Can people change their minds? Of course they can. Will certain cults of personality lose their followers this coming election cycle? Some people have traveled too far down a very dark road and are unwilling to face up to their own fears and faults. But some people have started out one way and went another. My father was a conservative kid from a working-class Queens, New York, family who went from being a conservative who liked late-1950s Nixon into a bleeding heart liberal a few years later. For him, a young woman telling him his ideas were like those in Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead made him rethink his values. People change, and for many people, watching the current Republican Party under Donald Trump debase the Constitution and walk back virtually everything they’ve said they stood for, is enough to get #ILeftTheGOP to begin trending on Twitter.
xx#ILeftTheGOP in July, 2016 as they nominated Trump.When did you? Use the hashtag and give us your date! Tag those you know cut the cord:)cc: @IAmSophiaNelson @BillKristol @JoeNBC
— Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) January 27, 2020
Love that this trending. I was a college republican, local committee member, & worked on local, state & national campaigns for republicans. I made a promise that if Trump was the nominee I’d leave. I am now proudly a registered Democrat standing w/ the constitution. #ILeftTheGOP
— Matthew K. Pelkey (@MatthewPelkey) January 27, 2020
There are a mixture of serious testimonials as well as some funny digs at the Grand Old Party.
x#ILeftTheGOP at the age of reason.
— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) January 27, 2020
Many people who showed up at the Kos blog porch over 10 years ago to talk about their feelings and ideas might remember a similar story to this:
x#ILeftTheGOP in 2008, when 20 to 30 eighteen to twenty-five-year-olds were dying every week in Iraq. They ran their names, ranks, and ages every Sunday on ABC. Who knows how many Iraquis died, some bad guys and some lovely, everyday people. I don't know. It sucked.
— Bob (@Bob51235923) January 27, 2020
And there are the more modern converts.
x#ILeftTheGOP in July 2016 after 31 years of membership when we nominated a third-rate con man as our presidential candidate.
— Dave Jensen, ex-GOP (@Seattle_Dave) January 27, 2020
For some it was coming for a long time.
x#ILeftTheGOP right after the DNC convention. I was a moderate Republican and I decided to back Clinton. Trump’s win solidified my shift to the Democratic Party... and I’m never going back.
— Jonah Landergan (@JonahLandergan) January 27, 2020
And these hearings, with such stark hypocrisy on the part of the Republican Party, will hopefully have more people making these moves.
xx#ILeftTheGOP formally yesterday when I switched my registration in response to the Republican’s behavior through the impeachment hearings. I stopped considering myself a Republican when Trump took control of the party.
— Karen Diener (@karendiener48) January 27, 2020
x#ILeftTheGOP when I saw the rise of the Tea Party. When I saw that there was no room left for moderates anymore.My mom left the GOP when she voted for Obama over Romney.My dad left the GOP when - for the first time in life - he voted for a Democrat, Hillary, in 2016.
— Dara Moss (@DaraHasWords) January 27, 2020
#ILeftTheGOP mentally in 2012 due to birthed nonsense, lawmakers that don't know what birth certificates look like bother me. I still voted GOP in 2012 and 2014 for different reasons but I was no longer a fan. In 2016 I left 100% due to Trump. Voted Democrat in 2016 and 18
— Levi Bullen (@levi_bullen) January 27, 2020
But, never forget, we do not choose when and where and to whom we are born. We all have to make our ways to the light in different ways.
x#ileftthegop after Nixon. Reagan, the smiling actor who ran for office on racist dog-whistles, while promising wealth to the oligarchs, solidified that Eisenhower Republicanism was long dead and gone.
— Risky Liberal (@RiskyLiberal) January 27, 2020
And there is a lot of pain involved in changing what might once have been a strongly held belief system.
xx#ILeftTheGOP when my high school friend came back in a body bag from Iraq.
— John Slater (@JSlater89) January 27, 2020
x#ILeftTheGOP in May 2016, after 30+ years, and I’m NEVER going back! It was like leaving an abusive spouse and the divorce was messy AF. cc: @deaconcruise @jamient1776 @TexasBeard1
— JB Je Suis #NeverTrump #HumanScum (@JaybeeStewee) January 27, 2020
My grandmother had a saying about people who wear their religion on their sleeve. It is on their sleeve because it is NOT in their hearts. She was a holocaust survivor. #TheGOPisDEADtoME #ILeftTheGOP https://t.co/tRWtZ1qsPv
— mrhapiguy (@mrhapiguy) January 27, 2020
And just for some of us, showing our support.
xI was never a Republican. Just here to show support for those that were. 😃🇺🇸#ILeftTheGOP#ILeftTheGOP#ILeftTheGOP#ILeftTheGOP#ILeftTheGOP#ILeftTheGOP#ILeftTheGOP
— Nicole Marie (@LevRemembers) January 27, 2020
If you were once conservative, share your story below.