Kudos to Brandon Straka, the founder of the #WalkAway movement: an Alcoholics Anonymous of sorts for ex-radicals and leftists. Gay people, women, Latinos and minorities who have joined the movement say they’ve felt isolated in the Democratic Party, and are walking away from it. Many have shared their #WalkAway stories on social media, and I hope my #WalkAway story will motivate others to walk away in search of reality.
As with many African-Americans, I grew up in a Democratic household. My parents were atheists, but little did I know that my mom grew up as a Seventh Day Adventist and my dad grew up in a church environment. They became liberals because they were in rebellion against the church.
My dad was a product of the 60s. Doors were opening for African-Americans, but for some, it wasn’t fast enough. The only time I really got along with my father was when he told stories about Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Living in New Jersey, I got to hear all the black rabble rousers and agitators such as Khalid Muhammad, John Henry Clark, Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan. One of my favorite TV shows was Tony Brown’s Journal; I didn’t know he was a “Black Republican,” but I liked his message of entrepreneurship and “bootstrapism.” But I couldn’t fathom being anything else but black, angry, bitter and militant. I truly believed white people were the cause of my black suffering.
I was exposed to photos of Emmett Till, to lynchings and burnings of black men, followed by the narrative that the white man stole from black people, and exploited and raped black women. I exploded with anger and rage. Now, I feel as if I was brainwashed and bred to hate white people. Why would I vote Republican when I was taught these were the people who committed black genocide?
Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt chose not to help Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, put Japanese-Americans in internment camps and refused to sign anti-lynching laws because he didn’t want to upset Dixiecrats. Yet liberals celebrate this man because they got some free stuff. Richard Nixon appealed to white Southerners’ racism to win, but the left won’t admit that Nixon was progressive on civil rights. It was Nixon who promoted affirmative action and the Small Business Administration, so blacks could start businesses. Nixon took more initiative to desegregate schools in the South than John F. Kennedy or Lyndon B. Johnson.
This began my awakening. I thought Bill Clinton was the first “black” president, but I ignored that his policies were harsher than those of other presidents towards poor black men and young single mothers. When liberals talk about President Donald Trump separating families, they don’t mention that Clinton sent federal marshals to rip Elian Gonzalez from his relatives to send him back to Fidel Castro’s Cuba, or that he sent back Haitian refugees fleeing from a corrupt brutal dictatorship. Hillary Clinton has even referred to the late Republican Sen. Robert Byrd, a former Klan leader, as a “friend and mentor.”
While I loved my father because he had a work ethic, he suffered from a “black victim” mindset. What saved me was my grandfather. He grew up in the Jim Crow South, but he never used racism as a crutch. I remember complaining about the white man, and he showed me a picture of a black military officer. He asked me, “What do you think this man’s doing that others aren’t?” That simple question stunned me because I knew the truth. This black man, despite racism, did what he had to do to get in the military academy and become an officer. My grandfather told me how many groups of people had faced discrimination and came through it. Despite what I learned from my grandfather, it took until 2009 to leave that “blame racism” mindset.
Leftism is all about anger, resentment and bitterness. I have learned to walk away from the Left.
According to a Snopes.com fact-check, a Twitter tracking tool recorded Russian bots amplifying fake Walk Away Campaign means, using stock photos to pose as real people. However, as reported by The Epoch Times, other legitimate uses have come forward to show their support for the campaign.
