Welcome to Hearts of Oak. Our guest today is Brandon Straka, once a committed Democrat, now leads a campaign encouraging others to question their political affiliations. Join us as he shares his transformative journey, sparked by the 2016 election, and how it led to the creation of a community for those feeling politically disillusioned. We'll explore the power of personal stories in challenging political narratives and discuss the urgent need for voter engagement in the face of potential authoritarianism. Tune in for a conversation that could challenge your views and inspire a deeper understanding of political change in America.

*Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast.

Connect with Brandon:
Website | Brandon Straka
𝕏 | Brandon Straka #WalkAway (@BrandonStraka) / X

The #WalkAway Campaign I Patriots Fighting for America I Home

Interview recorded 16.10.24

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Transcript

(Hearts of Oak)

Hello, Hearts of Oak.

Thank you so much for joining us once again.

And it's great to have Brandon Straka back with us once again.

Brandon, thank you so much for your time.

Good to be here.

Great to be with you and had a great conversation with you just the end of last week on War Room. and obviously heading up the campaign, the WalkAway campaign.

People can find you at Brandon Straka on X Twitter, however you want to call it.

But it's the walkaway campaign, which is intriguing in this current election climate.

I know you've just released a video on that.

I don't want to delve into that and the engagement you've had with people on the ground.

But maybe you, I mean, you personally, I'm curious to engage with Brandon himself, someone who's walked away and our political allegiance often becomes part of our identity.

And whether you're wherever position you are whatever party you're engaging with that often is part of you in terms of what you stand for or in terms of what your family your heritage whatever has brought you there and you were very much in the democrat pigeonhole.

I mean tell us about that walking away personally before we get onto the campaign Itself.

About my experience as a democrat?

Yeah, your experience walking away what impact it had on you personally?

Yeah, you know, a lot of people know I was a lifelong Democrat, two-time Obama voter, a Hillary Clinton supporter.

And I walked away from the Democratic Party shortly after Donald Trump got elected in 2016.

So, I actually voted for Hillary in 2016.

And my WalkAway journey really began with the election of Trump and just feeling like something was really wrong with my side of the aisle, you know, it just seemed like there was this mass panic, and terror and fear and, and anxiety.

And the media kept, you know, alleging that all of these different things were going to happen that never really came to fruition.

And so I started going like, what is going on?

And did a deep dive about, you know, the media and their, their analysis and their reporting of Trump and his supporters.

And basically what I came to realize was that, you know, I'd been being lied to and deceived by the media that I'd been trusting for so long.

And then I started speaking out about that and posting about it and asking questions.

And I thought it was a very positive thing because I know how I felt and I knew how a lot of my friends and fellow liberals were feeling.

And I sort of thought like, you know, ultimately, even if people are feeling disappointed that Hillary lost, this is still good news because, you know, we're being deceived about why we need to be terrified about Donald Trump.

But what I didn't expect was that when I started speaking out about that, that I would be so viciously and savagely attacked and turned on and have people cut me off and unfriend me and, you know, everything that you can imagine.

So, it really turned my life upside down throughout the year 2017, I lost about 90% of my friends and the life that I thought that I knew.

And, you know, and also in the midst of all of that, I was having my entire belief system turned upside down and inside out.

And that in itself is a pretty disruptive and jarring thing for a person to go through.

So I think to go through something like that and lose your friends at the same time is it's pretty, you know, it's pretty upending to a person's life.

But ultimately, it's what kind of led to me starting walk away, because by the time I lost most of my friends, you know, I just thought to myself, it's really it's a shame that there isn't, you know, some sort of network or a community or, you know, support system for people who who get turned on like this, and abandoned like this, when they decide to leave the Democratic Party.

So, we'll get on to WalkAway six years in, and it's been a phenomenal success on those personal stories which have really connected with me personally.

And to me, that's politically, it's the individual stories of why you walked away.

It's not the machine of the entity itself, but it's the individual and where they have their personal journey.

