Democrats are leaving their party more in sorrow than in anger, but leaving it they are, sickened by the Democratic Party’s hard left turn. Tens of thousands are telling their stories on the #walkaway movement’s public Facebook page. Their YouTube videos are a fascinating window into the innermost thoughts of kind, thoughtful people across America—all former Democrats.

My personal favorites are what I call “nice ladies driven away by Democrat hate.” During and after the election, many women stopped buying what the Dems are selling. They come from every generation, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and region of America. These women warm my heart because I have been waiting and hoping that ordinary Democratic voters would be revolted by their party’s embrace of vitriol and violence. It appears to be happening at last. They are walking away from Democrat politicians, cultural and media icons. The treatment of Trump and his voters has been a step too far.

Bottom line: these nice, normal women don’t feel comfortable being members of a club full of haters.

The Democratic Party no longer fits their personalities, their values, or their self-image as loving, caring, tolerant human beings. The coup de grace is when they realize they are not free in their liberal social circles to utter one word of doubt or criticism of the party line. If they do, they find themselves attacked and ostracized. That is truly the end for them as Democrat voters.

A Quaker-educated social justice warrior from Washington state saw her children’s schools overwhelmed with immigrants, stressing kids, teachers, and the school budget to the breaking point. She realized “if I were to say that, I’d be a racist . . . It reminded me of Jews having to hide. People shouldn’t have to hide what they believe.”

President Trump has been a happy surprise for these women, even though most did not vote for him. Some mention Trump policies they like—notably secure borders—but more often they talk about patriotism and the Bill of Rights.

A black, gay, Millennial has rebelled against the emotional manipulation of the Left. “I used to think it was hard being black and gay . . . Every job I’ve applied for, looking like a lesbian and all, black and all, I’ve gotten . . . gotten into school . . . nothing (bad) has happened to me because I am black. But the Left wants to promote this victim mentality . . . I’m realizing conservative is not bad. It’s American values. I want free speech. I want the right to bear arms . . . . The only thing I heard the Right say is get up, make something of yourself, this is America . . . As a gay, black woman who is all about equality, I cannot believe the party I once believed in is so anti-American.”

While each story is unique, especially the turning point moment, there are repeated reasons these women chose to “walk away” from the Democratic Party. A common theme is looking things up on the internet. “Think for yourself” and “I started to do my own research” are phrases repeated over and over.

Hillary Clinton’s nomination was the first step away for many of these women. They couldn’t stand her personality, Benghazi, the email server. Some cited Hillary’s attacks on the women Bill Clinton abused. When they dared to express criticism, they found themselves called awful names by fellow Democrats. In this way, Clinton’s nomination led to long-term losses for her party.

Surprising at first, there are many Bernie Sanders supporters. Disgusted by the Democratic National Committee fixing the nomination for Clinton, they weren’t willing to vote for her, and again, were driven out of the party after being mobbed by fellow liberals.

One Bernie supporter explains she was brainwashed by family and college into accepting socialism. “After I saw what Hillary and the DNC did to Bernie . . . I started doing my homework and really did educate myself and realized how the Democrat Party has done nothing for 40 years . . . they are a party of Communists and Marxists who want to take away our freedom . . . [It was] an abrupt wake-up call.”

Fake news and Trump derangement syndrome have backfired. Dorothy, a pleasant, serene woman from Florida is the voice of middle-class America. Previously a “die-hard liberal” with “my holier than thou superior attitude,” she had been watching Donald Trump on TV for 30 years, when Oprah, Colbert and Letterman used to love him. “Trump was saying all the same things about tariffs, . . . about immigration, about securing our borders . . . . Now they hate him for the same views they loved.” She went to a massively attended Trump rally “to look into what he had to say.”

Trump had fun joking with the little children in the audience that he would throw them out because they weren’t registered voters. She went home and heard ABC News report that Trump had “thrown out thousands of unregistered voters from his rally.” This was Dorothy’s wake up moment.

“He (her favorite anchor) blatantly lied,” she said. “ABC panned the audience showing empty stands . . . . I was shocked. I never believed I would be lied to that blatantly on national news. That brought me into reality. What had I been listening to all these years?”

