Brandon Straka

Just watched a YouTube video of Brandon Straka, founder of the #WalkAway movement.  I had blogged about the movement shortly before the 2018 midterms and, based on the results, figured it was more hype than grassroots movement.  What was interesting about the video was Brandon's backstory.  He had been a Democrat voter all his life and voted for Hillary in 2016.  He loathed Trump, especially for Trump's mocking of a disabled reporter.  Check it out here.  Brandon blasted Trump supporters with this incident, asking how they could support such a person.  One of those Trump supporters asked him to view this.  It turns out that this is something Trump does when criticizing people and had nothing to do with the disability.  This was Brandon's epiphany.  This was the moment when Brandon asked if the media was lying to him?  A long time fan of MSNBC, he now questioned what the network reported.  His belief system collapsed and #WalkAway was born.

That this small event should be the keystone to Brandon's politics is strange.  Trust, once broken, is hard to restore.  Once he questioned the reporting, he had to confirm the accuracy.  Of course, the Very Fine People Hoax only confirmed that the media lied about Trump, a lie that is still being told in the current presidential campaign.  Glenn Reynolds suggests that if you view the mainstream media as Democrats with bylines, you won't go far wrong.

Is #WalkAway a real movement now?  Maybe.  It didn't make a difference in 2018.  Will it in 2020?  Maybe.  There is also Blexit (Black Exit), the movement launched by Candace Owens to convince African-Americans to leave the Democratic Party.  Is it a real thing or just hype?  These and more questions to be answered in November.