I have been a Democrat my entire life. I live in Los Angeles. I was an actress for years. I voted for Obama, then Clinton. I couldn’t wait to vote against the ban on gay marriage. I supported Planned Parenthood. I called JK Rowling “TERF.” I read books like THE NEW JIM CROW in an attempt to “educate” myself. I was a Democrat through-and-through, and more than that—I was even onboard with wokeism, with equity (as opposed to equality), with intersectional feminism, etc. These people had me pretty much hook, line, and sinker. Then in Summer 2020 I was encouraged to go out and engage in “firey but mostly peaceful protests” but was told it was still unsafe for me to go to work. That didn’t make sense. Nothing around me made any sense whatsoever. And I really needed to go back to work. Whenever I brought this up, I was told I was being selfish or even “racist.” Indeed, whenever I saw talk—whether online or on corporate news—of those who took issue with lockdowns, it was always framed as an issue of selfishness, even of racism. For some reason, liberal folks had this idea that anyone remotely concerned over lockdowns was a wealthy white woman who was just bored and wanted to get her hair and nails done. I felt like screaming at everyone, “who do you think does hair and nails?” Hairdressers and nail artists, whose jobs are ESSENTIAL TO THEM. Everyone is an “essential worker” to himself and the people who may depend upon him. What bothered me the most wasn’t that these people disagreed with me, or that they had different ideas on how best to handle covid or BLM unrest—what bothered me the most was that they absolutely refused to recognize I might have any honest reasons for disagreeing with them. And I had honest reasons for disagreeing with them. I and MANY others were being harmed by the tyrannical, overreaching, nonsensical response to covid—especially in blue cities and states. That felt like a punch to the gut, from the people I’d supported and aligned with all my life. So I walked away from the Democrat party. They’ve proven me correct every damn day since then. #walkaway
