Joe Walsh Leaps From the TEA Party to the Democratic Party [View all]

[summer_in_TX]

https://open.substack.com/pub/socialcontractwithjoewalsh/p/from-the-tea-party-to-the-democratic

Joe Walsh left the Republican party five years ago and became an independent. Now he has officially joined the Democratic Party.

Worth the read

From the TEA Party to the Democratic Party, all in the past 15 years. What a wild, crazy, .unprecedented political journey it’s been. My constant thread on this journey, my lodestar, has always been my reverence for freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. Along the way, I’ve rediscovered my reverence for decency and tolerance, for pluralism. Only one of America’s two major political parties today is squarely on the side of decency, tolerance, pluralism, freedom, democracy, and the rule of law—the Democratic Party. So I join that party. I proudly and humbly join the Democratic Party.

Now let’s fight! Let’s fight like we’ve never fought before.

I don’t know if anybody else finds Joe Walsh joining us officially encouraging and validating like I do, but for me after the grief I felt the first time I heard Rush Limbaugh inveighing against liberals, and Democrats, and saying that we want to destroy the country and for long after, I really was glad to hear him lauding us and what we have in common, our love for this country, its freedoms, and the rule of law.

I like the ways I’ve seen him change over time.

I’ve opened my eyes and listened to people who don’t think like me. And by doing so, I gained a greater understanding of and appreciation for LGBTQ issues, structural racism, the need for empathetic immigration reform, the dangers of climate change, and the role government must play to help care for the neediest and most vulnerable among us.
Most importantly, I’ve changed how I behave…I was passionate about my cause—so passionate that I said and did things I regret, so passionate that I became, way more than I’m proud of, a divisive political asshole. That’s no longer who I am.
After Trump’s first election, I woke up. Seven years ago, I came out publicly against Trump. Five years ago, I left the Republican Party. I’m still a conservative, but I’m not a conservative jerk. For the past seven years, I’ve been on a mission to help heal the divide in this country—the divide I helped to create.
Decency, tolerance, understanding, empathy...I now get how vital these all are to our politics, and there’s only one political party these days that values and practices these traits—the Democratic Party. Donald Trump is the worst of us, and, sadly, the rest of the Republican Party emulates his cruelty, dishonesty, and authoritarianism. We’re better than what we’ve seen every day these past four months. America is better than this. As a former Republican, I know that cruelty sells. Well, it’s time for decency to sell.