From the TEA Party to the Democratic Party

Yup, I'm finally making the leap

Three words I never thought I’d ever utter: I’m a Democrat. This former Republican Congressman, former Republican candidate for President, this former TEA Party champion is formally joining the Democratic Party. The stakes are simply too high to NOT become a Democrat. Let me explain why.

Let’s start with the obvious—a tyrant sits in the White House. The very thing our Founders feared most is here. Throw in the fact that one of our two major political parties is a real and direct threat to democracy and the rule of law. These are unprecedented, dangerous times in America. I know it. You know it. There are even Republicans who know it.

Anyone who cares about the Constitution cannot sit by and watch as fundamental American values—the rule of law, democracy, pluralism—are attacked. Daily. To defeat my former party and defend democracy, we must do something different. We must assemble a broad coalition of moderates, progressives, and, yes, even conservatives.

We’ve never been here before. Of course we’ve always fought about and debated policy—how best to pay for healthcare, whether taxes should be raised or cut, and how best to deal with immigration. But we’ve never before fought about actually remaining a democracy or abiding by the Constitution and the rule of law. Now we are.

We didn’t choose this fight, but it’s the fight in front of us. Nothing is more important than this. Unprecedented? Sure, but that means we must act in unprecedented ways. It means that those of us who would defend democracy and the rule of law must put aside, for as long as it takes, our particular policy differences and formally lock arms for this higher cause. This is the fight of our times.

Without freedom, democracy, and the rule of law, America ceases to be. And currently, only the Democratic Party is on the side of all three of these core American values. There isn’t a third party coming to the rescue any time soon. Right now, the Democratic Party is democracy’s lone defender and best hope.

Secondly, I’ve changed. Oh, I’m still the same passionate TEA partier who went to Congress in 2010 to fight against our out-of-control debt and fight for a more efficient government. I’m still a border hawk, an unabashed gun rights advocate, and an unyielding defender of free speech. But I’m not the same guy as I was 15 years ago, or even eight years ago.

I’ve opened my eyes and listened to people who don’t think like me. And by doing so, I gained a greater understanding of and appreciation for LGBTQ issues, structural racism, the need for empathetic immigration reform, the dangers of climate change, and the role government must play to help care for the neediest and most vulnerable among us.

Most importantly, I’ve changed how I behave as a public figure. I went to Congress on a mission to get our debt under control and to shake up the political establishment. I was passionate about my cause—so passionate that I said and did things I regret, so passionate that I became, way more than I’m proud of, a divisive political asshole. That’s no longer who I am.

After Trump’s first election, I woke up. Seven years ago, I came out publicly against Trump. Five years ago, I left the Republican Party. I’m still a conservative, but I’m not a conservative jerk. For the past seven years, I’ve been on a mission to help heal the divide in this country—the divide I helped to create.

Decency, tolerance, understanding, empathy...I now get how vital these all are to our politics, and there’s only one political party these days that values and practices these traits—the Democratic Party. Donald Trump is the worst of us, and, sadly, the rest of the Republican Party emulates his cruelty, dishonesty, and authoritarianism. We’re better than what we’ve seen every day these past four months. America is better than this. As a former Republican, I know that cruelty sells. Well, it’s time for decency to sell.

Finally, I’m joining the Democratic Party because we are in a FIGHT for the soul of America. For democracy and the rule of law to persevere, Democrats must succeed. I want to help. I want to help Democrats win. And to win, Democrats must fight. I mean really fight. I’ll say it one more time: Democrats must FIGHT.

Take it from a former Republican fighter. Republicans fight to the death to win politically, and they’ve always believed Democrats won’t. I’ve been a fighter my whole life, and if there’s ever been a moment when Americans are crying out for a Democratic Party with some fight, it’s now.

Campaigning last year to defeat Trump, I would hear the same critique from working-class and middle-class voters every single day in every battleground state I was in: “Yes, Joe, I know Trump is an asshole, but Democrats are elites who look down on me and don’t understand my life.” To save our country, Democrats must connect with these “common sense, tolerant, get shit done” voters in the middle. That’s where I’ve been these past seven years.

One more finally: I’m becoming a Democrat because I’m pissed off. I’m pissed off at the ignorant, lying madman in the White House who’s using his position to only enrich himself and his fat cat friends, while middle-class folks and small business owners and get screwed by his chaos. I’m pissed off at all of his GOP enablers, my former colleagues, who’ve abandoned what’s right to remain in power. I’m pissed off that he and his enablers have lied repeatedly to his voters year after year, and these good folks who’ve been lied to are gonna feel real pain—and Trump and his GOP enablers don’t give a damn. I’m pissed because the opposition party, the Democratic Party, should be every bit as righteously pissed off as me. And I’m pissed off because I love this country, and this country is so much better than what we’ve seen the past almost five months.

Yes, according to today’s political labels, I’m a “conservative.” I used to be a conservative Republican. The Republican Party is no longer conservative, it’s authoritarian. I’m still a conservative, so now I’m a conservative Democrat. And look, here’s the thing. We’re gonna need a HUGE tent to defeat this Republican Party. We’re gonna need a Democratic tent big enough to hold both a conservative like Joe Walsh and a progressive like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. I want to help build that big tent because I want to win, and...Trump’s Republican Party must lose.

From the TEA Party to the Democratic Party, all in the past 15 years. What a wild, crazy, unprecedented political journey it’s been. My constant thread on this journey, my lodestar, has always been my reverence for freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. Along the way, I’ve rediscovered my reverence for decency and tolerance, for pluralism. Only one of America’s two major political parties today is squarely on the side of decency, tolerance, pluralism, freedom, democracy, and the rule of law—the Democratic Party. So I join that party. I proudly and humbly join the Democratic Party.

Now let’s fight! Let’s fight like we’ve never fought before.

Be brave!

Joe