I Used to be a Republican and Here’s Why I Left

I was raised a good republican. My Dad took me to our local caucus (Colorado is now a primary state) every 2 years to help pick the candidates that would go onto the general for the GOP. One year we actually got elected as a delegate to the state convention so that we could see the entire process all the way through.

Just a Young Republican

I participated in the TeenPact teen political organization. It was a popular thing to do among homeschool students and I had a unique chance to do both my local TeenPact event as well as participate in a trip to Washington D.C. in 2005. We even got to go into the White House. I worked on several campaigns beginning in 2002 with Bob Beauprez in Colorado District 7 and various campaigns until 2008. I like campaign work but I was having a hard time getting traction. My candidates weren’t winning and candidates were distancing themselves from me. I was young and full of energy but ultimately I needed a win. I decided that campaigns were not for me and that I wanted to pursue the media side of politics. It was the beginning of doing closer to what I do now.

In 2009, I served as a delegate to the national Young Republicans Convention in Indianapolis. I had already served as Colorado state secretary and a chapter president by that time. I had a great time. I also helped created this viral clip that has appeared on TYT, The Daily Show and elsewhere:

However, by 2010, I was becoming increasingly disenchanted with the GOP. I had been part of the Tea Party in 2009/2010 and had run a Tea Party publication called Liberty Ink Journal. I was more liberal than my publishers but we all felt it provided a balance to the coverage. When I left that publication, I was trying to understand my place in things. I felt that as a person of color and as an LGBT person, I was simply no longer welcome. I was tired of the quiet homophobia and making fun of the Log Cabin Republicans (the LGBT organization within the GOP) and I was getting displeased with the ever-more overt racism against Obama. I am biracial like him and raised by a white mother. If they could do that to him, then what did they think about me?

I also started to look around at the world around me. I was a victim of the Great Recession. I knew how hard it was running a business and like many, I hid out in graduate school waiting for things to improve and they didn’t improve as much as I had hoped. I saw people who needed universal healthcare. I saw how student debt was affecting me. I started to see how the housing crisis was affecting people my age. While many of my friends were already on-board with these ideas I had to see the need first-hand.

Occupy

By 2011, I was living in Denver and unable to find a good job (or any job really) I was living with my parents. I joined the Occupy Denver protest which was part of the great Occupy movement all over the world. For the first time, I heard words like “1%” and “99%.” I absorbed all the new knowledge and a new perspective. I was already ready to leave the republican party and I was ready to stop voting red but this cemented this for me. However, I did not vote for President Obama in 2012. I was frustrated with the seeming lack of Hope and Change which was ending up to be more of the same, especially in regards to foreign policy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I honestly thought that Mitt Romney could do a better job.

2012 came and went and Mr. Obama was elected to a second term. As birtherism and other attacks began, I found my own philosophy, education, and ideas about the world to be in contradiction to the Republican party. by 2014, I was voting strong democrat and in 2016 I campaigned for Mrs. Clinton. There was a brief moment where I thought perhaps President Trump could bring a new idea to the party but his early performance quickly dissuaded me from that idea and I realized he was a non-starter for me.

Why I Left

Ultimately, I left the Republican party because I couldn’t stand where the party was going. I was raised to believe in small government, capitalism, and working hard for individual success. But I realized through my own experience and the experiences of others that no amount of personal hard work can fix a broken society. I was living proof of that. All the new critiques of capitalism and social ideas in the post-Recession world opened my eyes to problems I only had a vague idea of and showed me that there were simply better solutions than what the GOP had on offer. It was tough because I had to unlearn all the things that I thought I knew about the world and all the things I presumed were true. That is a journey and an education is on-going, especially as I learn more about what has been done to people in the name of industrialization and consumption.

I needed a political party that was welcoming to someone like me and I needed a party with new and fresh ideas, not the old ideas of the past that we know do not work. In my mind, the only party offering genuinely new ideas was the democrats and in 2014 I finally made the switch.

From GOP to Democrat

The reason I write about this is that there are many Americans who have made this journey over the past decade. Folks like me are not perfect liberals. We haven’t been raised this way. For many people, identity politics is rather new. There are those who are economically progressive but may not be as socially liberal as many in the party would like. Those folks are important democrat voters too. That is an unpopular opinion but a true one. Many in the progressive movement are only happy with those who align on every value and every issue without fail or exception. This is not fair to people who are looking for a better and more hopeful country and it is an electoral loser. As much as I don’t like Bill Maher’s vitriol against identity politics, his point is well-taken. Progress comes in fits and starts. It is not a linear path but as MLK said, the arc of history bends towards justice. I’m glad to be apart of the party giving that arc and extra push. Making progress on all fronts: economically, socially, and politically is important. I’m glad on the Left we are making progress while the GOP is stuck in the past, but as a party, we need to be welcoming to people who are ready to embrace that change even if it means they don’t agree with everything on the agenda. This journey takes time, it takes realizations, and it takes contact with people with new and fresh ideas. There are many people looking for a better answer in this country. There are voters looking for new solutions. The future of the democrat party depends on winning over those voters who have realized that they have been sold a raw deal.

Get more from Cameron

If you liked this article and this journey then you’ll really like my book! I collected my best essay from this blog and from other things I’ve written and compiled it all in one easy to read location. From Racism to Capitalism and almost everything in between, I help you understand the world around you and the policy changes that can improve our country for everyone. This is a book as much as it is a handbook. If you want to read a particle section or even just an idea, I’ve provided a detailed outline for you. I’ve also compiled all the sources in the back so you can do your own learning and research.

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