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Another Democrat Reaches Enlightenment


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2021 Dec 9, 2:03pm   41,202 views  260 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (60)   💰tip   ignore  

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-turn-liel-leibovitz?source=patrick.net


The Turn

When I saw the left give up everything I believe in, I changed politically. You can, too.

For many years—most of my politically cognizant life, in fact—I felt secure in my politics. Truth and justice, I believed, leaned leftward. If you were some version of a decent human being, you cared about those less fortunate than you, which meant that you supported a whole host of measures designed to even the playing field a little. Sometimes, these measures had unintended consequences (see under: Stalin, Josef), but that wasn’t reason enough to despair of the long march to equality. Besides, there was hardly an alternative: On the other end of the political transom lurked despicable creeps, right-wing orcs who either cared for nothing but their own petty financial interests or, worse, pined for benighted isms that preached prejudice and hate. We were on the right side of history. We were the people. We were the ones giving peace a chance. And, no matter the present, we were always the future.

This belief carried me through high school, and a brief stint in a socialist youth movement. It accelerated me in college, sending me anywhere from joint marches with Palestinians to a two-week hunger strike in Jerusalem trying (and failing) to lower tuition for underprivileged students. It pulled me to New York, to Columbia University, to more left-wing politics and activism and raging against Republicans whose agenda, especially in the 2000s, seemed like nothing more than greed and war.

And it wasn’t just an ideology, some abstract set of convictions that were accessible only through cracking open dusty old books. It was the animating spirit of life itself: The dinner parties I attended on the Upper West Side required dismissive comments on President Bush just as much as they did a bit of wine to make the evening bright, and there was no faster or surer way to signal to a new acquaintance that you were a kindred spirit than praising the latest Times editorial. It wasn’t performative, exactly. At least, it felt real enough, the reverent rites of a good group of people protecting itself against the bad guys.

I embraced my people, and my people embraced me. They gave me everything I had always imagined I wanted: a Ph.D. from an Ivy League university; a professorship at NYU, complete with a roomy office overlooking Washington Square Park; book deals; columns in smart little publications; invitations to the sort of soirees where you could find yourself seated next to Salman Rushdie or Susan Sontag or any number of the men and women you grew up reading and admiring. The list goes on. Life was good. I was grateful.

And then came The Turn. If you’ve lived through it yourself, you know that The Turn doesn’t happen overnight, that it isn’t easily distilled into one dramatic breakdown moment, that it happens hazily and over time—first a twitch, then a few more, stretching into a gnawing discomfort and then, eventually, a sense of panic.

You may be among the increasing numbers of people going through The Turn right now. Having lived through the turmoil of the last half decade—through the years of MAGA and antifa and rampant identity politics and, most dramatically, the global turmoil caused by COVID-19—more and more of us feel absolutely and irreparably politically homeless. Instinctively, we looked to the Democratic Party, the only home we and our parents and their parents before them had ever known or seriously considered. But what we saw there—and in the newspapers we used to read, and in the schools whose admission letters once made us so proud—was terrifying. However we tried to explain what was happening on “the left,” it was hard to convince ourselves that it was right, or that it was something we still truly believed in. That is what The Turn is about.

You might be living through The Turn if you ever found yourself feeling like free speech should stay free even if it offended some group or individual but now can’t admit it at dinner with friends because you are afraid of being thought a bigot. You are living through The Turn if you have questions about public health policies—including the effects of lockdowns and school closures on the poor and most vulnerable in our society—but can’t ask them out loud because you know you’ll be labeled an anti-vaxxer. You are living through The Turn if you think that burning down towns and looting stores isn’t the best way to promote social justice, but feel you can’t say so because you know you’ll be called a white supremacist. You are living through The Turn if you seethed watching a terrorist organization attack the world’s only Jewish state, but seethed silently because your colleagues were all on Twitter and Facebook sharing celebrity memes about ending Israeli apartheid while having little interest in American kids dying on the streets because of failed policies. If you’ve felt yourself unable to speak your mind, if you have a queasy feeling that your friends might disown you if you shared your most intimately held concerns, if you are feeling a bit breathless and a bit hopeless and entirely unsure what on earth is going on, I am sorry to inform you that The Turn is upon you.

