Clarissa's Blog

Evan Barker, the author of the book Nothing Left, became a Democrat for the most respectable reason. She (yes, she is a woman in spite of the name) was born with a genetic condition that means she needs quite a lot of medical services to remain healthy. Based on the story she tells in the book, I can conclude that she is not a moocher. This is a person who wanted to work, who took all sorts of jobs without considering herself to be too important for them. I’ve seen no evidence in the text that she wanted any handouts. All she wanted was to buy medical insurance in spite of having a pre-existing condition. She got that opportunity through Obamacare, at least for a while, and was immensely grateful to the Democrats who provided it.

I will never be a Democrat again, but I don’t see what Republicans are offering such people. Not that Democrats are offering anything at this point either. But it’s their funeral. I don’t care about them. I would really like Republicans to concentrate on helping Americans like Evan Barker. There are many people—not me, I’m fine—but other people who are honest, hardworking, and need just a bit of a leg up in order to achieve their goals.

Evan Barker stopped being a Democrat because Democrats abandoned any pretense of caring about anything other than race. There are many voters like that ripe for the taking, but they need to see themselves reflected in our party instead of being sloganeered at about the importance of free markets.