Tell me a bit more about you and what it meant for walking away from that, the criticism you faced, but that kind of internal struggle, maybe, which you felt, and why you call yourself a liberal and what you call yourself now.

Well, I called myself a liberal, I guess, because the reason why I became a liberal in the first place or I felt pulled toward liberalism is because my belief was that, you know, liberalism was about wanting more equity, equality, opportunity, that people who are liberals were against racism, sexism, you know, that they were for the betterment of mankind and the planet.

And our, the oh my God, why can't I think of the word, the world around us?

I can't think of the word right now.

Climate change, ecology, I don't know the planet, but, you know, what, what I began to see was that, they actually.

Liberalism became kind of everything that it claimed to fight against.

So, you know, it's, like they to be a liberal meant that you had to be on board with hating white people or or men or, you know, that everything suddenly was about engaging in exactly the behaviors that, you know, I was I'm against.

And so that to me started to feel like something was really wrong.

And, you know, I'd say it was around 2015.

You know, all these incidents started to happen.

Like I remember one of the things that started a couple of the things that started to wake me up were.

I think around 2015 or 16, I was living in New York city and I, I was sitting in a park having my lunch one day and this guy approached me and he happened to be Hispanic, but he was probably just sort of a mentally unwell homeless person or something. But basically, he kind of like stuck his hand in my face and said that, you know, give me some money, give me some money.

And I was like, no, I don't have any money to give you.

And then he said you're a privileged white, you're a privileged white piece of, you know.

S.h.i.t and and then he hit m he actually physically struck me and I was really shocked and I kind of you know I just was like what just happened, so I went on social media and I just shared the story of what just happened I was like you know this guy came up to me and he hit me and he was demanding money.

And when I didn't give it to him, he brought up my race and said that I was privileged.

And then he physically struck me and the post went, you know, kind of semi viral because, you know, I wasn't, I didn't have a big following at the time, but it started getting shared a lot.

And what I noticed was all these liberal people were jumping in the comments and saying that they didn't believe me and saying, they were like, well, you must, you must be leaving out part of the story and then a lot of people were saying you must have provoked him somehow and you're leaving that part of the story out and it was one of my first real like experiences seeing how the left refuses to hold anybody accountable.

If they're non-Caucasian or you know or if they fit into one of their kind of victim identity boxes and the fact that I'm white means that I'm a liar and that I'm not credible.

And that if I'm in any way portraying anybody who's non-Caucasian in a way that's unflattering, it's because I'm lying or because I provoked the situation, but I'm not owning up to that or something.

And I was like, this is psychotic.

I'm not making a big deal out of it.

I didn't go crying on social media, but I did share the story.

I mean, for all intents and purposes, I am the victim in the story.

I mean, I was physically assaulted by a stranger in New York City, but I'm being made to feel like it was my fault because I'm white.

And then I started to see that kind of stuff happening more and more too with the LGBT community because I'm a gay man.

But once the Supreme Court decided that marriage equality –.

It was the law of the land in the U.S. It was like overnight.

Suddenly we started hearing from these new identity groups like gender queer and gender fluid and non-binary people in this sort of like radical trans.

You know, transgender sect of the LGBT community.

And those people started becoming more loud and more vocal and attacking people within the community, saying that if you're a gay male or a white gay male, it means that you're privileged and you're on the top of the LGBTQ privilege hierarchy and you're oppressing the neo trans.

And I'm like, what the hell is going on?

And so I started to see these sort of like bizarre rumblings from within the left. And that to me felt nothing like why I became a liberal in the first place.

So, I mean, those were some of the kind of the initial things that started to push me away.

And today I identify as a conservative today, but I think I identify as a conservative because, you know, I'm so used to existing within the two party system of this country.

And a lot of people will say, well, there's a difference between a conservative and a Republican.

And I agree with that.

I think that's true.

But I've seen a lot of things, I guess, in the last two or three years that have, I mean, not just disappointed me, but I think maybe even to some degree devastated me about conservatives.