The Turn hit me just a beat before it did you, so I know just how awful it feels. It’s been years now, but I still remember the time a dear friend and mentor took me to lunch and warned me, sternly and without any of the warmth you’d extend to someone you truly loved, to watch what I said about Israel. I still remember how confusing and painful it felt to know that my beliefs—beliefs, mind you, that, until very recently, were so obvious and banal and widely held on the left that they were hardly considered beliefs at all—now labeled me an outcast. The Turn brings with it the sort of pain most of us don’t feel as adults; you’d have to go all the way back to junior high, maybe, to recall a stabbing sensation quite as deep and confounding as watching your friends all turn on you and decide that you’re not worthy of their affection any more. It’s the kind of primal rejection that is devastating precisely because it forces you to rethink everything, not only your convictions about the world but also your idea of yourself, your values, and your priorities. We all want to be embraced. We all want the men and women we consider most swell to approve of us and confirm that we, too, are good and great. We all want the love and the laurels; The Turn takes both away.

But, having been there before, I have one important thing to tell you: If the left is going to make it “right wing” to simply be decent, then it’s OK to be right.

Why? Because, after 225 long and fruitful years of this terminology, “right” and “left” are now empty categories, meaning little more than “the blue team” and “the green team” in your summer camp’s color war. You don’t get to be “against the rich” if the richest people in the country fund your party in order to preserve their government-sponsored monopolies. You are not “a supporter of free speech” if you oppose free speech for people who disagree with you. You are not “for the people” if you pit most of them against each other based on the color of their skin, or force them out of their jobs because of personal choices related to their bodies. You are not “serious about economic inequality” when you happily order from Amazon without caring much for the devastating impact your purchases have on the small businesses that increasingly are either subjugated by Jeff Bezos’ behemoth or crushed by it altogether. You are not “for science” if you refuse to consider hypotheses that don’t conform to your political convictions and then try to ban critical thought and inquiry from the internet. You are not an “anti-racist” if you label—and sort!—people by race. You are not “against conformism” when you scare people out of voicing dissenting opinions.

When “the left” becomes the party of wealthy elites and state security agencies who preach racial division, state censorship, contempt for ordinary citizens and for the U.S. Constitution, and telling people what to do and think at every turn, then that’s the side you are on, if you are “on the left”—those are the policies and beliefs you stand for and have to defend. It doesn’t matter what good people “on the left” believed and did 60 or 70 years ago. Those people are dead now, mostly. They don’t define “the left” anymore than Abraham Lincoln defines the modern-day Republican Party or Jimi Hendrix defines Nickelback.

So look at the list of things supported by the left and ask yourself: Is that me? If the answer is yes, great. You’ve found a home. If the answer is no, don’t let yourself be defined by an empty word. Get out. And once you’re out, don’t let anyone else define you, either. Not being a left-wing racist or police state fan doesn’t make you a white supremacist or a Trump worshipper, either. Only small children, machines, and religious fanatics think in binaries.

Which isn’t to diminish the anger, hurt, and confusion you’re feeling just now. But it’s worth understanding that your story has a happy ending. The freedom you feel on the other side is so real it’s physical, like emerging from a long stretch underwater and taking that first deep breath in the cool afternoon air. None of it makes the lost friends or the lost career opportunities any less painful; but there’s no more potent source of renewable energy than liberty, and your capacity to reinvent—yourself, your group, your life—is greater than you realize.

So welcome to the right side, friend, and join us in laughing at all the idiotic name-calling that is applied, with increasing hysteria, to try and stop more and more normal Americans from joining our ranks. Fascists? Conspiracy theorists? Anti-science racist TERFs? Whatever. We have a better word to describe ourselves: free.


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200   Patrick   2024 Mar 29, 4:38pm  

https://www.dailywire.com/news/actor-michael-rapaport-signals-shift-on-trump-after-years-of-fervent-opposition-my-political-views-have-changed


Actor Michael Rapaport Signals Shift On Trump After Years Of Fervent Opposition: ‘My Political Views Have Changed’

Actor Michael Rapaport said in an interview this week that he is considering voting for former President Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election.

The remarks from Rapaport come after he fervently opposed the former president during his time in office and routinely launched vile attacks against Trump and the Trump family.

