#WalkAway story shared by Republican Atheists’ North Carolina Correspondent Kayla Saunders
Note: #WalkAway has become a viral hashtag that people across the United States are using to share their stories of why they left the Democrat party and the ‘left.’ Here is a story shared by Republican Atheists’ North Carolina Correspondent Kayla Saunders.
I apologize for the lengthiness of my #WalkAway story, but it’s been a long one.
I grew up in the Rust Belt in a city where the poverty rate is almost double the National average. One of my earliest political memories was asking my Mom, “Are we Democrats or Republicans?” to which she replied, “We’re poor, so we’re Democrats.” I thought Bill Clinton was a cool dude and that his personal life had nothing to do with his presidential competency. I grew up watching SNL, The Daily Show, and the Colbert Report.
It would be a stretch to say that I have always been politically aware or involved. I voted for Obama in 2008 because I was sold on the idea of “Hope and Change.” I was also 18 and didn’t know anything other than that I was socially liberal, anti-war, and “Bush sucks, man.”
Then, being the hippie that I was and pretty much still am, I started paying attention to Obama’s illiberal policies: issuing a slew of executive orders, hypocritical appointment of a “Wallstreet Cabinet,” sanction of unconstitutional NSA surveillance, denouncement of whistleblowers, and escalation of drone warfare (including the strike on the 16 year-old American citizen, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki). It became clear to me that he was simply a cult-of-personality using his oratorical skills to manipulate public opinion in his favor.
So I became very interested in left-libertarianism, started reading Noam Chomsky, and thinking Parecon, which is essentially decentralized libertarian socialism, was a great idea. Work was obviously wage slavery and capitalism was clearly evil. I probably would have went and lived on a BF Skinner-styled Walden II commune if I had the chance, no joke.
But then, lo and behold, I made my first *gasp* Republican friend. I couldn’t understand why such an otherwise forward-thinking, intelligent, articulate person would discreetly sport a GOP elephant logo on his car amidst a jungle of metal band stickers. A key aspect of bonding with another person for me is arguing with said person, so 2+ years of debating miminum wage laws, healthcare, immigration, foreign policy, and business regulations commenced.
The trend became clear to me: while he was just as compassionate as I am and desired the same outcomes for most of humanity, he had different solutions for how to arrive at them. My own penchant for utopianism also became apparent, and I realized that I was going to have to start dealing with reality rather than trying to Molotov cocktail everything that pissed me off.
But I sure as hell wasn’t going to join the GOP in North Carolina, because I figured that as a bisexual, pro-choice atheist, I wouldn’t be welcome, regardless of how well my other policy positions lined up. It would be dishonest to say that I haven’t encountered some pushback from folks in the party, but for the most part I have been able to debate those who disagree with me on the right while maintaining some level of civility. As a result, I have grown immensely in my ability to tolerate and have compassion for people who are different than me ideologically – virtues I formerly associated with liberalism.
As Dave Rubin said, “Defending my liberal values has become a conservative position.” I have watched the madness occurring at universities that deplatform members of the Left, like Sam Harris and Christina Hoff Sommers, because they dare to break with the ideological hegemony of their own party.
I have watched the Left champion Linda Sarsour as a bastion of liberalism and feminism – – – the same woman who called for ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali to have her vagina removed. I have heard the terms “racist, homophobe, transphobe” and “Nazi” lobbed at gay Jews and people have their lives threatened for positions they don’t even hold.
I have watched former Evergreen Professor Bret Weinstein and his wife be forced to leave their university positions and go into hiding simply for suggesting that it might actually be racist to tell any human that they are not welcome in a space because of the color of their skin.
I have watched chanting, groupthink, violence, and hypocrisy, and the absurd dictum that speech is violence. I have watched the rhetoric coming from the Left get progressively uglier and begin to embody values antithetical to my own, namely that skin color, sex, sexual preferences, and gender have become signifiers of one’s worth and value and that we should divide ourselves along those lines.
I am glad to have left the left and am encouraged to see so many kindred spirits in this group.
In my case, I also “walked on” so to speak by getting involved with the North Carolina Republican Party, Wake GOP, Wake County Young Republicans, Young Republican National Federation, and serve in a leadership role with the Triangle Urban Republican Network and as a correspondent for Republican Atheists.
For more information about the Walk Away campaign, visit its official Facebook page here.
Do you have a #WalkAway story to share? Email it to info@republicanatheists.com.
