Look at how people speak about us on cable networks, on social media, in campaign rallies: the tone is toxic, the suggestions are ugly. “Lock them up.” “Silence them.” “They are a danger.” That language matters. Truth matters. Because a democracy cannot function when people are afraid to speak, afraid to dissent, afraid that the very foundations of their rights will be attacked.
What we are seeing is this: an unstoppable-looking Republican juggernaut, allied with Trump, that cannot win on substantive policy alone. So it resorts to delegitimization. It says: “We are the real America. You aren’t. You hate America. You are the un-American force.” If we accept that framing—or are too tired or frightened to push back—then we lose not only the battle of ideas but the very idea of political legitimacy.
Because resistance isn’t optional. When leaders treat criticism as a threat, when dissent is portrayed as subversion, when openness, plurality and contestation are portrayed as “betrayal,” we are no longer living in a healthy republic. And that is what’s at stake. Our institutions — judiciary, press, civil society, elections — depend not just on majority rule but on respect for the rights and legitimacy of opposition. When those rights are denied or tarnished, majority rule easily slides into majoritarian tyranny.
So I say this: we do love America. We do stand for America. But we also stand for the America that keeps its promises: the America that defends civil liberties, that respects dissent, that protects minorities, that demands transparency and accountability of power. We resist not because we hate America, but because we love America—and because we believe love demands vigilance.
And to the leaders of the revolt against democratic norms — to Trump and his Republican cohorts — make no mistake: you may smear us, but you cannot silence us. You may brand us “communists,” “hating America,” but you cannot erase our presence, our votes, our voices. There will come a day when we will be heard. There will come a day when your delegitimization campaign will be exposed for what it is: a desperate effort to maintain power rather than serve the people.
The danger is real. When a democratic system allows one side to define legitimacy and then criminalize dissent, it ceases to be democracy. It becomes authoritarianism in slow motion. We must refuse to accept that. We must say: No, dissent is not betrayal. Questioning power is not treason. Democracy is alive only when it allows all voices, including the unpopular, to be heard safely.
And we will be heard. We will demand accountability, we will demand fairness, we will demand our rights. We will show up, vote, speak out, organize, build coalitions. We will refuse to accept the false narrative that “if you don’t support Trump you hate America.” That lie is being spat at us constantly—and we must spit it back.
So let’s call it out: The delegitimization campaign is unacceptable. The smears—“communists,” “un-American,” “traitors,” “radical left”—they must be named for what they are: a propaganda strategy to keep power, not a reasoned critique of policy. We must tell our friends, our neighbors, our fellow citizens: whatever side you’re on, this is not just about left vs. right. It is about whether dissent is legitimate in America.
If you believe that dissent is a bedrock of democracy. If you believe that criticizing the powerful is neither un-American nor extremist. If you believe this country’s promise includes both justice and freedom. Then you are not alone. Stand with us. Resist the smear campaign. Challenge the delegitimizers. Protect our right to question. Protect our right to dissent. Because that right is not just for “them” — it’s for all of us. And if we lose it, we lose the America we love.
Julie Bolejack, MBA -
Last night, I had the absolute pleasure of taking my Beyoncé-superfan granddaughter to the symphony at the Hilbert Circle Theatre. And let me tell you — when you combine Queen Bey’s fire with Beethoven’s thunder, it’s not just a concert… it’s a spiritual realignment.
The moment the orchestra struck the first notes of Halo arranged like a symphony, I glanced over at her wide-eyed face and thought, “Yes — this is how we pass the torch.” One generation grew up with Beethoven’s grand crescendos; the next, with Beyoncé’s unapologetic anthems. But last night, they shared the same stage — and somehow, it all made perfect sense.
Beethoven demanded that we feel; Beyoncé insists that we own those feelings. He composed through silence; she performs through noise. Together, they remind us that emotion — raw, defiant, glorious — transcends time, race, and rhythm.
It was pure joy.
The kind that doesn’t just fill your ears — it reboots your soul.
So today, I’m declaring it: Music Therapy Day.
Find an artist who makes your heart pulse faster.
Beethoven or Beyoncé, Billie Holiday or Bad Bunny — doesn’t matter.
Blast it in your kitchen, in your car, in your heart.
Because whether it’s a symphony or a bass drop, music is how we remember who we are and why we still dance.
Julie Bolejack, MBA
Website: juliebolejack.com
Shop: mindfulactivist.etsy.com
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