“My political views have changed immensely,” Rapaport said. “I will not vote for Joe Biden. At this point when we’re doing this interview, voting for Trump is on the table.
201   richwicks   2024 Mar 29, 4:52pm  

Ceffer says

Patrick says






Another great moment in the annals of DUHHHHHHH!


I would not consider Carl Benjamin as somebody on "the left" or even having been there.
202   HeadSet   2024 Mar 30, 7:24am  

Patrick says

Actor Michael Rapaport Signals Shift On Trump After Years Of Fervent Opposition: ‘My Political Views Have Changed’

His views changed only because the Dems are bad mouthing Israel. Only as a side issue is Rapaport concerned with illegal immigration and soft on crime Dems.
203   Patrick   2024 Mar 30, 9:14am  

I bet you're right. It's still good news though.
205   Patrick   2024 Apr 4, 6:44pm  

https://notthebee.com/article/democrats-i-dont-think-youre-gonna-like-this


This is Cata Truss.

Cata traveled all the way from Chicago to Green Bay in order to attend a Trump rally. Cata represents Chicago Red, an organization whose mission is to "highlight the urgent need for change by exposing the failures of longstanding liberal policies, advocating for solutions that truly serve the people of Chicago."

Cata's got some things she'd like to say:

"I was a lifelong Democrat until I really started paying attention to the Democratic policies and how they were hurting the city of Chicago and I had decided that I had just had enough and the migrant crisis is what really took me over the edge …

"It is a mess, and that's exactly what it is, but you know, I started paying attention to not just the migrant crisis but the Democratic policies and how those policies have really hurt, not helped, us. And I just decided I have to get off this ride and go for a winner. I want to support someone who cares about America, who cares about the people of America, who cares about the American dream, who cares about whether or not people in America succeed.

"And so therefore I am now a Trump supporter."
207   PeopleUnited   2024 Apr 12, 1:28am  

For every one Rachel Lopez (who looks perfect enough to be an AI bot) there are roughly 5,000 illegal immigrants who will be taxing the social systems in every city and probably voting to make democrats even more powerful.
208   HeadSet   2024 Apr 12, 8:17am  

PeopleUnited says

For every one Rachel Lopez (who looks perfect enough to be an AI bot) there are roughly 5,000 illegal immigrants who will be taxing the social systems in every city and probably voting to make democrats even more powerful.

Yes, enough illegals so that the Dems can cast aside pandering for Black votes.
209   richwicks   2024 Apr 12, 1:40pm  

PeopleUnited says

For every one Rachel Lopez (who looks perfect enough to be an AI bot) there are roughly 5,000 illegal immigrants who will be taxing the social systems in every city and probably voting to make democrats even more powerful.


You barely even notice it, you will do absolutely nothing to stop it.
210   PeopleUnited   2024 Apr 12, 7:58pm  

richwicks says

PeopleUnited says


For every one Rachel Lopez (who looks perfect enough to be an AI bot) there are roughly 5,000 illegal immigrants who will be taxing the social systems in every city and probably voting to make democrats even more powerful.


You barely even notice it, you will do absolutely nothing to stop it.

Just like you
211   PeopleUnited   2024 Apr 12, 8:25pm  

My people have been fighting the globalists since before the Goldwater days. But all some people can do is bitsch on the internet like a baby who’s pacifier fell on the floor. Doesn’t it get old demonizing the people you live with? The only ones that you have any hope of influencing are so repulsed by your arrogance and self righteousness that they will never give you the time of day even if you were to stop spouting all that endless self pity nonsense.
212   PeopleUnited   2024 Apr 12, 8:30pm  

And lest you forget the only way anything is going to change for the better is if people turn to the Creator in repentance and faith. His name is Jesus, His business is salvation, and every one of his clients is a happy customer. But to become a client you don’t make a payment, you stop trying to run your own life, and forget about establishing your own righteousness. You accept that only He can pay your debt and carry your load. There will be no peace in your heart, or on this earth until Jesus comes into it.
213   Patrick   2024 Apr 15, 10:19am  

https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/my-two-year-stackiversary-lattice


I used to call myself a progressive because I was anti-authoritarian, anti-war, anti-corporation, countercultural, tolerant of diverse viewpoints, pro-truth, pro–freedom of speech, pro–freedom of choice, pro-justice, and pro-equality for all.

