The online knitting community, of all things, apparently caused a New Hampshire woman to eventually reevaluate her political affiliation after 20 years.
Writing in Medium, organizational psychologist and MSNBC fan Karlyn Borysenko recalls how the social justice warriors in the Instagram knitting world began bullying anyone who didn’t go along with their radical ideology.
Karlyn Borysenko later discovered the #WalkAwayMovement and “started to meet real people who had been Democrats who had made the decision to leave because they could not stand the way the left was acting.”
She attended an N.H. Donald Trump rally on February 10, with a side trip to an MSNBC show, while wearing a “Make Speech Free Again” Hat.
Borysenko says she wound up voting for Pete Buttigieg in the New Hampshire Primary on Tuesday. On Wednesday, she changed her voter registration from Democrat to independent to “sit in the middle for a while,” thereby making the walkaway complete.
Many who have walked away haven’t become Republicans or necessarily full-on Trump supporters. But they all share a profound belief that the left has gone way too far in terms of identity politics and socialism.
Overcoming Trump Derangement Syndrome
Still not a supporter of Trump administration policies, Borysenko had an epiphany:
I was one of those Democrats who considered anyone who voted for Trump a racist…I watched a lot of MSNBC, was convinced that everything he had done was horrible, that he hated anyone that wasn’t a straight, white man, and that he had no redeeming qualities.
But when I witnessed the amount of hate coming from the left in this small, niche knitting community, I started to question everything…The more voices outside of the left I listened to, the more I realized that these were not bad people… We had differences of opinions on social and economic issues, but a difference of opinion does not make your opponent inherently evil.
Like a Rock Concert
Despite misgivings in part ginned up by the anti-Trump media, this is what she encountered at the MAGA event, as contrasted with Democrat rallies, when she decided to see for herself:
As I waited [to enter the venue], I chatted with the folks around me. Add contrary to all the fears expressed, they were so nice! I was not harassed or intimidated and was never in fear of my safety even for a moment. These were average everyday people. They were veterans, school teachers, and small business owners and they had come from all over the place for the thrill of attending this rally. They were upbeat and excited. In chatting, I even let it slip that I was a democrat and the reaction was “Good for you! Welcome!”
Once we got inside, the atmosphere was jubilant! It was more like attending a rock concert than a political rally…
I had attended an event with all of the Democratic contenders just two days prior in exactly the same arena and the contrast was stark. First, Trump completely filled the arena all the way up to the top. Even with every major Democratic candidate in attendance the other night, and the campaigns giving away free tickets, the Democrats did not do that…
With Trump, there was a genuinely optimistic view of the future. With the Democrats, it was doom and gloom. With Trump, there was a genuine feeling of pride of being an American. With the Democrats, they emphasized that the country was a racist place from top to bottom.
Borysenko claims that Trump “lies,” rather than exaggerates or oversimplifies. But she also acknowledges the big picture:
The reality is that many people I spoke to do disagree with Trump on things. They don’t always like his attitude. They wish he wouldn’t tweet so much. People who are in cults don’t question their leaders. The people I spoke with did, but the pros in their eyes far outweighed the cons. They don’t love him because they think he’s perfect. They love him despite his flaws because they believe he has their back.
A Surprise Coming for the Liberal Echo Chamber
With a call for unity, she also predicts that 2020 is going to be a repeat of 2016.
There are extremes in both parties that I am uncomfortable with, but I also fundamentally believe that most people on both sides are good, decent human beings that want the best for the country but have dramatic disagreements on how to get there. But until we start seeing each other as human beings, there will be no bridging the divide. I refuse to be a part of the divisiveness any longer. I refuse to hate people I don’t know simply because they choose to vote for someone else. If we’re going to heal the country, we have to start taking steps towards one another rather than away. I think the Democrats have an ass-kicking coming to them in November, and I think most of them will be utterly shocked when it happens because they’re existing in an echo chamber that is not reflective of the broader reality.
The article has, at this writing, prompted 284 mostly favorable responses, such as this one: “I’m a Trump supporter and I do realize he is flawed, but he is the first president in my lifetime to actually try to do what he promised.”
Read the entire essay and draw your own conclusions.
It’s so nice to see and hear about the scales falling from their eyes and chains falling to the ground when someone sees the light and walks towards it.
What a breath of fresh air. Finally, a democrat (formerly) with their head screwed-on straight who pretty much nailed it. I’d like to think there are many more out there, but they seem to be few and far between these days.
As someone who is familiar with the knitting/babywearing/cloth diapering online communities, I can attest that the take over of these venues by radical leftists is real. As a professional in the babywearing world, I have seen this first hand through Babywearing International. This was a worldwide organization which started with the sole purpose of introducing babywearing to families and ended in bankruptcy after switching its purpose to a message of hate and radical agendas. Unfortunately for them, they ran out of other people’s money.