These women know themselves to be free of prejudice. Yet they experienced being called “every name in the book” if they disagreed on any Democrat talking point. One mixed-race woman was attacked by her own mother as white when she said she was for strong immigration laws. A gay woman is in tears knowing she will lose her friends if she comes out of the closet politically.

A lovely Millennial hits many of the same themes: “I hate what the left has become . . . the problem starts when you think your way is the only right way and everyone who disagrees with you is a Nazi . . . Donald Trump being elected . . . and all my friends on Facebook and even some of my family members became hateful, pure hateful . . . it’s wrong, its socialism in the making.”

She goes on: “I want nothing to do with that . . . I’m sick of having conservative friends who are afraid to speak up . . . it’s the party of lies, of deception . . . the party that victimizes you all of the time, the party that tells you you won’t succeed. And wants to blame every white person in the world.”

A GenX woman with a sense of humor has messages to the different generations. “What’s with the screaming, the crying the whining, the marching, the pussy hats, the gender confusion . . . I want socialism . . . kneeling during the anthem . . . everyone’s a racist . . . you’re a Nazi because you don’t think like me . . . open borders, let everybody in . . . every day is a new hysteria.”

Her message to Millennials: “The Democrats don’t want to help you. . . . You’re being indoctrinated . . . Wake up. Your country needs you.” Her conclusion: “You want something done? Trump will get it done.”

There are many disappointed Obama supporters who saw that “all this hope and change was just made up,” or even worse, “I started to see what he stood for and stood against—which was basically against America.”

These nice Democratic women voted enthusiastically for Barack Obama and were horrified in his second term when he purposely stirred up racial division and hate of all sorts. A soft-spoken, ladylike Baby Boomer describes herself as a “die-hard bleeding-heart liberal . . . I voted straight Democrat every year of my entire life until two years ago.”

“I had such great hope for (Obama),” she added. “Then I started seeing, instead of pulling things together, he was pulling things apart. And Democrats were starting to get angry, and hateful, and rude. All the things I believed in, they were tearing apart . . . I don’t recognize anything I was a part of, nothing. So, I ended up voting for Trump, and I’ve got to say, I love our president.”

An even older Democrat, who first voted for John F. Kennedy, is another woman who comes across as a thoughtful, gentle person, articulate about her disappointment in the party she was loyal to for so many years. She voted for Obama twice. “I was mesmerized . . . I really had high hopes.”

The trouble was, she realized, Obama “promoted one of the most divisive, racist terms that I have seen in my lifetime. . . . He turned his back on our military . . . on our law enforcement, the people who go out and protect us, put their lives on the line every day . . . his agenda was never for our country. He was tearing us down. He will go down in history as the most divisive, destructive president that we’ve ever had.”

And when it came to voting for Hillary Clinton, the woman said, “I felt sick . . . her corruption was unprecedented . . . When her email scandal was exposed, she was never charged . . . I didn’t like Trump . . . he was vulgar . . . but I really, truly believed he loved this country. . . . He wanted to see us more successful.”

When a Democrat voter since 1960 sounds like this, you know identity politics has backfired.

The Democrats’ next ploy—essentially tarring all Trump voters as “evil”—has turned off even more women. They want freedom to disagree for themselves and for all Americans. As the JFK voter says, “After [Trump’s] election, the lies, the hatred, the demonstrations, the violence. I was mortified. I have never in my lifetime seen anything like this. I mean, how many times is a president elected who you don’t like? You don’t go out in the street and beat somebody down for expressing an opinion that doesn’t agree with yours.”

The women from all generations speaking out through the #walkaway movement are splendidly patriotic. They are rejecting the Democratic Party because the party is rejecting America.

I am in love with these women’s voices. It is heartening to witness people defying the Democrats’ thought police, doing their own research, thinking for themselves. They are standing up for free speech by speaking out. It takes courage. Many have paid the harsh price of friends and family turning on them. They are motivated by love of America.

We are making America great again.

Photo Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images