I stopped calling myself a progressive because I am anti-authoritarian, anti-war, anti-corporation, countercultural, tolerant of diverse viewpoints, pro-truth, pro–freedom of speech, pro–freedom of choice, pro-justice, and pro-equality for all.
214   Al_Sharpton_for_President   2024 Apr 21, 7:04am  

MAGA Hats Flood Chicago City Council Meeting: Black Community REVOLTS

In a recent city council meeting, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson faced severe criticism from black community voters over his proposal to allocate an additional $70 million in taxpayer funds to address the city's illegal immigration crisis.

The critics, many of whom were donning Trump campaign "MAGA hats," argued that the funds should instead be directed towards tax-paying neighborhoods grappling with escalating violent crime and overdose deaths.

P. Rae Easley, a resident of Chicago's west side, was among the vocal critics. "I'm asking y'all to use our tax money for our people," Easley implored, sporting a MAGA hat. She painted a grim picture of her community's struggles, saying, "We need it. We got people leaning. We got people rocking. We got overdosing. We got pass out lines. You live on the west side of Mayor Johnson. You know exactly what I'm talking about. We need the money for us.”

Easley's impassioned plea highlighted the surge in crime and overdose deaths that have besieged Chicago's black communities. She vehemently opposed the notion of allocating funds to non-taxpaying illegal immigrants, funds she believes her community desperately needs. Easley advocated for the money to be channeled into an opioid fund to tackle the crisis.

"We need opioid treatment on the west side of Chicago. We are the headquarters of the cartel, and everybody in here knows it. So, I'm asking y'all to say 'No.' Put these people on the back burner, and put the money back in the opioid fund. We need that money," Easley asserted.

Mayor Johnson, a staunch defender of the city's sanctuary policies, is seeking alderman approval for the additional funding in a vote scheduled for Friday. This is despite the city's recent investment of $300 million in housing, food, and medical care for the recently arrived illegal immigrants, as reported by Fox News.

Another resident, also wearing a MAGA hat, voiced her concerns to city council members about the crime surge in cities across the US, attributing it to illegal immigrants. "They're showing up here in New York and Chicago attacking people in the streets," she claimed, according to Fox News. "The police are fighting with them in the… shelters that you guys are funding.”

Easley, appearing on Fox & Friends, described Mayor Johnson's proposal as "the most disrespectful thing we've ever encountered in our lives." She expressed her resentment, saying, "We've been paying property taxes in the city for generations, and to see them so openly give our money to people who don't deserve it is very insulting.”

https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/1057481-maga-hats-flood-chicago-city-council-meeting-black-community-revolts


215   HeadSet   2024 Apr 21, 11:16am  

Al_Sharpton_for_President says

"We've been paying property taxes in the city for generations, and to see them so openly give our money to people who don't deserve it is very insulting.”

When will they realize they are being replaced.
216   DemocratsAreTotallyFucked   2024 Apr 21, 3:17pm  

HeadSet says

When will they realize they are being replaced.


I think they are starting to. Hence the MAGA hats.
218   Patrick   2024 Apr 28, 7:45pm  

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/sopranos-star-drea-de-matteo-slams-bidens-far/


‘The Sopranos’ Star Drea de Matteo Slams Biden’s Far-Left Policies, Illegal Immigration – Actress Was Previously Blacklisted in Hollywood for Refusing the COVID Vaxx ...

She considers herself a liberal, but said she has been against modern far-left trends for a long time.

She decided to speak up about it only recently. She said she wanted to fight but felt she didn’t think she ‘the voice and the balls’.

But for her, everything changed once she ‘got thrown to the wolves’, which may or not be a reference to her refusal to take the untested, unsafe COVID injection.
219   mell   2024 Apr 29, 9:48am  

https://twitter.com/CherieCurrie3/status/1783296721285730783

"
It used to be PUNK, R&R to vote Democrat. I fell for it. But when your party demands you live in fear, squaller, beyond your means by just buying groceries, gasoline, disrespecting our veterans, our police, our elderly, supporting CRIMINALS, chaos, riots, Hamas, FAILING Israel, demeaning us at every turn! HURTING our CHILDREN! Wasting OUR MONEY. Ineptitude with every policy! Lies and more lies.. NO MORE!
The Democrat Party can KISS MY A$$. They don’t give a damn. That’s true.
Voting Dem used to be cool. But now, it just makes you a FOOL.
"
220   Patrick   2024 Jun 29, 12:53pm  

https://slaynews.com/news/billionaire-ex-democrat-bill-ackman-calls-americans-rally-behind-trump-help-him-succeed/


Former Democrat donor Bill Ackman has called on the American people to come together and throw their support behind President Donald Trump.

