In 2019, toward the end of Trump’s first term, I began noticing little things that bothered me. I was always someone who thinks “outside the box;” my high school class voted me “most original.” Perhaps that helped me resist all the gaslighting and censorship of the last four years. Also, my boyfriend Shawne kept feeding me droplets of information to consider.
Back then, I supported Bernie Sanders. I had just graduated with an MFA in Devised Theatre from University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Of course I was a liberal — a theatre/art major surrounded by progressive ideology and culture. The morning Trump won in 2016, I was just happy Hilary was not elected. In 2018 I moved back to Vermont. There began the transformation from close-minded woke slumber to wide-awake realism.
We want to thank Bronwyn for the Op-Ed. Send yours to steve@granitegrok.com
My boyfriend Shawne has not had an easy life. He grew up poor in a black neighborhood outside Phlly, with three siblings, raised by a single Mom with three jobs. He was bullied, abused, and spent time behind bars. I’ve learned tremendous lessons from him. This particular day, during an argument, he shared things that taught me not to make assumptions about anyone until you know their story. That understanding broadened my outlook on life.
Then Covid hit. Like many I was concerned and adhered to the so-called rules. One day I ran into a friend at the Coop in Putney VT. I wore an N95 mask, but she was bare-faced despite Coop rules. She thought the media hype about the virus was overblown, and encouraged me to do research. I did, and developed a healthy skepticism.
Then the coercion began. Despite the fact I was healthy, co-workers and employers pressured me to get vaccinated, forcing me to quit a job. Demanding someone have an experimental injection (not even a true vaccine) with undisclosed content for questionable reasons rankled me. The fighter in me decided enough was enough. I stopped wearing a mask in public and schools where I taught, receiving dirty looks and hateful speech in exchange. Sadly, I lost three good friends due, I believe, to the “vaccine,” all previously healthy and two under forty.
When George Floyd died, triggering the BLM riots and stoking the flames of racism, I naively attended BLM protests, thinking “this was the right thing to do.” After one such protest, Shawne asked me what I knew about BLM. I began to research the organization and was shocked by what I found. At the same time, I was introduced to #WalkAway and Brandon Straka. What I learned blew my liberal world apart. I spent many days in the woods, running and dealing with my anger at having been so deceived.
I officially walked away from the Democratic Party in 2020, but did not speak out until I did my first #WalkAway video in 2021. The vitriol and name-calling began from theatre and art friends, and still continues. I lost family, friends and co-workers because of my stance and for supporting Trump for President. Few valued me enough to listen to the ‘why’s.’
The Democratic Party no longer represents what I believed it did. Not that I was ever politically savvy, or took time for research or critical thinking – a common flaw these days. It no longer supports the middle class and blue-collar workers, but has become the party of elites and celebrities; of war and weakness on foreign policy; of defunding the police while inciting violence and being soft on crime; of illegal immigration and open borders, and, not least, the party of censorship and surveillance, crushing underfoot our First Amendment rights. The list goes on … The question now is will Democrats look in the mirror and realign themselves with traditional American values, or will they double down on their divisive rhetoric and ideology.
