And welcome.

As they repeatedly like to tout, the new Republican party is made up of those identifying themselves as the “alt-right.” It’s a new right-wing that looks nothing like a right-wing, and its makeup consists primarily of Trump cultists.

I wish I was just being hyperbolic when I use the word “cultist,” but I’m not sure I am.

The takeover was definitely hostile, and it caused a mass exodus of conservatives putting as much distance from themselves and the party as possible. People were burning their GOP registration cards, and there have been endless talk on social media about those walking away from a defunct party that no longer represents them. I’m one of them.

The alt-right, as they will tell you, is only too glad to take credit for our departure.

Interestingly enough, however, as the alt-right brags about chasing us out, they simultaneously rage at us for leaving. They’re significantly weaker for our absence, and they know it will likely cost them the election. Still, they can’t bring themselves to make peace. Instead they lie, or attempt to coerce us with false promises into coming back. The idea is to make us submit, not agree.

But the truth is that once I walked away from the Republican party I didn’t feel the need to look back. I didn’t feel sad that it died, and I sure didn’t wish to fix it. In fact, I felt something akin to relief.

I didn’t want to feel like I need to defend people like Mike Huckabee, or Sarah Palin anymore. I hate that I was with a party that sometimes outright refused to embrace the culture. It annoyed me that this party only wanted to get involved with certain communities when it was time to vote. It was a party that was just as guilty of tribalism as the left, while it maintained that it was a party that respected individualism.

I was sick of its morphing definition of freedom depending on what policy it was passing. It was a party that continuously snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and thought that if it was sure it couldn’t win a fight, it just wouldn’t fight.

I was sick of being in a party that was stuck in the 1980’s.

The party was weak. Even its victories during midterms didn’t seem to halt its backslide, and even then, those victories could be attributed in part to reactionary voting against the extremist that was in the White House.

This weakness was further demonstrated with the way the alt-right waltzed in and overtook it on behalf of an authoritarian reality show host, with the help of news outlets consistently touted by both the left and right as friendly to conservatism. These are the same people who sold us books, and stood on stages and behind podiums, telling us how important it is we fight for freedom and the constitution. Now they bend knee to a man who values neither, and wonder why we won’t.

So if you ask me, the alt-right can have it. I don’t want to be in a party that was so ready to roll over for white supremacists, and who are following a man who likes to retweet them. I have no desire to be in a party that holds up a guy who doesn’t know what it is they actually do at the Supreme Court. He doesn’t even seem to know what he’s going to do himself. Even his promises are “suggestions.”

I’m happy to leave a party that consists of people who are only too ready to hand over power, in a free nation mind you, to a man seeking it, and defend “Glorious Leader” with so much vigor that North Koreans think they should tone it down. Especially when some of these people are throwing the term “cuck” at those who won’t vote Trump because then the white people won’t win.

But most of all, I’ll gladly walk away from a party which consistently proves that it’s a loser. It’s a party that holds up a guy who has consistently polled south of Hillary Clinton, the most unlikable candidate to pass through the DNC in recent history. We had some amazing candidates this go round, and it chose the man who takes conspiracy theories seriously.

The Republican party is obviously dead, and I’m not going to spend time trying to pretend it’ll come back. We’ve been trying to bring it back since Reagan, but I think we’ve got as much a chance of resurrecting him as we do the GOP.

The alt-right’s initial call was to burn it all to the ground. They succeeded. It’s burnt. Let them roll in the ashes and pretend they’re winners.

All this to say that we don’t need that party being a stone tied to our ankles anymore. Let me reassure you that the reason I felt good about leaving the GOP was because I felt free of a weight. I feel good because now I, and those that left alongside me, can create something new and stronger. Something with teeth, and a solid idea of where it stands on principles. It can have leadership that actually has backbone. A party that won’t change its values in order to support a would be king.

In other words, a party that doesn’t look so much like the left. I can’t wait to be a part of that party.