Ackman, the billionaire founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, announced in January that he’s “no longer a Democrat.”

At the time, he also admitted that, while registered to vote in the Democrat primary, he was funding the campaigns of Trump’s challengers in the Republican primary in an effort to prevent the 45th president from winning re-election.

Ackman revealed he plowed money into the campaigns of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy.

He had also financed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign.

In recent months, Ackman had hinted that he may be changing his tune about Trump.

However, after Democrat President Joe Biden’s trainwreck debate performance on Thursday evening, Ackman has now gone public with a complete U-turn.

Trump “is going to win in a landslide,” Ackman wrote hours after the debate.

He said that Trump’s looming victory was an “indictment of the Democratic Party.”
221   DemocratsAreTotallyFucked   2024 Jun 29, 12:57pm  

Patrick says


However, after Democrat President Joe Biden’s trainwreck debate performance on Thursday evening, Ackman has now gone public with a complete U-turn.

Trump “is going to win in a landslide,” Ackman wrote hours after the debate.

He said that Trump’s looming victory was an “indictment of the Democratic Party.”


Yup. The donors are starting to rebel:

DemocratsAreTotallyFucked says


Dem party elites led by Obama is trying to put the kibbash on the Biden has to go talk.

To admit he shouldn't be nominated because of the dementia is to admit he isn't fit to finish out his current term too. They don't want to go there. Also, it is an open admission that they have been lying and hiding this from everyone else all this time.

But everyone else doesn't see it that way...including even most of the donors, I bet.





So we shall see.
222   Patrick   2024 Aug 1, 1:23pm  


@davidmarcus

I am crossing the Rubicon and backing the Republican Party and President Trump.

Many — including a former version of myself — get trapped in a mental framework that becomes their identity and prevents them from radically evolving their thinking with new facts and information. I finally broke free from it.

My journey has been a gradual political 180 from where I stood in every previous election. It has been an eye-opening process of disenchantment, zero-basing lifelong beliefs, and rebuilding from there.

In 2017, a good friend enlisted me to pitch the DNC to raise $100M from Silicon Valley founders and executives. The aim was to use these funds and know-how to build a CRM and tech platform to prevent a repeat of Hillary Clinton’s inadequate, outdated 2016 campaign. We met with DNC leadership, who told us we could raise that money, but it would have to go to the general fund; a single-digit percentage would then be allocated to tech. In the wake of one of their most shocking failures, they didn’t want the help.

The next series of realizations began in 2019 while I was at Meta, right after we announced the Libra white paper. I testified before the Senate and the House and subsequently spent significant time in DC, engaging with lawmakers, cabinet members, regulators, and two White House administrations. At the time, I still believed the mainstream idea that Democrats were all about serving the People. However, I was shocked to learn that, for the most part, Republicans cared more deeply about their constituents, while Democrats, in my experience, cared more about government power and control. This is my observation on balance, with many stories to back it up. I also found that more Republicans wanted to understand our project’s goals and took the time to learn about the risks of censoring payments and controlling the network. I found myself remarkably aligned with them.

Then COVID came, revealing more. While I don’t subscribe to the most malicious vaccine conspiracy theories, I do take offense at the censorship machine put in place to hide the origin of the virus from the NIH-funded Wuhan lab and all dissenting voices on vaccinations and lockdowns. At that time, I fully appreciated why Republicans value freedom of speech and preventing censorship.

This trend of spinning and manufacturing a parallel reality to serve the Dem agenda, solidified by complicit mainstream media, hit home with the Hunter Biden laptop story, the coordinated vilification of President Trump and his followers, and President Biden’s cognitive decline — depriving voters of a voice in a proper primary. These examples displayed the hubris of the current Dem leadership. You must think the American people are fools to believe the spin on these issues. I despise this elite vs. general population ideology viscerally.

