How to Use RESOLUTE Citizen + Local
A practical walkthrough of both tools the U.S.M.C. Ministries citizen-engagement stack provides: the candidate scorecard and the civic-engagement tool for your city. Quick start, common tasks, worked examples — in plain English.
The two tools
Both run on the same proven methodology — scrape a public source, transform it to structured data, layer in a citizen-friendly LLM brief where useful, render it as a fast static page on GitHub Pages. Different domain, different audience.
RESOLUTE Citizen
The candidate scorecard. 8,972 federal, state, and local candidates scored on a tier-aware biblical rubric. Every claim cites a primary source. Federal weighted 60/40 God First / America First; state and local weighted 70/30.
Open the scorecard →RESOLUTE Local
The civic-engagement tool. Live council agendas (refreshed twice daily), plain-English citizen briefs from a local LLM, calendar invites, and a draft-a-public-comment helper. Currently Fredericksburg, expanding by request.
Open RESOLUTE Local ↗Scorecard quick tour 30 seconds
- Open citizen.html. You'll see candidates as cards — each shows the score (e.g., 18/100 · F) and a tier chip (Federal rubric · 60/40).
- Type a name in the search box, or filter by state, party, status, or rubric tier.
- Click any card → full profile with all 13 categories, every scored question, citations to primary sources, and a deep-dive link to each category's full rubric.
- The top nav's Citizen ▾ dropdown reaches every supporting page: Find My Reps, Rankings, Compare, Scoring System, Council Watch, plus a cross-link to RESOLUTE Local.
Scorecard — common tasks
| I want to… | Go to | How |
|---|---|---|
| Look up a specific candidate | citizen.html | Type their name in the search box at the top. |
| See my federal + state reps | find-my-reps.html | Enter your address — pulls your House district + state legislators. |
| Compare two candidates head-to-head | compare.html | Pick a race, or pick any two candidates — scores side-by-side. |
| Browse top-scoring candidates by state | citizen-rankings.html | Filter by state, party, office. |
| See who's been voted out or retired | citizen-formers.html | Shows resolved candidacies (lost / retired / former). |
| Understand the rubric in depth | scoring-system.html | Full explainer of 60/40 federal & 70/30 state/local weighting. |
| Read a category's full rubric + Scripture | citizen/<slug>.html | E.g., citizen/sanctity-of-life.html — anchor verse, all 5 questions per tier (toggle Federal/State/Local at the top), disqualifiers, key bills + orgs. |
| Watch state ballot issues | citizen-issues.html | Track constitutional amendments + initiatives by state. |
| Send a petition to your reps | petition.html | Pre-fills a template; edit + copy to email. |
| Dispute a claim on a profile | any profile, under any answered question | Click Dispute this claim → opens email with the source line auto-quoted. |
How to read a profile
Every profile is laid out the same way:
- Score header: total /100 (e.g., 64/100 — B), plus God-First subtotal and Government-pillar subtotal. The latter changes per tier — America First for federal, State First for state, Local First for local.
- Tier chip under the score tells you which rubric is in play (Local rubric · 70/30).
- Category cards: 13 total, but only the ones applicable to this office's tier render. Each shows the score (6/10), an icon, and a "deep dive →" link.
- Per-question rows: True / False / null. True earns +2; null means "not yet verified from primary sources" (neither penalized nor credited).
- Evidence drawer (the small i button) expands citations for any answered question — typically AP, NBC, state Secretary of State, official records.
- "📍 Track this council live" banner appears on Fredericksburg city officials' profiles → jumps to the civic tool for that city.
How tier framing works v5.6 · per-tier labels
The same canonical category looks different on the profile depending on the office, because what a U.S. senator decides about Sanctity of Life is not what a city council decides. v5.6 makes that drill-down visible:
Same Scripture, same conviction; what changes is the chair making the call. On the category deep-dive pages (e.g., /citizen/sanctity-of-life.html) you can toggle Federal/State/Local at the top to see all three framings — label, description, and the actual scored questions all swap together.
Civic-tool quick tour RESOLUTE Local
- Open adamljohns.github.io/resolute-local. You'll see the city directory — Fredericksburg today; Request your city for the rest.
- Click Open Fredericksburg → the live council page: next meeting (date, time, agenda link, plain-English LLM brief), current council members with ward + contact, active issues this cycle, and the how-to-participate ladder.
- Click 📅 Add to my calendar on the next meeting → downloads a
.icsfile you import to Apple/Google/Outlook calendar. - Click ✍️ Draft a public comment → opens an editable template; click Copy to clipboard, then paste into email or read at the podium.
