What has inspired the #WalkAway Movement? Why are people leaving the Democratic Party now?

Opinion

I walked away from the Democrats long ago, thus I have no problem understanding their reasons. I am confused only by what has taken others so long.

When I turned twenty-one, I registered as a Democrat which may have surprised those who knew me, because three years earlier I had campaigned for Richard Nixon. I handed out campaign literature and drove voters to the polls because I knew a little too much about JFK's crime family connections to feel comfortable supporting him even though he was the nominee of the party of President Truman. Obviously, I have been on a political odyssey.

Maybe we should back up a little to get a better understanding of my rationale.
Harry Truman was President when I was an impressionable boy and my father hated him. My father hated FDR as well, but he was President when I was born and died before I became aware of much beyond the limits of my crib.
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Wait. Not far enough. Let's go back even farther.

By the time I was four, I had figured out that my father was bat guano crazy. I loved him, but I didn't like him. He was cruel and oppressive to his family, and a bigot. Not just an ordinary bigot. He was indiscriminate in his discrimination. He hated everyone except German Lutherans who drove Ford cars. Whatever anyone else ate or drove, if it wasn't German food or a Ford product, they had bad taste and poor judgment. However they worshiped, if it wasn't Missouri Synod Lutheran, it was wrong, maybe even evil. And don't get me started on his views of national origin or skin color or sexual behavior or gender. I lived my life resolved to be the opposite of him in every respect. Thus, since was father was a staunch Republican, I registered as a Democrat when I turned twenty-one.

As I mentioned, I admired Harry Truman. Still do. Although I know his faults: He owed his rise in politics to a political machine, he made an ill-advised decision to allow his Secretary of State to publicly announce that we wouldn't fight to defend South Korea thereby inciting that war, and others. However, thanks to my father's example, I learned at an early age that all men are neither wholly good or bad. No one makes the best decisions all of the time. On balance, as I studied Truman, I learned that he served with distinction during World War I as a captain of artillery. He used his seat in the U.S. Senate to investigate and expose war profiteers during World War II. As President, he made the hard decisions, such as nuking Japan, and took full responsibility. He said "The buck stops here" and meant it. Truman was, simply stated, a good leader, and he was a Democrat. Score one for supporting my decision to register as a Democrat.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was also an admirable President. He also served with distinction in World War I as well as II. He too made good and bad decisions as President. And the world looked up to President Eisenhower as a father figure, although that didn't mean much to me inasmuch as my father had soured me on fatherhood. Still, on balance, his tenure wasn't sufficient to turn my head away from its initial setting towards the Democrats.

Similarly, JFK's crime family connections weren't sufficient to turn me away.

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It wasn't until later in life, about the time I served in the military, that I began to see that ideology was far more important than politics. That principles were of more consequence than party loyalty. That candidates' individual qualities were of far greater significance than the platform on which they stood. It took me little time to realize that I stood on the Right of the ideological spectrum.

The Left, populated with Socialist, Communists, and Nazis, held no allure for me. Furthermore, I was not fooled by the fog of Progressivism that attempted to conceal their allegiance to the Left. I studied the progressive movement back to its roots and found President Woodrow Wilson making the case, that some people were better equipped to make the proper decisions, that the nation needed a strong Executive with far reaching powers to mitigate the irrational laws being brewed in the cauldrons of Congress. To him, The People's House was populated by ignorant rabble and he was determined to populate the White House with intelligentsia to rule over them.
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Fortunately, We the Rabble had a shield, the Constitution and thus, it became the target of progressives. The Constitution had to be destroyed, piece-by-piece, if necessary. Over the next Century, they almost succeeded.

After working on a successful campaign to elect a Democrat to the State Legislature in Colorado, I had the opportunity to look deeper in the the workings of political parties and, as we have been told, politics like sausage-making, should never be looked at too closely. I did and I lost my taste (although I still enjoy sausage). Thereafter, I registered with whichever party dominated my community. I reasoned that if the Democrat or Republican was going to win the general election, then at least I should have an opportunity to cast my ballot in the primary for whichever candidate was going to win. Granted, it was a very mercenary attitude, but realistic. That's why I was a registered Republican for most of the thirty-five years that I've lived in Orange County, California.

I registered Independent when California elected to allow voters to cast their ballots in whichever primary they wanted regardless of their registration. They removed any need for me to be a Republican. I am consistent, if nothing else.

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Recently, I have returned to the Republican Party for the same reason that I voted for President Trump. I voted against Hillary Clinton, much for the same reason that I campaigned in opposition to JFK, because she represents a criminal family enterprise. There is no doubt that she would have used the office of President to enrich herself at the expense of the nation, much as she did while serving under President Obama as Secretary of State. I stand against the Democratic Party since they have fallen under the pall of the Progressives. Their hysteria and behavior ever since the elections of November, 2016, have proven the correctness of my decisions.

So, why are those who remained Democrats so long, walking away now?

What's different today? The Democrats still offer the same empty promises of "fairness" and freedom from responsibility. No change there. Those are powerful incentives.

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Freedom is synonymous with personal responsibility and I understand that, for many people, it is scary. Thus, socialism in all its forms, has a certain appeal for those who want freedom only from responsibility. They are willing to live under a tyrant so long as the tyrant takes responsibility for the consequences of the nation's failures as well as its successes. Sadly, they never have. They simply punish, imprison or murder, innocents as sacrificial lambs. Still, people allow themselves to be beguiled by promises of “fairness” and submit to the rule of the oligarchy. Thus, the Democratic Party will never want for members.

In the #WalkAway testimonies that I've read and listened to in recent days, it appears that some members of the Democratic Party are willing to take a chance on freedom and responsibility. Their principle complaint appears to be that they simply do not want to be associated with the rising tide of violence that Democrats are employing to compensate for their lack of political power. As the influence of progressivism ebbs, the Democrats are taking to the streets, not to demonstrate and give voice to their grievances, but rather to inflict their will on those who disagree. They have organized mobs, such as Antifa, to spearhead the violence. They enforce political correctness to interfere with the right to free speech for any who might voice an opinion contrary to their own. And no behavior, no matter how despicable, is taboo in their efforts to thwart any further attempts to reverse their campaign to replace the balance of limited powers prescribed in the Constitution with a tyrannical Executive occupied by the intellectual elite.

The problem is that they may walk right back again, especially if the Democrats regain political power and reign in the violence and try to act more civilized in the venues of public discourse. Unless, of course, during their brief stay among the ranks of the free they learn to live free. Thus, it is incumbent upon free men and women everywhere to welcome them. Do not rebuke them for their slavish attitudes of old. Help them learn how to stand on their own feet and take responsibility for themselves and their choices. If we don't, we are all condemned to join them in slavery when they march back.

​Of course, this is just my opinion. Unlike the Left, I will not come to beat you into submission if you disagree...