Karen Mayhew, guest blogger—a good read

She writes on Facebook:  “I am so excited to see so many stories of walking away that I feel compelled to share my own. Caution long:

Born to into a very split household, Dad was a devout Catholic Republican and Mom a bed wetting liberal Jew. I know you're all thinking, "say what?" Anyway, while politics were rarely discussed as a family, politics were an event. Election night the phone got unplugged and pizza got ordered in. I grew up on ABC News Election Nights with Brinkley and Hugh Downs. I remember my Dad taking me to a Reagan rally at the Portland Airport Holiday Inn. It was a good growing up.

As I got older (high school) some of my Mom's liberal politics crept into my arguments. Hey, I was a teenager. I remember actually defending abortion at one point in of all places in Sunday School. This was the early 90's Portland, Oregon before Portland went full on insane.

1996 was my first election and I voted for Dole. Where did I switch from defending abortion in 1992 to voting for Dole 4 years later? I didn't go to college, I went to work out of high school and nothing moves teenage idealism to conservatism than seeing taxes taken from your paycheck.

But that was only the very beginning.

In 1998 I moved to San Francisco because I could and because I hated boring Portland. San Francisco's liberalism was so repulsive in every sense. Bums, drugs, corruption, anti-Israel, racism cloaked as diversity, if you name it and hated it, SF had it in spades. I lasted 4 years in SF before squirreling back to Portland. SF was terrible in 2002 and I saw the writing on the wall. That writing is what we read about everyday now. Poop maps anyone?

Back in Portland, married, a new homeowner and decidedly conservative, I found myself a plaintiff against my employer and the SEIU when my job was hijacked and this my career threatened. I successfully sued the union OUT of my job and an activist was born.

I became a national face for the Right to Work when Bush was President, testifying to Congress in 2007 against card check, something the democrats sarcastically and deceptively called the employee free choice act (ECFA). My story and many others like mine made certain EFCA never made it to Bush's desk. To this day I will never be able to repay those Constitutional, Federalist Society, attorneys whose brilliant legal minds came to my rescue pro-bono. A legal activist was born.

Then came the nightmare. His name was Obama. Obama kissed the asses of the union I had just defeated. He promised if elected EFCA would be the law of the land. And he won. I was more determined and more conservative every day that he promised he had a pen and a phone. He rammed through Obamacare, lost Congress, won re-election in 2012, and then lost the Senate in 2014. And yet he still terrorized freedom through executive fiat while he stacked the courts. He was wildly unpopular if the losses his party suffered yet he laid the groundwork that his stains would linger a long time. Maybe forever.

In 2013 I escaped for good insane Portland to North Carolina. For the first time in my life I lived where I could be an out, loud and proud conservative. And I was one in real life and on social media. And boy did those Portland, Oregon Facebook friends unfriend me at an impressive clip. A conservative??? Oh noes! Well ... Bye! I attended my first CPAC in 2014, I met fellow activists from all over the nation, I honed my skills in activist boot camps, landed at Heritage Action and in 2015 went to work for Ted Cruz's Presidential campaign. Ahhhh, life was good until it was Trump v Clinton.

I hated both of them and voted for neither. While I celebrated Inauguration Day, it was a celebration for me of Obama being gone. I had massive reservations about Trump until January 31st 2017, the night Trump nominated Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. One of the last events I participated in (before moving to my current location, Wisconsin) was the effort to lobby for Gorsuch. He was such a longshot but judicial activists like myself knew he was the next Scalia. And Trump delivered him.

Last June the SCOTUS (with Gorsuch) delivered the Janus decision that gives public sector union members the right to work. The decision was a Hosanna for a right to work advocate like me. The next day, Kennedy announced his retirement from the court.

On July 9th, Trump nominated a milquetoast Court of Appeals judge named Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh was nothing to be excited about. But the increasingly unhinged left had other plans. Especially a crazy lady from Palo Alto and a Senator named Feinstein.

At the time of Kavanaugh's hearings, the left for over a year and a half had thrown everything they had at Trump to no avail. He was winning, America was winning, McConnell was winning. And the left was incredulous. And since they couldn't get Trump they were going to get somebody. Anybody. Judge Brett Kavanaugh was the unlucky victim.

What happened to Kavanaugh turned me into the biggest activist yet. The Democrats went so vile that a once a milquetoast judge was now someone I was willing to put my life on hold for to fly to DC, twice, to lobby Senators to confirm. Again, a judicial activist. A lover of the Constitution and the rule of law could not be stopped.

What happened to Kavanaugh was the Democrats doing in full view what created this walk away campaign, though I know its birth goes back to 2016. The assaults by the media, the invective by candidates (a basket of deplorables) and the like. From Wisconsin, I welcome all of you to the side of righteousness and fairness. To the Constitution, to the right to life, to liberty, to the pursuit of happiness; I walk with you to #MAGA.”

Karen gave me permission to repost this from the Walkaway Facebook page.  Wow.  She’s on fire.

The rhetoric of activism

Whether you've marched in an anti-war protest or bombed a research lab, the rhetoric undergirding the action is pretty much the same. This template came from an animal rights magazine in the 90s, but you can add your politics of choice: bilingualism, environmentalism, ageism, racism, genderism, feminism, etc. You will recognize many of the points from reading this list, even if you've never heard of animal rights. This was originally about chickens and their rights--but could just as easily be about white tailed deer who have a right to eat your garden or illegal aliens who have a right to cross the border and use your benefits. My asides are in brackets. Upon reading it, you'll see the futility of arguing with these people. Move on.

1) Don't use apologetic or non-offensive statements, it deprecates your views.
2) Don't accept defeatist views; it shows self doubt.
3) Human victims often collaborate unconsciously with their oppressor; don't affirm anything the destroyer is doing. You have the moral imperative; this is not a matter of simple choice.
4) Animals [or insert the cause of your choice] are not underlings but "other nations." They should not be compared to humans with diminished capacities such as babies or the mentally defective. This is arrogant [Note: "arrogant" is a common word in activist lingo.]
5) Why even suggest that conventional views have merit? It plants doubt in people's minds about your efforts.
6) As a spokesperson, you must establish your identity. Do not ever let the other side define you or what you are about [i.e., in a GQ article or a TV ad that suggests a viable alternative to your viewpoint].
7) The combination of western science, capitalism and homocentricity can be thrown up to you in expressions like "science reports" or "it is known that," or "studies show" this is sheer epistemological deficiency, cynicism and intimidation. Do not stand for it! [Note: This is an essential point: most activist groups HATE Western Culture, especially capitalism even if they using computer technology at state supported institutions, including our system of caring for children, our textbooks, our churches, etc. Christians and Jews are particularly targeted for abuse if they cite a higher morality. Their actions are much more about capitalism and western culture than saving an animal habitat or stopping a war.]
8) Only oppressors deny the importance of suffering to the individuals who suffer (keeping a bird in a cage, or a dog as a pet, or riding a horse). [Note: Militant pro life activists would point out that a fetus feels pain and suffers; militant CUBs would stress the suffering of birthmothers. Both groups might condone stalking or picketing, but only for their group, because of the righteousness of their cause.]
9) You can't do everything. If others accuse you of not caring about people, stop explaining and take a proactive stance. You must focus your attention on this one issue.
10) The abuse of animals ["abuse" includes owning pets--it's a very broad definition] is as serious as any other abuse. Apologize TO the animals, not FOR them.