Growing #Walkaway movement may threaten Dems
Could a gay hairdresser from New York City set off a mass exodus from the Democratic Party? A hashtag and a growing wave (not a blue one) of videos on YouTube and Facebook signal that the Democrats finally have gotten too crazy for at least some of their formerly faithful supporters. Celina Farber of the Epoch Times catalogues a growing wave of revolt against Democrats’ embrace of socialism and no borders and general insanity under the rubric of #Walkaway:
When actor James Woods tweeted out the hashtag “#WalkAway” in late June, even the alt-right missed the enormity of what lay beneath it. The Democratic Party had, in fact, struck an iceberg.
Some 5 million people on Facebook and YouTube have seen the video by now. A very handsome gay man, who you just assume is about to scold you on progressive talking points, instead says this:
“Once upon a time, I was a liberal. Well, to be honest, less than a year ago, I was still a liberal.
“I reject a system which allows an ambitious, misinformed and dogmatic mob to suppress free speech, create false narratives, and apathetically steamroll over the truth.”
That man is named:
Brandon Straka, the unlikely liberator and new face of the “silent minority” of Americans who’ve been cast out by family and friends, fired from jobs, and forced into silent social ghettos for their failure to “get it” about how hateful and dangerous Donald Trump is, and why he and all his supporters should be subjected to an ever-expanding social and professional fatwah.
Since Straka published his confessional video on May 26, his life as a New York City hairdresser and aspiring actor has been overtaken by a tidal wave.
While speaking to The Epoch Times about the explosion of his #WalkAway campaign, Straka had to occasionally stop to go style a client’s hair, all while fielding a constant barrage of newcomers’ testimonial letters, videos, and emails—over 1,000 a day.
It is always difficult to extrapolate from social media popularity to mass impact at the polls, there may well be an “emperor has no clothes” effect for all those suburban soccer moms that are supposed to be appalled by Donald Trump, who are also seeing Maxine Waters call for harassment of Trump administration officials and are not anxious to throw open the borders. They don’t have to vote for Republicans in the midterms (though that would be nice), all they have to do is not vote at all, “walking away” from a party that has lost its mind.
We have more than four months left before the election. That is time for this movement to become well known among habitual Democratic voters taken aback at the descent into madness of their former political party.