This version of the Democratic Party is sidelining moderates and centrists and has adopted an increasingly leftist ideology. This drift to the left has dictated policies from which I’ve found myself estranged.

On the domestic front, there has been a total departure from the core American value system of meritocracy, an extreme and weaponized DEI agenda, an open door to massive illegal immigration, and a once-fringe narrative, now mainstream within the party, of vilifying success. This shift is also causing us to fall behind due to an anti-innovation regulatory climate, notably on crypto and soon AI — two non-linear technological breakthroughs that will likely determine tomorrow’s leading countries.

On foreign policy, the administration is exacerbating tensions with Russia through an aggressive NATO expansion narrative focused on Ukraine and prolonging an unwinnable war. This is costing American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, the world hundreds of thousands of lives, depleting the U.S. military arsenal and risking World War III. On Iran, this administration is continuing a misguided Obama-era plan to bring Iran closer to the West by unfreezing Trump-era sanctions, thus giving the Mollahs’ regime the ability to fund terrorism and pursue its anti-America, anti-Israel, and anti-Jewish agenda. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was also handled disastrously. We’re leaving a door open for China to invade Taiwan by coming across as weak. Most importantly to me, concerning Israel, the administration is enabling Iran to fund Hamas and Hezbollah, restraining Israel in its fight against its enemies, thus prolonging another conflict, which is costing more lives on both sides and allowing unprecedented levels of antisemitism to rise at home.

I believe we need a President who is unequivocally pro: America, the Constitution, business, Bitcoin/crypto, innovation, Israel, small government, legal immigration, free speech, meritocracy, and common sense — and anti: regulatory proliferation, illegal immigration, unjust wars, Iran’s current regime, and domestic groups that oppose American values. These issues are central to President Trump’s platform.

Naturally, I disagree with President Trump and the GOP on some issues, particularly women’s reproductive rights. While I’ve come to learn that extreme views exist in both parties, I firmly believe that women should have the unalienable right to make their own decisions on this polarizing topic. President Trump confirmed he was against a national abortion ban and supported the Supreme Court’s decision on maintaining access to mifepristone, which was reassuring and a sign that the party was moving closer to the center.

It’s impossible to close this post without mentioning President Trump’s recent assassination attempt. The courage and resolve he displayed seconds after being hit by a bullet was awe-inspiring for his followers and detractors alike. This was a man, however imperfect, who, at that moment, incarnated the American spirit in the most vivid way, starting to bring a split nation together.

Some claim that reelecting President Trump will bring our democracy to its knees. However, the alternative — having unelected individuals with this much power and no accountability run our government coupled with four more years of bad policies at home and abroad — might present a more significant threat. Neither will likely change in a Harris administration and could potentially worsen.

In this pivotal moment, confronted with the choices we have, I am endorsing and supporting a return to a Republican administration in 2025.

10:27 AM · Jul 31, 2024

39.6M Views
223   DemocratsAreTotallyFucked   2024 Aug 1, 1:30pm  

Patrick says

davidmarcus

I am crossing the Rubicon and backing the Republican Party and President Trump.

Many — including a former version of myself — get trapped in a mental framework that becomes their identity and prevents them from radically evolving their thinking with new facts and information. I finally broke free from it.



225   Patrick   2024 Aug 6, 4:13pm  

https://sashastone.substack.com/p/how-did-orwell-know


How did a Barack Obama devotee, an I’m With Her Hillary Clinton supporter, and a Joe Biden faithful from way back find my way into not only voting for Trump but actively trying to help the Republicans defeat the Democrats? ...

Every day on TikTok, I see another person who has gone through something similar. It always follows the same pattern. They become curious about Trump. They investigate. They find out who he really is, and they can’t believe that they’ve been lied to by the media and the Democrats for almost ten years. The truth is out there, but you just have to know where to look.

So here’s the bottom line: I left the Democratic Party after the 2020 election when I saw just how corrupt they’d become with all that money and power.

I decided I would vote for any Republican once I saw that all of the Democrats were behind “gender-affirming care” on minors and that they want gender ideology foisted on young kids and pre-schoolers up through high school.

I kept my politics mostly off my site and my public Twitter because I didn’t want to jeopardize my business. But at some point, I couldn’t keep quiet anymore. I had to use whatever dwindling platform I had to speak the truth.