And so in a way, to be honest with you, I'm kind of on the brink of finding myself to be kind of politically homeless, I think, once again.

I think after I get through this election, I have to do a deep dive emotionally and kind of figure out where do I really belong?

Because I'm finding a lot of problems on both sides.

I mean, certainly in the UK, I find that I'll be very socially conservative and it's intriguing.

And I've met a number of friends.

We would have different outlook or different worldviews or different ways of maybe engaging on varying topics.

But it's often that we can agree to disagree.

There is no anger or hatred that actually the individual, the human being, is important and has intrinsic value.

And therefore, hey, if we see things slightly differently.

And to me, that's kind of a norm.

And that's how I've always accepted on the conservative side in the UK.

And on the other side, on the liberal side, on the left side, it seems to be if you don't align with what I think that I hit you.

And I've been perplexed by that anger that maybe individuals face, where I've never seen that on the right.

And growing up in London, a very mixed city, and it's fine.

You agree to disagree.

You kind of embrace someone.

And, hey, that's fine.

I mean, how do you see it coming from the left and maybe acceptance on the right?

Yeah.

Oh, well, I think, you know, for the most part, the acceptance, I think, has been great.

You know, I would say that when I started WalkAway, which was May of 2018, you know, it's been overwhelmingly conservatives.

And I'd say even, you know, MAGA people who have really uplifted WalkAway, supported WalkAway, allowed the organization to thrive, you know, kept us going all of these years and gotten behind me. And I haven't found it to be terribly conditional.

I'd say that the vast majority of people who support me and support WalkAway don't care about my sexual orientation.

Or I'd say that even some people, I think that they actually find it to be a plus of sorts, because I do a lot of events and a lot of speaking engagements and I always stick around afterwards and take pictures with people and hugs and handshakes and things.

And, you know, I have people all the time that approach me and say, you know, I have a gay son or grandson or my daughter or, you know, my neighbor, my coworker. And, you know, I so appreciate what you're doing because a lot of my LGBT friends or family or whatever think that because I support Trump that I don't support the LGBT community.

And so a lot of people are very grateful that, you know, I'm out there putting myself out there and I think putting kind of a new face on what it means to be gay and Republican or gay and conservative.

And so in that way, you know, I think it almost has been helpful with me with a lot a lot of people as well.

Now, there are, you know, a small minority of people who, you know, make the sexual orientation thing an issue and it becomes a negative for them.

Yeah.

I'd say in a way that's, you know, it seems kind of like from another time.

But I think that it's such a minute portion of the base that to me, it's not even really worth focusing on.

You know, it's always disappointing.

I mean, especially when you've got, you know, sometimes I very occasionally I'll get a message or an email from someone saying, you know, I love the work you do.

I love the impact you're having, but I just can't get on board with your lifestyle.

So, you know, and I'm just like, well, then just don't think about it.

I don't know.

I don't know. And by the way, my lifestyle is working 24 seven.

That that is what my lifestyle is.

I am.

All I do is work.

All I do is try to grow my movement, my organization, fundraise, keep things going, travel. I go to colleges.

I do video like that's my lifestyle.

I mean, the truth is not that you care or anyone care, but I'm not even dating anybody. Like I don't even have a love life, so I'm like the fact that I happen to be a gay man I don't even know why you're thinking about that because I have no love life so why don't you just stop thinking about it if it bothers you, because you know there's nothing to think about but I don't know.

Get that you take something and you drive it forward and that becomes who you are as an organization or an entity or a movement.

But, I mean, so six years in, May 2018, you put that video up.

That really went viral and that launched the WalkAway.

So six and a half years later, we find ourselves an election, which to me as a Brit, and I find my guest hosting in the war room talking about the US election, but it is so important.

It's not just an American election.

It is a worldwide election in terms of a huge range of issues that we find ourselves in.

But tell us about the WalkAway movement for this election, because it is so essential.

It is so important.

