Monday on FNC's Tucker Carlson Tonight, a former liberal who started a campaign to help disenfranchised liberals leave the Democratic Party appeared as a special guest. Brandon Straka was a member of the Democratic Party, voting for Hillary in 2016. However, Staka explained that even before the election he started to have some misgivings about the direction the left was taking. He disagreed with the focus on identity politics, as well as political correctness.
Staka didn’t fully abandon the left until a friend showed him a video of liberal media bias. He was struck at how dishonest the press was in its effort to undermine the Trump campaign in 2016:
“A friend of mine came to me and showed me something that pointed out clearly how dishonest the media was in the Donald Trump campaign. How they would isolate moments from his behavior and make it appear as though he were a racist or a bigot or whatever. Now, I didn't realize this. I thought CNN told the truth. I thought MSNBC told the truth. I thought Rachel Maddow told the truth. So this was mind blowing to me. And once I realized this I went on a quest to find out more, what other things aren't they being honest about. Which it turns out was quite a lot.”
Staka reached out to friends on the left to talk about what he discovered, but said he was “met with hostility and contempt.” He even lost friends over the issue. Staka decided to do something about the situation he was in, and knew others would experience:
“I wanted to create a campaign because I knew there were other people like me who were feeling the same way. I created a testimonial campaign, utilizing video and written testimonials. This is happening on Facebook, the hashtag "walk away" campaign. People on going on from the left, leaving video and written testimonials, why they have walked away.”
That campaign, #WalkAway, has reached almost three and a half million people on Twitter alone. The original Youtube video has 392,951 views at press time. It looks like the at least some on the left are finally waking up to the dishonesty of the liberal media.
Read the full transcript of the June 2 interview below:
Tucker Carlson Tonight
Fox News Channel
7/2/2018TUCKER: Not everyone on the left is onboard with where the left is going. Some are afraid of where the left is going. If you just watched the last segment, you ought to be afraid. Brandon Straka spent years as a liberal and now is concerned with what the left has become. He released a video encouraging other Progressives to walk away from the movement. Brandon joins us tonight, thank you for coming on.
STRAKA: Thank you.
TUCKER: What was the moment, you were a liberal for a long time, voted for Hillary Clinton.
STRAKA: Yes.
TUCKER: What was the pivot point for you, when you decided these people don't represent me and I want something different?
STRAKA: Before the election, I was already starting to feel uncomfortable with where we were headed in terms of identity politics and PC Culture. I became a liberal because I'm against racism, sexism, I'm against discrimination because of sexual orientation. But to be on the left means that you basically have to be hostile toward white people, have to be hostile toward men, you have to find hetero normativitey to be erroneous in some way. So I started to see these cultural shifts that I was uncomfortable with. A friend of mine came to me and showed me something that pointed out clearly how dishonest the media was in the Donald Trump campaign. How they would isolate moments from his behavior and make it appear as though he were a racist or a bigot or whatever. Now, I didn't realize this. I thought CNN told the truth. I thought MSNBC told the truth. I thought Rachel Maddow told the truth. So this was mind blowing to me. And once I realized this I went on a quest to find out more, what other things aren't they being honest about. Which it turns out was quite a lot. Once I discovered, this I tried talking with other people and I was met with hostility and contempt. Friends were nasty to me on the way out the door. I decided once and for all I was going to sit down and write the definitive manifesto about everything that's wrong with liberalism, the democratic party, rip the band-aid off and stick it out there. But I wanted to create a campaign because I knew there were other people like me who were feeling the same way. I created a testimonial campaign, out utilizing video and written testimonials. This is happening on Facebook, the hashtag "walk away" campaign. People on going on from the left, leaving video and written testimonials, why they have walked away. What is more amazing about it, people on the right are participating, too. I have given a voice back to the silent majority. We're cutting out the media who controlled the narrative of what it is to be a conservative, who said it's all racists and bigots. I'm allowing people to tell their own stories. Saying I'm not a racist. I'm not a bigot.
TUCKER: Good for you, Brandon. There are a lot of desent liberals who are not represented by this lunacy that you just saw in the previous segment. Good luck. I support that.
STRAKA: Thank you.