I decided to vote for Trump when they raided Mar-a-Lago. I became a Trump supporter when he became a convicted felon. I couldn’t believe they went that far, even knowing everything I do about mass hysteria and what happens when it gets into government. ...

The truth is that I haven’t changed. The Left changed. I was part of it. I followed the rules. I spoke the language. But when my survival depended on my going along with what I knew to be lies? That was when I had to jump off the fast-moving train and find solid ground.

I couldn’t live with myself — or live at all — if I did not have a mind that was free. If you take that away, you might as well take everything.
227   Patrick   2024 Aug 11, 1:21pm  

https://slaynews.com/news/california-lawmaker-dumps-democrats-flips-republicans/


California Lawmaker Dumps Democrats, Flips to Republicans

California State Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil said she no longer identifies with the Democrats.

She argues that the party has moved radically to the Left in recent years.

“In the past two years that I’ve been working in the Senate, I have not recognized the party that I belong to,” she told The Steve Hilton Show.

“The Democratic Party is not the party that I signed up for decades ago.”
228   DemocratsAreTotallyFucked   2024 Aug 11, 9:16pm  

Patrick says

California Lawmaker Dumps Democrats, Flips to Republicans

California State Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil said she no longer identifies with the Democrats.

She argues that the party has moved radically to the Left in recent years.

“In the past two years that I’ve been working in the Senate, I have not recognized the party that I belong to,” she told The Steve Hilton Show.

“The Democratic Party is not the party that I signed up for decades ago.”


Translation: Her district got redrawn from the 2020 census?
229   Patrick   2024 Aug 19, 8:25pm  

https://sashastone.substack.com/p/the-weirdness-of-manufactured-joy

Has video of woman who achieved enlightenment about the people who go to Trump rallies. I still don't know how to download blob data types, so all I can do is refer you to the page.
230   HeadSet   2024 Aug 20, 7:48am  

@patrick

That sashastone link is just a 23-minute mp3, unless I clicked wrong. I downloaded it, is there a way I can upload an mp3 to your site? I already spit it into 3 so each tract is under the 10-meg limit.
231   Patrick   2024 Aug 20, 9:07am  

@HeadSet

Try it now. I just added support for mp3 at your suggestion.

Good idea.
232   HeadSet   2024 Aug 20, 9:29am  

Patrick says

Try it now. I just added support for mp3 at your suggestion.



233   Patrick   2024 Aug 20, 9:30am  

Seems to work!
235   Patrick   2024 Aug 24, 11:44am  

@NicoleShanahan

California is ground zero for many of the politicians and policies that have allowed corruption and cronyism to destroy the Democratic Party I was once a part of and supported. It has led the charge in eroding common-sense governance and has given modern-day liberalism a terrible reputation. This is my home, the state I love. In recent years, I’ve watched as many of my colleagues and friends have moved to other states, and I understand why—that’s a decision they have to make for themselves and their families. But when our state is churning out some of the worst politicians and policies harming our nation, we need to face reality: we can’t fix our country without fixing California. In the coming weeks, I'll be endorsing several candidates and groups, both in and outside of California, and putting my money where my mouth is. I’m done watching our beautiful state be dragged down by a bunch of ego-driven misanthropes who simply crave power.

9:32 PM · Aug 18, 2024
237   Patrick   2024 Aug 29, 5:30pm  

https://politicallyincorrecthumor.com/


I got involved in politics in the emotional aftermath of 9/11. Although I hated the tax-and-spend side of the party, I leaned Democrat on many issues back then. I remember they were considered the anti-war party. Most Democrat voters strongly opposed the Iraq War, and even those who voted for it did so half-heartedly when polls showed majority support. It probably cost Hillary the nomination to Obama in 2008. John Kerry tried to weasel out of his vote, and his waffling was a big part of his defeat in 2004.

Many Democrats fought against Bush’s encroachment on civil liberties, which were sold as needed to fight the War on Terror. They fought against the heavy-handed approach of Attorney General, John Ashcroft. Entire documentaries and movies were made of the anti-democratic practices and targeting of political enemies.