And I think this election will define not only where America stands, but where we stand worldwide in terms of freedom.

Oh, I mean, yeah, it's I'm I'm trying to keep a level head, I guess, as best as possible going into this election, because the truth is, I like I think the vast majority of people, who are paying attention to politics in this country.

I'm having pretty massive, you know, election anxiety.

And for me personally, you know, I think there's so much at stake for all of us, everybody. But if you're somebody who's been through what I've been through for the last three and a half years, almost four years, being targeted by the Department of Justice, by the FBI, having your life turned upside down, being just brutally stomped by the full might of the federal government.

The idea that we could be subscribing to four more years of that or possibly even worse.

I mean, it strikes levels of anxiety in me that are like indescribable.

I mean, quite frankly.

So to me, there's, there's so much at stake that it's like, it's not hyperbolic for me to say that.

I, don't know where we go. If Kamala Harris ends up getting elected and becoming our president, I don't know how we overcome that or recover from that.

And I don't know what four, four more years of this type of type of extremist Democrat leadership does to our country as a whole.

But, I know that it's a possibility and I know that if she does get elected, that, you know, I'm going to keep working.

I'm going to keep doing everything I can for as long as I can to try to be out there on the front lines of turning things around and trying to recover from the situation.

But you know, for the time being, I just have to hope for the best because nobody really knows. And it really is a nail biter.

I mean, I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen on November 5th or the days or, God forbid, the weeks following.

I mean, they're already preparing us for saying that we may not know the election results for weeks.

So I don't know.

And I feel utterly powerless as a Brit watching what's happening across the pond and thinking, this is so important for the world at large, for the right for us to speak freely on a range of issues.

And America, you need to get together. You need to get out.

You need to get out the vote.

You need to be praying for Trump.

You need to do absolutely everything.

There's nothing else that matters over the next two and a half weeks, but actually getting out the vote and making sure that happens.

But, Tammy, you put out a recent video.

I think the text was, how did America, once thriving nation, fail in a not so distant dystopian future?

Got tyrants, teachers of captured society, how America was destroyed from within.

You put that out.

I think it'll last maybe there or two.

Tell us about tell us about that and what you're putting out and how you are engaging with the WalkAway movement with the voters to show that actually you can leave the democrats.

Actually it is important you walk away if you have a belief system if you have a worldview if you have something that you hold dear in terms of what america means you can you can WalkAway tell us about that latest video and how that is coaxing people to leave the democrats.

Yeah so we it hasn't even been out for 24 hours yet so yeah we just I just released that within within the last 24 hour period but it's you know before i got involved in the world of politics and before I started theWalkAway campaign.

I had a background as,an actor, I would say, actor writer, with kind of, I would say that I kind of gravitated toward the medium of filmmaking and things like that.

And so I I'm very much a creative person, at heart, much more than I am a politician or a pundit as far as I'm concerned.

And if I, you know, if I could just make my living only doing creative projects, that's pretty much what I would do.

But, you know, since I feel like I have this privilege of having the organization in the platform, I like to sort of integrate into what we do kind of art pieces and I think interesting and creative ways to try to make people think or see a situation rather than just doing like a traditional sort of, you know, political video or a political message or just, you know, sitting in my car, yelling all of my opinions into my iPhone or, or whatever.

So, in this latest one, we made a, when I say we, I have a very small team, that assists me with, you know, graphic design editing, you know, we all kind of work together, just a couple of us, but we came up with this idea to make this sort of like dystopian future short.

It's only five minutes or something, and people really should watch it.

I think it's really, really good. But basically, kind of the concept of it is that it takes place sometime in the nondescript, but not too far off future.

After America has fallen, the country has gone down.

And essentially like a, you know, perhaps like a future civilization has sort of unearthed this film learning how America fell, how did it happen?

And so in this video, it's shot in the style of like an old kind of 1950s educational film, which we were able to kind of justify that concept by saying, well, you know, the country fell.

And so, you know, we lost our prosperity and our progress and everything.

