No, the #WalkAway Movement Isn't Run by Russian Bots. But It Is a Major Threat to the Democratic Party

Al Conti arrives at the 54th annual GRAMMY Awards on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Democrats want you to think the #WalkAway campaign is a right-wing propaganda effort propped up by a legion of Russian bots, but don’t you believe it. Brandon Straka’s WalkAway Facebook group now has over 106,000 members — and anyone who takes the time to read their stories will quickly be disabused of the notion that bots could produce them.

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The #WalkAway stories are compelling and often quite moving. People from every imaginable background — black, white, Hispanic, rich, poor, straight, gay, trans, and even celebrity — explain why they left the party. Most of these people voted Democrat their whole lives; most have lost friends for supporting President Donald Trump. Most have also found solace in the #WalkAway community.

In 2016, the Democrat media complex ignored the massive grassroots movement that came out in support for Trump, dismissing his massive rallies and popularity online as somehow insignificant. Now they are dismissing the #WalkAway campaign as a propaganda movement. Once again, something genuine and significant is happening across the nation, and it’s getting ignored or ridiculed by media elites. It doesn’t matter. Like a snowball rolling downhill, the movement is getting bigger and bigger with each day and there’s nothing an elite can do to stop it.

In story after story, former Democrats — including a popular, Grammy-nominated musician — describe how they finally saw through the lies, smears, duplicity, and hypocrisy that infects today’s Democratic Party. And how they couldn’t help but notice the outrageous double standard in the way liberals and conservatives are treated. For people who remotely pay attention, the corrupt stench of the party is getting harder and harder to ignore.

“Laws are made for everyone and now it’s as if Demacrats [sic] are protecting each other and seems like they can break the laws and they get away scot free,” writes Barbara Kaminsky, who says she comes from a long line of Democrats. “If an ordinary person like me did the things they do I would be under the jail. I am disillusioned by the fact that Hillary got off with nothing for the massive corruption, dishonesty and lies she has done and just skates back to her mansion and a young naval man takes a picture to send his family and goes to prison. I could go on and on but I digress.”

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Christiana S. F. Chamon writes that she comes from “a very leftist Brazilian family” that essentially told her what to think. She says she voted for Obama twice, and really thought “Republicans were evil racists, bigots, and Bible thumpers.”

Her eyes started to open near the end of her freshman year in college, when she says she started asking her leftist friends questions. “The more questions I asked, the more insults I was called,” Chamon says. “‘Racist,’ ‘sexist,’ ‘misogynist,’ etc. I soon realized that these leftists are the very thing they claim to be against: racist, intolerant, close-minded, etc. Anything that dares be different from their echo chamber, immediately they lash out.”

During her journey, Chamon found out that everything she was told about the opposing party was a lie. “[T]hese moderates/Libertarians/Republicans are some of the kindest, most open-minded people I’ve ever met,” she writes. “Through friendly discussions with people on the center/right whom I disagreed with, I learned to look at things objectively and not base my opinions on those of a collective group, whether left or right. I became a free thinker, and I encourage everyone to do the same.”

A lot of people walked away during Obama’s nightmarish presidency.

One of those people, Jerri Rowan, says she’d had enough two years into it. “The changes I started seeing weren’t the changes that were so eloquently spoken about,” Rowan, who was raised by Democrats, writes. “Instead I was seeing hatred and bigotry.”

“The lies, hatred and continuing downward spiral of the democrats is insane,” she continues. “Our community has a FB Page where I’ve had many conversations with what I thought were good people … until they found out I voted for Trump. Wow, did they get nasty.”

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A legal immigrant from Romania who became a police officer says he started out as a Democrat, but during the Obama era, the party’s hostility toward the police pushed him away. “They sadly really do remind me of the communist party back in Romania,” Andrew Morrison writes. “The democrats are dangerous for the freedom and future of this country.”

Barb Martino says she was a Democrat for her entire adult life, “voted for Obummer, and was very disappointed about his years in office.” Excited to see a woman candidate for president, she said she paid close attention to Hillary Clinton’s speeches and watched the debates. Soon she recognized the familiar Democrat talking points — “the same old speech just delivered by a different candidate, ’empty promises.'”

“Then I started to take an interest in what DJT was saying,” Martino continues. “And the light bulb went on, he was truly a candidate by the people and for the people, he said things so many of has were thinking. I knew then and there I was changing parties, I voted for him and so glad I did. I lost friends and got into heated arguments with family members on how could I vote for this man.”

Jimmy Walker, a black man in his early 50s, says he’s “ashamed to admit I voted for Obama twice.”

“I was so annoyed by his administration performing drone strikes, passing constitutionally questionable laws and ignoring the plight of the black community, I stopped voting!” Walker writes. “The night of the 2016 election, I told my friend I honestly hoped Trump would win. He laughed and asked why. I quoted a line from the Nolan Batman movies and responded; ‘Sometimes you want to see the world burn!’ The next day, I almost got my playful wish! When I saw people screaming ‘Not my President!’ and doing and saying blatantly traitorous things, that was it! I spent the intervening years studying conservative alt media.” Walker says he left the Democratic Party in May of this year. “When I meditated on our financial choices, going back to my grandparents, I noticed a sense of victimhood born from Democratic thinking. I needed to destroy this almost hereditary political malady!”

