I just left the Democratic Party to join blue-collar billionaire Donald Trump's new Republican Party.
My political career was a dark one. John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert were my household heroes. I was a Democratic National Convention delegate for Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama. I was California co-chair of President Obama's reelection committee. I served as chairman of the California Senate Democratic Caucus and as Senate Majority Leader.
The Democratic Party has morphed into a party of censorship, authoritarianism, and imprisoning people for exercising free speech.
Well, say goodbye. Goodbyeall of it. I'm sick of it. I now join the many who have left the Democratic Party and become a lifelong Democrat.
This is not the Democratic Party I once supported, and I no longer recognize it or continue to support it.
The long and winding road
For me, this has been quite a political journey. As the daughter of a Depression-era Democrat, I have struggled with how my late parents would have reacted to my decision. But I know they would agree that the Democratic Party abandoned us and what we stood for as Democrats long before I made my decision.
There are a few reasons why I decided to quit.
The so-called Democratic Party erased 14 million votes, including mine, and elected their own candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris. Before that, the Democrats rigged the primaries to prevent strong candidates from participating fairly. They used loafer tactics, and in the end, the political elites used campaign funds to handpick “our” candidate, like a banana republic-style dictatorship. DedazoIn essence, they have carried out an open political coup.
The Democratic Party made bold moves toward authoritarianism and censorship. President Reagan warned of the coming of fascism disguised as liberalism in America, and as a former executive committee member of the ACLU of Southern California (now completely lost), I witnessed the suppression of individual liberties. As Donald Trump was indicted on trumped-up charges, I realized that a new American concentration camp system disguised as “democracy” had emerged.
It is frightening to watch language change so dramatically. As a feminist and former college professor, I will be condemned for defining women and distinguishing between biological sex and gender identity. I once marched to Helen Reddy's anthem “I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar,” but the new so-called Women's Party is dismantling Title IX protections. As a mother, I refuse to call myself a “birth-giver.” I am pro-abortion, but cannot support abortion up to nine months into a pregnancy. What happened to safe, legal, and rare? Bringing an abortion taco truck to the Democratic National Convention is a mockery of life and a disparagement of decisions that are far from “joyful.”
The Democrats have morphed into the party of censorship, authoritarianism, and the jailing of people for exercising free speech. They are sending millions overseas to make profits from international business deals while abandoning our veterans at home.
Foreign and domestic wars
Trump's Republican Party has become the party of peace while the Democrats are driving towards endless war. Kamala Harris, in particular, refused to reveal the names of the 13 American soldiers who died for a photo op during the horribly botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. She bragged that she was “the last one in the room,” but she can't escape the blood on her hands. If you've ever helped a family bury a child, you understand the pain. I'll always remember Clarence Griego, who was 20 years old when he was buried in his hometown during the Vietnam War.
On October 7th, I watched in horror as a woman was kidnapped in Israel and blood dripped from her. Democrats abandoned Israel to win in battleground states. Jewish students have been threatened and assaulted at our universities. I went to Auschwitz a few years ago, and no one would say they don't need to step into that crematorium and come back to America and relive it. But horrific things are happening at our hallowed American universities.
The Democratic Party has turned its back on the working class and become the party of elites and big donors, whose leaders feast with their friends and big donors while telling us how to sacrifice our freedoms under the burdens of COVID-19, climate change, and soaring inflation. French Laundry.
Food prices are rising, and about 39% of Americans say they've skipped a meal to make ends meet.
My family has been in this country since before the border was created in 1848. I have long supported a path to citizenship, but I oppose an open southern border that makes a mockery of citizenship and allows incompetent border agents to control it. People from all over the world are flocking to America. We should insist on preserving what citizenship means.
My greatest disappointment with the Democratic Party is their refusal to support school choice and quality education for all, especially poor and minority children who are trapped in chronically failing schools. They have always pandered to the powerful and wealthy teachers unions. Harris, who often boasts about her past as a prosecutor, betrayed those values when she went to the California Supreme Court on behalf of the teachers union to overturn a victory for parents and mostly low-income minority students who sought to change a critical law that kept incompetent teachers in the classroom.
Harris also bragged about sending poor mothers to prison for their “truant” children not attending California's failing schools. In doing so, she and the Democrats stifled the American Dream and the education that would lift low-income minority children out of poverty. Even today, in Harris' hometown of Oakland, about 75% of Latino and black students are not good at reading, writing or math.
Free at last
I have seen America at its best. America is the country that reached the moon and beyond. But today, under a Democratic administration, America's landings are like quicksand, sinking American hopes and lives. Lives are being destroyed by the War on Drugs, fueled by open borders and the terrible effects of the Biden economy.
The Democratic Party positions itself as the party of freedom, liberation and democracy, but by 2024 it is “1984.”
So I finally had to leave. I stayed as long as I could. I tried to make reforms, I spoke out, I voted.
Today, I look to the future: an America that still shines as the land of opportunity and free speech, despite the glaring inequalities that must be eliminated. I am thrilled to join the party started by the greatest American, Abraham Lincoln. The challenge of building a great republic will require all of us working together. Today, I am joining the Republican Party to Make America Great Again. And as America prepares to vote, I am ready to do my part.
I'm grateful to the many people who have welcomed me into their big tent of America First. I finally feel free.