So we're almost kind of like, you know, this future civilization sort of starting from scratch so they don't even have the technology that we have today so that's why it looks kind of like old-timey but anyway through the through this medium of kind of this old-timey looking film there.

We're explaining the four steps that tyrants use to destroy free nations and to take over.

And so basically, you know, step one is the infiltration of the press and the media, television shows, things like that.

And then step two is essentially, you know, infiltrate the education system and turn young people against their parents and against their country.

Step three is take over one of America's major political parties.

And then step four is to basically eradicate anyone from the government who objects to the regime and install people who are infinitely loyal to the establishment.

But we use these really interesting images of people like Mark Zuckerberg or the women from The View or AOC or Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Hunter Biden.

We show all these images of basically how they fall into this this plan.

And it's very entertaining and I think it's very jarring.

I mean, people have watched it and said they think it's very disturbing.

One person told me they thought it was one of the most powerful, kind of portrayals of what could happen if we continue down the path that we're on.

So I would highly recommend everybody watch it. It's on my, Brandon Strzok and WalkAway campaign X account.

It's on my Facebook account.

It's on our YouTube channel, but it's being severely, suppressed on you.

I mean, I don't even think it's gotten 2000 views on YouTube, which is insane.

Because we're at something like 600,000 views on X or something.

But if you go to the WalkAway Campaign YouTube channel, it's there and it's called Got Tyrants, How America Fell.

Well, people can, it's one of the many intriguing situations we find ourselves in this election that Elon Musk is the free speech champion on Twitter on X.

And we find that in the UK as you do stateside.

But, I mean, what were the specific, there are a whole range of issues.

And the left seems to have moved away from a working class party that supports the underdog and those who are not part of the high echelons of society.

The left seems to have moved away towards an ideology, a woke ideology, of pushing an LGBT agenda across the board, irrespective of what happens, especially in the schooling system, pushing open borders, pushing the dismantling of what the American dream is about.

I mean, when you look at it personally, how do you see that as the trigger point?

We all have a trigger point of what changes us politically.

And you've touched on that at the beginning.

But the immigration issue, I guess the sexualization of children that we've seen pushed on the schooling system, the free money for everyone, the massive debt that's been ramped up.

I mean, for you personally, what kind of those issues fitted in with you saying, this just isn't working?

Well, primarily for me, it was the betrayal of the media.

I mean, the realization that I had been lied to and deceived by the media that I believed that I could trust.

I mean, that to me was first and foremost and primarily the number one thing that shocked me awake.

But then I think as it pertains to like cultural issues, certainly matters.

Well, so, you know, LGBT stuff is close to my heart because I, for better or for worse, am a part of that community.

And so I think that the fear mongering around Trump and his supporters as it pertains to LGBT people, that was a big thing for me.

Because I know that so many people who happen to be gay or lesbian or whatever, they, They they don't realize that they're being lied to by the Democrats and by the media.

And so they're kind of suspended in a perpetual state of fear and this belief that they have no option to be anything but a Democrat and no option to do anything except for believe the stories they're being told by the Democrats. And it's so manipulative and exploitative.

But another thing to our race issues, I have a real issue with that. And I think we saw that in 2020 more than anything when George Floyd and the whole Black Lives Matter debacle, you know, just took siege, I think, on our country and our culture.

To me, it was 100 percent the most detrimental thing in terms of racial relations that's happened in my lifetime.

And and I think it really fundamentally changed the way that we all feel about each other on no matter what side of the aisle you're on, even if you're on the left.

And even if you're buying into the big lie about George Floyd and the big lie about police brutality and things like that, I think that it forever changed the way all of us feel about each other in terms of race relations in a way that is very negative.

And and I think it'll take us a very long time to move past that so I mean it completely.

I think eroded and destroyed so much decades of progress that we made on the issue of race in this country and you know people don't really talk about it they they just sort of they know better, because we also you know exist in the state of cancel culture that if you tell the truth about how you feel about race relations you know you put yourself in the line of fire to lose everything, but if people were being honest and felt safe to tell the truth about how they were feeling they would tell you that you know they fundamentally don't feel the same anymore about racial progress as they used to and that you know.

