I was a Republican…
I was a Republican, and for a long time I thought politics was where I would be. The first thing I did when I got into High School was join the Government Club. The first chance I got I attended the local Republican Township meeting. Then on, I was a Republican.
A year ago that changed. There was a great many of us, and still are, who asked where the Republican party was going. It took an even wiser person to make the point that the Party hadn’t changed; politics isn’t about change, that is until someone tells you to. The Republican Party wasn’t any different that day compared to the day we declared ourselves members of it.
It took an even wiser person to make the point that we were the ones who had changed, that we were the ones moving away from the Party. I was a Republican.
I had many influencing factors in my life that decided for me that I would be a Republican. There wasn’t much at home. In fact, there wasn’t much family at home. Grandparents dead, family on my fathers side thousands of miles away, Uncles who didn’t talk to one another on my mothers. My community was my family. Neighbors became Grandparents or Aunts and Uncles. Their children filled the role of sibling and Cousin. My community, my town, my County were great influence; all deeply stained in Red.
I joined because I wanted to make a difference; I wanted to be apart of something bigger than myself. That and the addition of a love for history. I enjoy language and presentation; I enjoyed debate and the often confrontational editorial. Politics was a gateway to a seat at a higher table in the community, so I thought, and at a younger age why wouldn’t I fancy myself with the thought of a young political career.
I believed politics, on all levels, was for the benefit of the community and the impurities in that system were the costs of all civilized societies to remain such. No system is perfect, right? I believed that Government, when limited and run by the right people would benefit all, or at least most. I was a Republican.
I also imagined myself attending a pure, conservative liberal arts college to study political science. I planned to return home, follow in the footsteps of my predecessor and wait for my turn to run for office. Then I would make my change, but of course after I work campaign after campaign for the others looking to do the same.
Everything changed when I was introduced to a greatly misunderstood and even greater falsely claimed virtue: Liberty. Everything I had come to learn and understand was challenged and came into question. The very things I once thought I knew were no longer there to guide and direct. I became a writer without a pen, a cripple without his cane.

I thought I supported peace, by being the worlds police force and infiltrating every country we have interests in leaving each with more holes and less people. I thought I supported public health, by instigated conflict and locking up thousands of non-violent people for using something considered “illegal”. I thought I was just, by supporting the forced aggression and removal upon a person for having crossed an imaginary line and living in a different place we call ours. I thought I was community minded, by initiating taxes on my neighbors to be spent the way I wanted them to be. I was a Republican and this Liberty tree has taken root.
I was told by peer and colleague that I would be the future President. I no longer believe that anyone can or should be President. Politics wasn’t the great unifies of communities, politics is the death of community. I have witnessed first hand how, even on the local level, innocent and kind people are turned into their worst self. Hatred and anger fill these people. Campaigns are wars and the ballot box their battlefield.
They vote under all those same false pretenses to elect men who fraudulently puke out words like “hope and change”. I don’t know if they’re too blind to notice or they’re too afraid to think otherwise.
I wanted to help build my community; my family. I didn’t know I was aiding its demise by picking a side. I’m done with Politics. I was a Republican.