An estimated 400 people showed up on Saturday in the very heart of liberal California — Beverly Hills — for a rally organized by the #WalkAway Foundation. It was billed as the “Rescue America” rally, and comments by its founder, Brandon Straka, reflected the campaign’s purpose: “[We are] dedicated to pushing back on the radical Left. We will no longer tolerate the destruction of property and lives, the villainization of law enforcement, and the weaponization of tragedies.”
After the rally, Straka tweeted, “We are not a right wing or a Trump movement. We are an anti-left movement whose only requirement for membership is a rejection of leftist hate & dogma & a quest for truth, civility & logic.” He told The Blaze: “We’re doing these rallies because we wanted to show the radical left who’s been smashing windows, committing acts of violence, committing acts of vandalism [that] they do not own America’s streets.”
Nevertheless, when President Trump first learned about the group back in May 2018, he tweeted: “Walkaway from the Democrat Party movement marches today in D.C. Congratulations to Brandon Straka for starting something very special.”
This is the third rally the group has organized this year. The first, in Baltimore, was attended by about 100 people. The second, in Sacramento, was slightly larger. The one on Saturday in Beverly Hills attracted closer to 400.
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But Straka has big dreams. The movement began following a YouTube video that he posted back in May 2018, which has been viewed more than 750,000 times. A month before the mid-term election in November 2018, he led a #WalkAway march in Washington, D.C., that attracted more than 5,000 participants. Now, says Straka, “We’re going to fight for the heart and soul of America, so this is our third rally. Next week we’ll be in Milwaukee and we’ll basically be doing ‘Rescue America’ rallies around the country from now through the end of the year.”
His group has attracted some notable Hollywood people, including Scott Baio (“Chachi” in Happy Days), Lorenzo Lamas (“Hector Ramirez” in the soap The Bold and the Beautiful), and singer Joy Villa. Villa is best known for her flamboyant outfits, especially the one she wore at the 2020 Grammy Awards — a pro-Trump red, white, and blue dress that said “impeached and re-elected” on the back.
In his six-minute video that launched the movement back in 2018, Straka struck a chord that continues to resonate:
Once upon a time I was a liberal. For years now I have watched as the Left has devolved into intolerant, inflexible, illogical, hateful, misguided, ill-informed, un-American, hypocritical, menacing, callous, ignorant, narrow-minded and, at times, blatantly fascistic behavior and rhetoric.
I have watched as formerly sensible people who claim to reject racism have come to embrace the principles of universally hating and blaming all of society’s problems on all people who have white skin.
The #WalkAway Campaign’s website echoes these same sentiments:
We are walking away from the lies, the false narratives, the fake news, the race-baiting, the victim narrative, the violence, the vandalism, the vitriol. We are walking away from a party driven by hate. We are walking toward patriotism and a new, unified America! We are the future of this great nation!
The group is focusing on a rally in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, October 3. If it generates the kind of attendance and attention Straka hopes it will, it could add to the momentum currently underway that favors the incumbent in November.
Image: screenshot from YouTube video
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American, writing primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at [email protected].