I think people are now more skeptical more suspicious more mistrusting have negative feelings about each other about race that they didn't have before 2020.

So, you know, it's things like that, that to me are just really kind of heartbreaking and devastating about how the left's just completely dishonest and duplicitous and really kind of authoritarian demands that they want to place on all of us about their ideology.

It's been completely to the detriment of us unifying with one another or coming together as a country or coming together as a people it's been nothing but destructive.

Yeah, because in London, and I found it different living in London compared to living in Ireland, very different culture, concept of blogging. But people just get on and colour or sexuality doesn't really come into it.

And you all feel as though you're a Londoner, you live here.

And maybe in somewhere like New York, maybe that kind of still happens.

That mixing up of ideas and colour and belief systems and everyone just gets on.

I find it so strange how the left have taken this divide and rule, I guess, idea and ruled it out worldwide to say, well, this is why we're different, instead of saying, well, what actually unites us, what connects us, What makes us come together and make a nation important?

And yet the left are intrinsically, I guess, engaged on coming up with what breaks us apart. And it seems to be such a destructive ideology.

Yeah.

Well, in addition to that, I would also add that in order to try to make their point or force their point forward, They actually engage in just about every behavior that they're alleging to be fighting against on behalf of these different, you know, so they'll tell you that, you know, well, we're standing up for black people because black people are silenced and their voices are oppressed and, you know, they're not allowed to have the same opportunities as other people.

OK, but then to fight for that cause, they're saying that if you're white, you need to shut up. You're not allowed to have an opinion.

This is your time to sit down, be quiet and do what you're told.

And so, I mean, it's exactly the same oppressive, authoritarian, abusive and kind of subjugating behavior that they're claiming to fight against on behalf of these other people.

And what's really interesting to me, and I think probably that thing more than anything, is what really...

Created all these negative feelings in me in the post like George Floyd cultural era is I just you know, I've been told so many times in the last four years that, you know, it's time for a reckoning with white people and, you know, that it's time for white people to have tough conversations.

They don't say it like that.

They just say this is a time for tough conversations.

But what's interesting is that it's not a two way street.

If you try to have a tough conversation with either a black liberal or a white liberal who's arguing on behalf of the black ideology.

And you say well let's have a tough conversation about the reality of police brutality crime statistics and how the things that you're alleging are happening are actually incredibly rare in fact so rare that most of the time you guys have to make up hate crime hoaxes to try to push this narrative forward.

I mean, every camera conceivable went running when Jussie Smollett claimed that he was the victim of anti-black MAGA hatred.

But the whole thing had to be manufactured and made up because it happens so infrequently that you can't find a real example of it actually taking place.

But you don't want to have that tough conversation. You don't want to be on the receiving end of the tough conversation.

You just want to be dishing out and doling out the tough conversation, which is most mostly a pile of lies and false assertions and fabrications.

And you want me to just sit there and you want to force feed it down my throat because we're now living in this era that, you know, it's allegedly the time for white people to just shut up and take it. And so it's I don't know.

It's just it's very interesting to me how on the one hand, they'll claim that, you know, we're trying to better the world by fighting against oppression and silencing people's voices and all this stuff.

But those are exactly the tactics that they use to try to force their agenda forward.

I think utter BS is the term without that. But tell me about the personal videos, because I've watched a number of them of high profile individuals and just general public people in the public getting sick and tired of actually had enough of voting for the Democrat Party and saying actually enough is nothing. Want to vote differently but tell us about those personal stories because

Right, so you know from, the beginning WalkAway has been a testimonial campaign from the moment that I launched it six and a half years ago and so at this point we've acquired tens of thousands of written and video testimonials people sharing their stories about why they're walking away from the democrat party.

