From a non-profit employee who walked away

“I was raised in a Republican, conservative home and usually voted the way my parents voted but all that changed when I began working in the non-profit, human service sector. Our funding, (my paycheck), relied on tax dollars and grants and it was much easier to get and receive both from Democrat controlled administrations. Whenever an election rolled around, the talk around the office was always the same - "Better vote Democrat or there goes our funding", or "If Republicans get in, our program may be eliminated and we'll all be out of a job."

Few words of concern were spoken about the people we were supposed to be helping and what would happen to them. It was always about us -directors, administration and support staff. Then, one day, I realized why. Our programs weren't really helping anyone, in fact, the opposite was true. Our programs of "assistance" and "aid" weren't helping anyone actually CHANGE their lives for the better. All we did was help them stay in the lives they were in. When people did manage to pull themselves out of poverty and no longer needed our services, did we celebrate? On the surface we did. We acted happy for them, but privately, quite the contrary. We panicked because our numbers were falling. And if our numbers kept falling, our funding could be decreased or the program could be eliminated entirely. We needed poor people! We needed a lot of them and we needed them to stay poor or else WE'D be poor, and that wasn't an option. After realizing the cycle of poverty and dependence we were covertly perpetuating and encouraging, I no longer wanted to be part of it.

When Democrats control state and federal governments, the number of people living at the poverty level increases because their system is set up that way. They wrap themselves up in the American flag and say they care about the "people", the downtrodden and the poor, when in reality, they want to control them by fear. Fear of losing their welfare check, food stamps, housing assistance, heating assistance, childcare assistance, SSI payments, Medicaid, and all those nice support organizations they have come to DEPEND on. It's a smokescreen, it's bogus and I wanted no part of it. I quit the human service sector and found employment elsewhere.

That was my ah-ha moment - when I saw the Democrats’ dirty little secret when it involved "The People". Over the next decade, I found myself splitting my ticket, voting for both Republicans and Democrats, because I was still rewiring my thinking process. But when Donald Trump ran, I knew I had truly come home, back to the Republican way of thinking. It felt good, it felt right, and I will never consider myself a Democrat again.”

Sue Stauffer Johnson at Walk-away