The first few steps away from the cool-aid drinkers is always the hardest. I have to disagree with you though. When people blindly adhere to whatever someone says simply because they are in the same party, that is evil. Not embracing the responsibility to vote intelligently by intellectually examining all sides of the issue is evil. The leaders of the Democrat party talk about “re-education camps” for people that disagree with them. That is evil.
You “believe that most people on both sides are good, decent human beings that want the best for the country but have dramatic disagreements on how to get there.” This is not only naive, it is dangerously wrong-headed. What the Left proposes as the direction for this country has been tried over and over and over all around the world and has utterly failed every where and every time it’s been tried. The notion that ‘we will do it differently,’ is ridiculous.
The left has a violent army roaming around beating people who disagree with their party line. The Republicans and Conservatives don’t do that. That is evil. The entire Impeachment fiasco has wasted millions if not billions of tax payer dollars, was a criminal enterprise from start to finish, and displays the corruption at the heart of the Democrat party, yet droves of people still vote for these traitors. That is evil.
I applaud that you finally engaged your brain, but this is only the beginning. It’s time for you to do some real soul searching of your beliefs and come to grips with how the world really works.
Amen…very astute observation JM Stettner. Believing that evil is not in the hearts of the leftists is wrong at it’s very core.
If one believes in the sanctity of Life – there is only one Choice in voting. The wholesale slaughter of 60,000,000+ Holy Innocents in the Womb should cause revulsion in any moderately sentient being. The excuses for this behavior have all evaporated as the ‘Right’ to execute a child in the womb right up to the day of birth, and even after, is THE largest plank in the platform of the DemoncRats. Trump’s flaws are trivial in comparison – let’s not get stuck on stupid people.
Wish I could give you a Thumbs Up, Free. Actually, a million Thumbs ♥ There is nothing without life.
It’s the left unholy sacrament and they will stand in judgement before The Creator of the Universe and hillary is going to find out it’s not her.
Disagree. You can’t trust a Democrat ever. They have spent 8 years with Obama undermining our country, they have gone full blown socialist (communist) ever since. Democrats have called Americans racist and other derogatory comments for over 11 years. No, I am not forgiving. Vote them out of all political offices, segregate them from public discourse. Remove their influences on Media, and big tech.. Never trust them. Never.
I would suggest to her for comparison sake, to attend a Bernie or Biden or really any one of the Dem Campaigns wearing a MAGA hat. Be nice as you can, friendly and greeting and see if you are treated the way you were at the Trump rally. Just a thought
Why would you wish evil on her? You already know she would be injured. Not nice my friend.
“Both sides see each other exactly the same way” – is in conflict with the gist of her commentary. The Left has devolved into an irrational cult in which heresy is demonized, apostasy punished, deviation from the leadership’s doctrine deemed a betrayal, an assault. The Left views the Republicans as the Bolsheviks viewed the Provisional Government; as an obstacle to their goals of total control over the ignorant citizen voters (as expressed by Gruber), the Deplorable hoi polloi incapable of wisely managing their own lives. Well expressed in their fear that the voters can’t be trusted to make the right choice at the polls. The difference, concisely put, is that only one party speaks of reeducation camps – without rebuke from the campaigning prospects, either.
Donald Trump wants people like you to be deported from this country.
What I have experienced is that the “Non-Politico-Trump that WE the people elected into office, DID make promises and HE has kept them. This is a novel thing, since ‘career politicos promise the world to voters, then they IGNORE them, for their benefits of “Money-Making to Amass their OWN personal fortunes.”
I totally dislike(even hate) that Democrats ‘promote Violence, and egg on their followers to act out against anyone who is opposition to themselves.’
This is what we see/hear from bullying, radical and hateful Democrats like Maxine Waters, etal. ‘Go on the attack, surround them, and yell to make them LEAVE, malls, restaurants, parks, wherever THEY are.”
This is a call to violence, and unfortunately, with this, they’ve brought forward the “Antifa types, who gather in numbers WITH masks on(should be arrested for hiding their identity) and attack people for merely attending a ‘Trump Rally’…….Seniors, were being spit on and punched in the face, for going to a rally……so tell me WHY the “fomenters of Violence, like Waters, is NOT REMOVED FROM CONGRESS??
Until Bullies like Democrats STOP this uncivilized behavior, They are at risk of being sent to prison, which “IS TERRORISM AGAINST AMERICAN
CITIZENS AND SHOULD RESULT IN ‘HATE CRIMES’…..PRISON.”
Trump is flawed as are we all. However he is the first Patriot in the Oval Office in 30 years. Americans First !!! Globalism is treason.
California Asian American Ex Democrat 1st Gen Legal Immigrants for Trump 2020 MAGA. #Walkaway.
I didn’t vote for Trump 2016
I will vote Trump 2020 MAGA