So what's up with this #walkaway movement?

I'm fascinated by human behavior. I even considered going into the field of psychology when I was in high school. Fortunately, I was self aware enough to realize that I would never be able to leave my work at the office and would be constantly sad. I eventually went into accounting (because that's the logical next choice lol) but have often employed my natural counseling skills with people who have reported to me. In fact, when I was a younger manager, I was sometimes too empathetic and employees would tell me all sorts of things that nobody should ever tell their boss!

I've been intently watching how people have been behaving since Trump was elected. I ultimately decided to vote for Trump, but I wasn't very happy about it. I stood at the voting machine for several minutes debating. I was really voting against Hillary and I was toying with the idea of voting for a third party. However, the Supreme Court Justice nomination was the most important thing to me and I was convinced that voting third party was essentially the same as voting for Hillary. So I swallowed hard and checked the box for Trump. I walked out with a clear conscience knowing that I had done what I thought was best even though I was convinced Hillary would win anyway. I'll never forget the night of the election. We watched the election coverage on CNN and it became funnier and funnier as the night progressed. As I started to think, "Holy Shit, Trump might actually win," you could see that the CNN hosts were starting to think "HOLY SHIT, TRUMP MIGHT ACTUALLY WIN!!!!" As more results continued to come in, you could literally see the meltdowns coming on. Living in the Southeast, I stayed up until 3am waiting for Hillary to address her supporters and watching liberals crying and lamenting how they just didn't know how they were going to explain this to their children. Not to discount the feelings of those who were so emotionally impacted, but I immediately began to wonder what the heck was wrong with these people. I found it almost surreal.

In the days that followed the election, as I publicly admitted that I had voted for Trump, I was blasted by friends and family alike. How could any self-respecting woman vote for him, I was asked. I was told that only uneducated women voted for him and all of the enlightened women voted for Hillary. I was told that I was not allowed to say that I support women when I didn't support the first woman presidential candidate. A family member told me I was teaching my daughters that it's okay to be mistreated by men. By that logic, I wondered to myself what her support of Bill and Hillary Clinton was teaching her own daughters, but I guess only my actions were in question, not hers. I've learned a really hard lesson since the election. Many so-called friends and people who claim to love me were really unkind to me all because I had the audacity to exercise my right to vote for the candidate of my choice and then express my opinions afterward. I know of many others who have lost friends or have been disowned by family members over this.

So as the hysterical leftist meltdowns have continued and I've watched Hillary and her supporters make all kinds of excuses as to how she could have possibly lost, I've been dumbfounded to realize that these people really have no clue about human behavior. They are completely out of touch with the every day citizen who just wants to be able to provide for their family and enjoy the freedoms promised to them in our Constitution.

I've watched leftists turn on each other if one of their herd steps out of line and dares to express a free thought that doesn't toe the line 100%. I've watched the sickening apologies and back-pedaling that happens after someone is viciously attacked by the angry leftist mob. I've watched kids calling for boycotts of advertisers of conservative TV hosts. I've watched people being physically attacked for the mere "crime" of wearing a MAGA hat or a Trump shirt. I've watched people being refused service because of their conservative views. I've watched Trump and his family being attacked in disgusting and despicable ways. And I've watched Trump enjoy a ground swell of support as the left has gotten more and more hateful and extreme. Here's where the human nature comes in. A lot of people will naturally gravitate toward protecting those who are being vilified and treated unfairly. They will stand behind someone who they may not even like that much just because it is right and just to stick up for those who are being mistreated. The fascinating part is that the radical left has no idea that their insane tactics are backfiring spectacularly...but I assure you that their opposition does.

This brings me to the #walkaway campaign. I stumbled across this movement about a month ago. There is a group on Facebook and I joined when it was at about 20,000 members. The movement has gone viral and now there are more than 162,000 members. The campaign was started by a gay gentleman named Brandon Straka who became disillusioned with the Democratic party when he began to realize that the party is intolerant of diversity of thought and has employed dishonest and hateful tactics to advance their increasingly radical agenda. One of the main purposes of this campaign is to expose the false narrative that everyone on the right is a bigot, a racist, a homophobe, a misogynist, etc. I have spent quite a bit of time reading and watching the testimonials of other members of the group and I am hopeful for the future of our country. The "silent majority" is finally starting to speak up. This Facebook group is full of truly diverse individuals who come from all different backgrounds who are rejecting the hatred and vitriol that is ever present on social media, in entertainment and in the news. They are sharing their stories of why they have chosen to #walkaway from the Democratic party or why they support others who are doing so.

What I find fascinating about the #walkaway movement is the response by the Democratic party and leftists. They are trying to dismiss the movement by spreading the lie that the group is full of Russian bots. Just as they have desperately tried to blame Trump's election win on Russia, now they are blaming this movement on Russia as well. Instead of looking inward and trying to understand what is going on, they choose to bury their heads in the sand and insist that the movement doesn't actually exist. This is exactly the type of behavior that got Trump elected. From my point of view, the left is moving so far left that they are losing support of reasonable people and the right is moving more to the left into more moderate territory where those who are centrists can find common ground with them. Only time will tell what all of this means, but I am anxiously sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for the midterm elections. The left keeps talking about this blue wave that is about to hit, but my gut is telling me that their blue wave assertion is deja vu. I still remember those polls that assured us that Hillary was going to win by a landslide a couple of years ago...