- Top nav links cross-domain to the Scorecard ↗ for these same council members on usmcmin.com, plus the Council Notes page (past meetings, votes, policy analysis).
The data refreshes twice daily (06:00 + 18:00 EDT) — a cron pulls the official agenda center, transforms it, has a local LLM write the citizen brief, and pushes any changes for live deploy. You always see the latest published agenda + the freshest brief.
Civic-tool — common tasks
| I want to… | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| Know what's on the next council meeting | city page top | "Next Meeting" section — date, agenda link, plain-English LLM brief. |
| Calendar the next meeting | city page | "📅 Add to my calendar" → opens .ics file. |
| Email a councilor | city page council grid | Each councilor card links to the city contact directory. |
| See what just happened at a meeting | Council Notes | Past meetings, votes, policy tags, video links. |
| Draft a public comment to read at the podium | city page | "✍️ Draft a public comment" → edits a template, copies to clipboard. |
| Score my councilor on the scorecard | city page council grid | Each councilor card has a "Profile" button → opens their RESOLUTE Citizen scorecard. |
| Request RESOLUTE Local for my city | Council Notes bottom | "Want Council Watch in your city?" form. |
How to weigh in — FXBG example the 10-minutes-a-month ladder
The whole tool is designed around the assumption that you have ten minutes a month to be a faithful citizen of your city — not ten hours. Here's the ladder:
- Watch — on the morning of the meeting, open the city page, skim the LLM brief (60 sec). If nothing jumps out, you're done.
- Email — if one item matters to you, click the councilor cards, copy emails, send a 3-sentence note before 5 PM the day of the meeting (most councils close comment that afternoon).
- Comment — if it's bigger than email, click "Draft a public comment," edit the template, and read it at the podium (Fredericksburg holds public comment at the start of every Regular Session).
- Show up — for the biggest items, attend. The room being full changes how votes go.
Most issues are settled at step 1 or 2. The toolkit lowers the friction so steps 3 and 4 are available when they matter.
FAQ
Why are some categories not shown on a state or local profile?
Because they don't apply at that tier. A city councilor doesn't vote on foreign policy or federal industry capture, so those categories are hidden on local profiles — the rubric grades them on what their chair actually decides. Federal officials get the full 10-category federal rubric; state officials see the 10-category state rubric (with "Refuse Federal Overreach" and "Public Justice" in place of the federal-only categories); local officials see the 10-category local rubric (with "Refuse State Overreach" replacing the federal-only ones).
What does null mean on a question?
"Not yet verified from a primary source." It's neither True nor False — it doesn't penalize the candidate, but it doesn't credit them either. The dynamic-max grading reduces the denominator by the unanswered questions so the percentage still reflects what we know. As primary sources surface (votes, public statements, filings), null answers convert to True/False with citations.
How do I dispute a claim?
On any profile, find the answered question and click the small i button to see the source. Below the sources is a Dispute this claim link — click it and your email opens pre-filled with the disputed line so we can investigate.
How fresh is the data?
Scorecard: election results are verified and updated within 48 hours of resolution (we cite a reputable source — AP, NBC, state SoS — before changing any status). A weekly sweep on Monday mornings flags races needing attention. Background: AIPAC / Soros / CCP donor adjustments refresh monthly.
RESOLUTE Local: twice daily (06:00 + 18:00 EDT) — the agenda center is scraped, the brief regenerated, and any changes pushed live.
I'm a candidate — how do I get my profile updated?
Email [email protected] with primary-source links (campaign site, voting record, signed pledges, public statements) for the questions you want re-scored. Every change requires a citation. We update on a rolling basis.
I want RESOLUTE Local for my city — what's involved?
The pattern generalizes to any locality whose agenda center is publicly published (most VA cities run CivicPlus / Granicus / Legistar; one adapter covers each). Request it via the form at the bottom of the Council Notes page; we're rolling out demand-driven across the Commonwealth (and beyond).
Is this affiliated with a party or campaign?
No. U.S.M.C. Ministries is a Christian ministry; the scorecard grades candidates against a biblical rubric, not a party platform. The data is sourced from official records and reputable journalism only. Every claim cites its source — we welcome scrutiny.
How is the scoring weighted?
Three rubrics, all on a 0-100 scale. Federal: 60 God First / 40 America First. State and Local: 70 God First / 30 State (or Local) First — because the lower the office, the narrower its national-issue scope, so a leader's faithfulness to Christ is proportionally more of what their record reveals. See the full Scoring System page for the math, the dynamic-max grading, and the letter-grade scale.