She wasn’t the first person, and she wasn’t the last either. Meredith Walker opens up about her decision to leave the Republican party.

For those not familiar, Meredith Walker is a conservative thinker, and writer of the incredible book, A New Breed of Elephant. The book, while being about conservative principles, and the GOP also talks about the concept of minority conservatives, getting in depth with testimonials about the side of conservatism little discussed in the mainstream world.

Meredith first registered as a Republican because she believed the party represented her views…for the most part. There were, as she described “Fringe Groups” of more social conservative leaning individuals like Mike Huckabee whom she felt did not represent conservative values. But for years she let it go as a small portion of the party and not a representation of the whole of what being a Republican is.

The decision to leave the party first came to her when “it became apparent that Donald Trump had a chance of being the nominee.” The GOP’s lack of action against him further pushed her into distancing herself from it. While Meredith would love to blame her decision solely on Donald Trump, “he wasn’t the whole reason.” He is just a perfect indicative of the party path. “I did want to,” tells Meredith, “But it was the only option if the party continued down the path it was taking, a path away from conservatism, moving toward nationalism, trade protectionism, and suppression of freedom of speech and freedom of religion.”

“The party has no spine,” she told me, “The GOP and the RNC had opportunities to stop Trump. But they didn’t. This is indicative of the party not caring about conservative values, but more about winning and publicity.” Even if that publicity was bad.  “The GOP should have made it clear he didn’t represent our views. Should have called him out on his views and track record.” Donald Trump, as Meredith describes, is the “parody of what the media thinks of Republicans. They shouldn’t have let them onto the debate stage and made it clear they didn’t approve of him.

This isn’t anything new though, as Meredith continued, and measures should have been taken years ago to safeguard against this kind of thing. “They should have made a rule requiring any person who wished to run, to have a certain amount of years as a registered republican before running for office.” This certainly would have easily disqualified Donald Trump.

Meredith isn’t the only one, “If it was just one person then, you know, it’s sour grapes. It seems to be that great minds, who were dedicated conservatives, are leaving. They’re certainly losing the youth vote and cutting themselves off from an entire generation of voters.” Very few young people jumped on the Trump train and the GOP did very little to appeal to them long before Trump made the decision to join the presidential race.

So is this the end of the Republican Party? When Donald Trump loses will the party be able to dig itself out of the hole they’re in? Short answer is yes. “They need to reestablish the values of the party and stop defending bad politicians. The GOP is going to have to work an uphill battle to reestablish themselves as the party of conservatism and define what that means.” According to Meredith, Paul Ryan, current Speaker of the House, has worked to do this, but his efforts have largely been ignored. “People, even those who identify as Republican, don’t seem to know what the values that go with it are.”

In her book, Meredith talked about conservative values and defining what they were. She also discussed at length the darker parts of the party. As it turned out, these more hateful individuals are the most vocal and a bigger part of society than she had known. If you haven’t yet, pick up your copy of A New Breed of Elephant, available on Kindle, today. It’s worth the read for any conservative.