And it's very unfortunate because we started as a Facebook group and Facebook banned us in January of 2021 with no explanation, no opportunity for recourse, no ability to appeal.

And we were truly never given a reason why.

And we know for a fact that we did not violate any terms of service with Facebook because the only thing we posted in the WalkAway group was the testimonials and real stories of people and some promotional posts about if we did events or fundraising or selling merch or things like that.

So there was no reason to get rid of us. But when they did that, they deleted tens of thousands of WalkAway stories.

Now, we still have a lot on our YouTube channel and we've launched a new Facebook group where we're slowly building back And getting more and more stories.

But yeah.

These stories are all different people Black, brown, white, straight, gay, old, young, fat, thin, everything in between every type of person coming together just speaking up and sharing their stories and it's been incredibly powerful.

And I think through the virality of these stories, you know, more and more people learn about the WalkAway movement they learn about the reasons why they should walk away if they're still hanging on to their allegiance to the left and then people feel inspired to join our movement and share their own story.

And, you know, the, the stories, each one is different and the reasons for each one is different, but there's a common theme of each one, which is betrayal that at some point or another, someone had an awakening to the realization that they're being lied to and betrayed by the Democrats.

And, you know, whatever it is, the catalyst that caused that is different for every person. But, the result is the same that once they see that betrayal, they can't unsee it.

And then, you know, ultimately people end up, not being able to go back and not being able to support any longer.

I mean, for you, it's a normal thinking through of where you fit politically and whether or not you want to reject where you're being.

And no one's done this.

I mean, have you sat and thought, why is no one actually done videos of this?

This ideology is bankrupt and I need to walk away not necessarily that you embrace trump or you embrace republican ideology but actually where I am in terms of political ideology isn't working and I need to walk away.

I find it intriguing that you've come up with this idea of just walking away from your political belief system that no one else has come up with before.

Well, yeah.

And yes, I agree.

I mean, I think the idea was a really good one.

And I think it was needed.

Again, I would say that I think what I bring to the table in the conservative movement is fresh, creative ideas that tend to resonate with people, I think, in a unique and interesting way.

You know I've had a lot of success in the last six and a half years, but I don't think that I've had a lot of success, because I'm you know some brilliant political strategist or you know some like poli-sci prodigy or something like that.

It's not like I think the reason why I resonated so much with people is, because I'm a genuine and authentic person who came into the conservative movement with a lot of creativity and ideas that I think are unique.

And that I think is what has resonated with people so much about me and what I do.

And the idea for testimonials, to me, it just felt like the most logical thing.

We're all sort of having this common experience, but nobody's really talking about it.

And, and you know what, to be honest with you, you know, in this January, in just a few months, I will be 10 months or excuse me, I will be 10 years sober.

And I began my journey of sobriety, you know, in AA.

And so I, bet probably subconsciously I was even inspired by AA, you know, just like going to meetings and having people, you know, sit around in a circle, sharing their personal accounts and their feelings and their experiences and kind of supporting each other. And probably subconsciously, I thought to myself, why don't we just have a digital version of that for people leaving the Democratic Party?

I don't know if I've ever considered that, but I'm sure that probably was a big part in what inspired me to do that.

I will say that what kind of bothers me at the beginning of this conversation, I told you that a lot of things have disappointed me and devastated me about the conservative side of the aisle and kind of led me to this place where part of me feels like I have to kind of have a little bit of self exploration after the election to figure out how I feel about a lot of things.

But one thing that bothers me about the conservative side of the aisle is that when somebody comes in and has good ideas and unique ideas, rather than everybody just getting behind that person and supporting them, which a lot of people have gotten behind me and supported me.

But a lot of people on the right have actually, rather than getting behind me and supporting me, I'd say tried to kind of co-opt what I was doing and try to kind of take it and make it their own.

You know, seeing the success of it and seeing that there's potential there for fundraising or attention or media opportunities or what have you.

They said, well, I'm going to make this WalkAway thing about me, you know, and I'm going to.

So it started getting kind of broken apart and fragmented.

