Most of the time when you see a #walkaway story, it’s someone who has left the left within the last four years. Not me. I was a pretty hard-core liberal, a Democrat, leaning strongly toward the left, when I was young. (I’m not any longer. Young, that is. Or leftist.) What that means is that I left the left many years ago. But it’s still a #walkaway story, and — I hope — worth telling.

First, I’ll explain what made me lean left politically. It definitely wasn’t my family. My parents were Republicans, but I didn’t know that until I was an adult, as they never talked politics at home. My influence toward the left came entirely from teachers, professors, things I read and watched, and the influence of a sorority sister involved in Young Democrats. …