Here’s Why I Left the GOP.
By Sophia A. Nelson, former House Republican Congressional Committee Investigative Counsel
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That Republican party is gone. This new Republican Party is beholden to a lawless, immoral, godless man. I have watched people I have known for decades twist themselves into human pretzels to defend him, excuse him, exalt him.
The current state of the GOP is not good for anyone in our two-party system that breaks down without lawmakers who can work together, and move legislation forward. The Democratic Party has problems of its own, but that is not my fight. I am not a Democrat, and will never be one. But the party of Trump is shrinking, whitening and aging as it tries to hold onto power in a more diverse America.
I am one of many high-profile black Republicans, like Michael Steele, Kay Coles James and Shermichael Singleton, who have tried for years to educate, inform, engage, and assist our party to become more inclusive and attentive to voters other than white men. Cheri Jacobus—my friend and a longtime GOP strategist who has lamented about how Trump and his ilk ran her out of the party, blackballed her, sued her and stalked her—started the hashtag #IlefttheGOP which was trending on Twitter for days.
I cannot belong to a party of grievances, versus optimism, and one that is fueled by anger and demographic fears. The Republican Party is no longer fiscally conservative or socially compassionate. It is a party that promotes crazy “deep state” theories and embraces militia-nationalist fringes that carry guns in the open to intimidate others from expressing their 1st amendment rights. And worst of all, it is a party that tolerates, defends and celebrates a racist, sexist and lawless president. |