You know, all these different groups started saying, well, we're the we're the black WalkAway and we're the Latino WalkAway and we're the Chinese WalkAway, you know, and and doing their own thing.

And then and I'm even seeing in these last months leading up to the election, all of these different organizations and groups saying, oh, we're going to do testimonial videos about people leaving the Democrats and supporting Trump.

And I'm like, that's WalkAway.

I mean, you're literally we're already doing that, you know, but it's unfortunate that, you know, a lot of people on the right will they'll take a good idea.

And rather than just get behind it and say, you know what, you had a great idea. You're doing a great job executing it.

Let's just further amplify and lift up what you're doing.

They want to reach in and pull it apart.

And it's just it's very frustrating.

And not only frustrating, but it does a great disservice to all of us because all it does is sort of dilute the success of this thing that was happening.

And then ultimately, it may end up costing us the election.

You know, I mean, maybe we won't win in two or three weeks.

And maybe we would have won if we could have just reached more people to get them to WalkAway.

But instead, you know, all of these like powerful influencers and organizations on the right, rather than just getting behind what I was doing, decided to try to for their own benefit, their own fundraising their own attention just kind of grab a piece of it and pull it in for themselves and, I don't know, I'm not the only person this has happened to it's happened to a lot of people I think on the right but it's an ugly side of politics and and ultimately one that I think is really detrimental to our success.

And wherever you go, everyone wants to make it about themselves instead of actually go to the country.

And that is a struggle that I think we all face here in the UK as well as the US.

Yeah.

Just my final thought with you is on Robert Kennedy Jr.

Joining the election. because someone who's so ingrained on the left coming on board with trump because he says actually we've got a much bigger chance of doing what we need to do in saving the country in terms of health in terms of removing the the chains of I guess the lobbying industry especially in terms of farm and food but that's intriguing.

How have you seen that from someone who maybe would have very much been in the Kennedy camp prior or maybe even currently how have you seen that coming together and how do you think that will impact the upcoming election?

Think it's a really positive thing I you know I think JFK or excuse me RFK jr dropping out I think brought a surge of momentum back into MAGA that was really needed.

And I think on top of that, there's this interesting alliance that's forming where you've got two different people that were two different groups of people that were behind two different candidates for very different reasons.

And they're finding common ground with each other while not necessarily seeding or relenting any of their own personal ground.

And there's like this amazing opportunity, I think, to learn from one another and ask each other a lot of questions and and kind of grow and grow. I think what it means to be MAGA and I think grow what it means to be Maha.

And I think also it's a huge relief in a lot of ways that after eight years of MAGA people being branded racists and bigots and Nazis and deplorable, horrible people, and that any sort of political disagreement or discourse is always so vitriolic and just vicious and so savage.

That we're now kind of coming together with this other group for which we're not necessarily, you know, directly politically aligned, but that we're able to civilly engage with one another and have discussions and debates and opportunities to learn from each other in a way that's really productive that we haven't really experienced in eight years.

And I think that feels really inspiring and like relieving to people in this way that, okay, this does still exist, doesn't really exist very much with the political left, but there is this sort of middle group that is kind of, you know.

Joining forces with us again, without necessarily ceding their own ground and that we're able to find overlap with one another and, and then engage civilly with each other on the things that we don't agree on.

I think that's the way forward for the country, 100 and Brandon thank you so much for your time I'm intrigued by what you've set up jealous of your success.

It's exciting to see how you're bringing people from all walks together and for the the viewers and listeners make sure you're following at Brandon Straka on X on twitter and #WalkAway.

Make sure and look at those videos and spread them far and wide because think at those personal stories that really will connect with people, and affect how people vote in weeks, only weeks to come to the most important election of, certainly my lifetime, and I think many of our viewers.

So Brandon, thank you for joining us and sharing what you're doing with the walkway campaign

Thank you so much, it was great being with you here today.

Ep. 203: Zac Barnett discusses American Authors "Best Day of My Life"