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There are hundreds of stories like the ones above. And they just keep on coming. Straka’s viral Facebook group inspired a celebrity “WalkAway” to post his story on Friday.

Al Conti is a gay, Argentinian-born, Grammy-nominated New Age composer, arranger, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He says he has always had to hide his political beliefs because the music industry is so left-wing. He walked away from the Democratic Party in 2008 because, being from Argentina, he could “see Obama coming from a mile away.”

Here is Conti’s incredible story in its entirety:

OK, so this is a huge moment of truth for me. I originally joined the #WalkAway campaign about a week ago under my private civilian name (rather than this one, my artist name) and shared a brief story, but not as open as I would have liked it to be. For the last 15 years I have pretty much lived in, worked in, ate and breathed the music industry. Because my life eventually became public (or, as I like to joke, I became a ‘Wikipedia entry’), I retreated more and more into my privacy, sharing little about myself except what was demanded during the mandatory interview.

I am a New Age composer so, as it happens with music genres, when you are successful you become very popular within that niche but can quickly lose your audience should you say the wrong thing. I was managed by a publicist and a manager, so mostly I was scripted. But you also have to watch what you say because you can tank your career before it even begins. The pressure was on. The more success I experienced, the more withdrawn I became.

My career started a few years before Obama became president, but started taking off right at the time he was elected. The media went into a frenzy and mass hysteria ensued about the anointed one – thrill up their leg and all. I, however, saw a different picture.

Having grown up in Argentina during the horrible 70’s ‘Dirty War’, and having seen what the extremist Obama-style mindset had done to the country, I could see Obama coming from a mile away. There was NO way I could vote for this guy.

I walked away at that point. When I looked at him and heard him speak, all I could see was a horrible storm headed our way, like when you see dark, purple tornado clouds in the horizon, moving fast towards you. However, being in the music industry, I was pretty much surrounded by the hysteria. Being gay, Hispanic and a (legal) Immigrant only made things worse, because even in my personal life I was surrounded by Obama nuts who assumed I had to be one, too. Because for my work I use a slightly different name, I was able to keep my personal life and thoughts separate and navigate as best I could, keeping my mouth as shut as possible while everyone else seemed to be very happy to open theirs.

In my personal life, I became more vocal, but still had to watch it. I just made sure to maintain my private life very separate, having three different Facebook profiles and friending industry members on one and close family on another, and leaving the fan page for the PR machine. But it got worse. The more Obama overreached, the worse it got for me because it became excruciating to watch him slowly take the USA apart, while the media I worked in cheered. Was no one noticing what I was seeing? It was surreal.

Fast forward to the 2016 elections, when mass hysteria went to a level I had only seen in Argentina. I knew Trump was it for me. But the left got nastier, and so did people in my industry. Worse, however, that everyone thought I, of course, agreed. Again, my mouth remained shut…painfully so. Red carpet events, parties and gathering all became unbearable – not only because I am an introvert, but also because I was pretty much the only Trump supporter to be seen. I stopped attending and became more withdrawn. My publicist loved – and used – the angle of “Introverted artist,” but there was SO much more to it, more than I could say aloud. I kept so many things in that it started affecting my personal life because I could only vent with my partner, a Democrat, who was becoming saturated.

They say your spouse should not be your therapist – oh so true. But if you think it gets tough walking away when you’re a regular person, when you’re a public figure it gets 100 times worse. This is why many artists who do not think like the masses keep their mouth shut or risk losing their careers. The pressure is horrendous.

Then the Grammy telecast happened and it was used as a Trump bashing platform. That did it for me and I dropped my Recording Academy (otherwise known as the ‘Grammy’) membership.

Then, a few weeks ago I had enough. I saw there was a movement called the #WalkAway campaign and became very curious. At that time, a fellow artist (an actor) posted a picture of illegal immigrant children in cages and blamed Trump for it, the irony being those images were taken during Obama’s presidency. I lost it.

I unfollowed him and did the unthinkable, I did not keep my mouth shut and Twitted about having had enough and hashed the Walk Away campaign. It was the most liberating moment of my career. I quickly joined this movement using my civilian name, but I still felt like I was hiding. The question was always, do I open my mouth and lose half my audience? At some point, I just no longer care.

So this is my moment to say hello everyone, I am an artist, my name is Al Conti and I proudly WALKED AWAY! Now I can go announce it on my artist profiles and come what may….

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Conti tells PJ Media that since he came out as a Trump supporter, his Twitter account has been under attack by hateful trolls — many of whom say the #WalkAway movement was started by Russian bots:

https://twitter.com/ebonibex/status/1015367724275363840

https://twitter.com/BabyDollMaker/status/1015715052911915008

But the well-wishers far outnumber the haters, he says:

“This has been quite a journey being in the entertainment industry and ‘coming out’ like this,” Conti told PJ Media.

Here is some music from Conti’s most recent album, Mystic:

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