Longtime Democrat whose viral essay praises supporters of President Trump says she had to turn off Facebook reviews after leftist attacks

A mere few days ago, Karlyn Borysenko was a relatively anonymous Democrat of two decades, organizational psychologist, and "compulsive knitter."

But that was so last week.

Borysenko's essay "After Attending a Trump Rally, I Realized Democrats Are Not Ready For 2020" went viral by the end of the week and caught the attention of the likes of Glenn Beck, founder of TheBlaze, as well as "Fox & Friends" — which interviewed her Saturday.

What are the details?

In her essay, Borysenko described herself as "one of those Democrats who considered anyone who voted for Trump a racist. I thought they were horrible (yes, even deplorable) and worked very hard to eliminate their voices from my spaces by unfriending or blocking people who spoke about their support of him, however minor their comments."

But then Borysenko said she began observing the vitriol coming from her leftist circles — and it began to disturb her. And when she started peering over to the other side of the aisle, she found herself surprised.

"The more voices outside the left that I listened to, the more I realized that these were not bad people," Borysenko wrote. "They were not racists, nazis, or white supremacists. We had differences of opinions on social and economic issues, but a difference of opinion does not make your opponent inherently evil. And they could justify their opinions using arguments, rather than the shouting and ranting I saw coming from my side of the aisle."

With that, she decided to attend a rally for President Donald Trump in New Hampshire — her very first. Not that she was a budding fan: "I do not believe that Trump's attitude is worthy of the highest office in the land. I abhor his Twitter. I am vehemently opposed to so many of his policies. But still, I wanted to see for myself."

More from her essay:

So, I headed over an hour and a half before the doors were scheduled to open — which was four hours before Trump was set to take the stage — and the line already stretched a mile away from the entrance to the arena. As I waited, I chatted with the folks around me. And contrary to all the fears expressed, they were so nice. I was not harassed or intimidated, and I was never in fear of my safety even for a moment. These were average, everyday people. They were veterans, schoolteachers, and small business owners who had come from all over the place for the thrill of attending this rally. They were upbeat and excited. In chatting, I even let it slip that I was a Democrat. The reaction: "Good for you! Welcome!"

Once we got inside, the atmosphere was jubilant. It was more like attending a rock concert than a political rally. People were genuinely enjoying themselves. Some were even dancing to music being played over the loudspeakers. It was so different than any other political event I had ever attended. Even the energy around Barack Obama in 2008 didn't feel like this.

After the rally, Borysenko — who said she voted for former Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the New Hampshire primary — said she would be "changing my voter registration from Democrat to Independent and walking away from the party I've spent the past 20 years in to sit in the middle for a while."

What's more, she said the Democrats are in for an "ass-kicking" come November: "I truly believe that it doesn't matter who the Democrats nominate: Trump is going to trounce them. If you don't believe me, attend one of his rallies and see for yourself. Don't worry, they really won't hurt you."

Leftists attack

Indeed, Borysenko has been dealing with overnight celebrity status, but not all of the attention has been positive. She tweeted Sunday that she had to "turn off the reviews on my Facebook page because people I've never spoken to, and have certainly never worked with, don't like that I wrote an article that said 'Trump supporters are not Nazis.'"

She added in another tweet that "after the last few days I see the left in a whole new way."

Not that Borysenko is deterred from sharing further thoughts — in fact, she also said she's "thinking about doing a follow-up about the experiences of Trump supporters who have been excommunicated from their family/friend/social circles because they support him."

Encouragement, once again, from outside the left-wing bubble

Amid the pushback and attacks over Borysenko's piece, her Twitter feed is full of encouragement from outside the left-wing bubble. Here's one fitting example she especially appreciated:

I can't express how deeply this resonated 🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/T1ouvOqX2e

— Dr. Karlyn Borysenko (@DrKarlynB) February 17, 2020