I Left the Democrat[ic] Party

The diagnosis is in. America is sick. Radicals rule Washington and most of them are snuggled comfortably within the political party with which I once identified. Please, no judging. Unless things turn around, their domestic and foreign policies mean our kids…and theirs…will suffer, not prosper. “Freedom was a beautiful thing” is what we’ll tell them.

Hope is also a beautiful thing. And there’s still hope, given good people do more than complain…or ignore what’s happening. Politics cannot fix what’s wrong with America, but unless good people get involved…informed…shake things up…vote…we’re sunk.

What’s really needed is a kind of tough love…an unashamed Jesus-y kind of love that shakes people into reality by speaking the truth and overturning tables. Or opinions. That’s the kind of stuff a fairly unknown African American politician, State Rep. John Olumba of Detroit is made of, inspiring him to do what I once did. He defected from the Democrat party late last year.

During his December 2014 farewell speech, well worth the time to watch online, Olumba expressed utter dismay that his former party actual prevents the poor and blacks “from standing on their own two feet” by sending government-funded social workers to “coddle” and keep down “poor little black kids” rather than allowing them to rise above their circumstances. He said it is nearly impossible to rise when “someone else’s wellbeing is tied to your misery,” vis-à-vis social worker jobs and Democrat votes. He said the Democrat Party’s “paternal attitude” toward those in need is “conjured up” and noted that all the government-funded social workers “under the guise of the name Democrat” reaped “no positive change in all the years” he’d been alive.” Strong words he speaks from his own Detroit experience.

He then praised the not-so-perfect Republican Party, which has identity struggles of its own but at least represents the goodness that once made America great — holding fast to the now-dwindling freedoms we cherish and embracing good things like being pro-baby, which most certainly makes God smile. He said, “The Grand Old Party, Good on Principles” should press forward because “you freed the slaves once and you’ll do it again.”

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