True, much of the Democrat opposition was reflexively in response to a hated president they viewed as illegitimate, George W. Bush. If you remember, he made it in the aftermath of the incredibly close 2000 election. Democrats screamed about election integrity, hand recounts, machine errors, audits, and so on. It was legal to dispute elections back then. Democrats were largely anti-immigration & pro-border security, mostly because of fear of losing work to Mexicans in a tight job market. My Body, My Choice? Oh yes, it was big back then, especially with a religious pro-life President in office.

Fast forward to today. Democrats have become the pro-war party, spending endless sums on never-ending wars in Ukraine & the Middle East. Although plenty of RINO neocons have gone along with it, the vast majority of Republican voters want nothing to do with them. Dem voters on the other hand have bought hook, line, and sinker to the war propaganda.

Most Democrats, both politicians and voters, favor mass government censorship and other crackdowns on civil liberties, using “hate speech,” “misinformation,” and other justifications. They see no problem with political prosecutions of Trump and anyone associated with him, including peaceful January 6th protesters who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They have no problem with using the IRS and DOJ to go after companies whose CEOs oppose the Democratic Party. They see no problem with using underhanded legal tactics to keep 3rd party candidates like RFK and Jill Stein off ballots. Of course, all this despicable behavior isn’t hurting “their side,” so it’s ok.

Illegal immigration isn’t a big problem for them. Yes, there are some drawbacks, but it ultimately helps Democrats maintain power, so the ends justify the means. Election integrity? Definitely not important. EVERY prominent Democrat politician in the country opposes voter ID, in-person voting, election audits, hand recounts, and virtually every other measure proposed to ensure fair & accurate voting. My Body, My Choice? We know now that applies to only one thing — abortion. It’s ok for government to force rushed, loosely-tested, experimental vaccines & medical procedures. It’s ok for government to lockdown businesses and individuals. It’s even ok to take children away from parents who don’t go along with the forced government medical procedures.

We’ve been subjected to 9 years of nonstop hate-Trump propaganda, most of which has been based on total bullshit. Whether or not the hate of Trump is justified, it has blinded Democratic voters from what their party has become. Just imagine if you took Trump and all party affiliations out of the description. Imagine selling a party that kicks out a democratically-elected candidate and installs a new one a few months before the election without a single primary vote. Imagine that party is supported by virtually every billionaire and megacap corporation, gaining monstrous donations from questionable, untraceable sources. Imagine it believes it has the right to set free-speech parameters, and arrest or deplatform any violators. Imagine it hired 87,000 IRS agents with new powers to crack down on tips and anyone with Venmo & Pay Pal transactions over $600.

Imagine if that party sued and/or arrested the opposition candidate as well as every one of his most loyal supporters. Imagine if, because of a few bad actors, they arrested ALL protesters, peaceful or not, if they happened to be in the vicinity. Imagine if that party tried to destroy every kind of election control to verify an accurate result, and made it a federal crime to even question election results. Imagine if, even with all this BS, polls showed the opposition candidate possibly winning, so an assassination attempt was made, with suspicious actions by the Secret Service and FBI investigators that strongly hinted at an inside job.

Do you think the Democratic voters would go for it? Do you think if we flipped the script, and a Trump administration was doing all this to Democrats, there’d be any outrage? True, so much of this has been hidden from the Democratic base by the highly shielded, scripted world of Mainstream Media and Big Tech. Most Democratic voters, especially the young ones, don’t really pay attention or diversify their media consumption. They go along with what seems to be popular, which is why there’s such a coordinated effort by celebrities, influencers, and media lapdogs to construct a likeable, competent image of Kamala. It’s so anti-reality to anyone paying attention or who has a memory greater than a few days.

If you vehemently oppose Trump and can never support him, believe me, I get it. There’s plenty not to like. But his faults are nothing compared to the heavy-handed fascism that has taken over the Democratic Party. Critical thinking Democrats have figured this out and are starting to walk away. Unfortunately, most remain so blinded by their hatred that they’re willingly building an anti-freedom, Orwellian world controlled by a tiny Ruling Class. It’s easy to overlook such egregious actions when your current opponents are the victims and you yourself are not affected. But as RFK, Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, and so many others have discovered–the time may come when that machinery is turned against you. And if things continue the way they’re going, a day may come when you no longer have any way to fight back, short of armed revolution described in dystopian novels.

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