For around two years now, I’ve considered myself a staunch conservative. Shockingly, that was not because I want white boys to like me or for attention, as many on the left have suggested, but because I genuinely believed that the federal government was an oppressive, corrupt institution that needed to restrict and limit itself as opposed to restricting and limiting our freedoms. And I’m starting to realize just how misguided I was.

I used to roll my eyes when liberals told me that I was only a conservative because my parents were, and because I hadn’t done enough research, despite the fact that my parents are Democrats that voted for Bernie and my beliefs were a direct result of research that I had actually initially come across while trying to substantiate my views when I was a liberal. But I realized, they’re right. Despite my parents voting record, they both work extremely hard, and by growing up in an environment of providers and achievers, I’ve been brainwashed into valuing discipline and hard work.

I often bring up the anecdote of my father that grew up on welfare, that would go hungry for nights on end and wear ratty clothes that were falling off of him at school, who is currently CSO of his company and earning well above the median American salary. I now understand that I’ve been thinking about this the wrong way all along now. While I saw my dad as the self-sufficient, motivated champion of his own story, I’m beginning to understand that the true hero was the government. Because even though he lived in conditions that borderlined a refugee while dependent on the government, he was still technically alive. And if we give the government more of our money to invest in entitlement programs, and incentivize unemployment by making welfare more attractive than work, there will be plenty of more people like my dad to break the cycle of poverty.

And as much as history indicates that Democrats are the ones with the race problem, from Planned Parenthood’s violently racist founder, Margaret Sanger, to the KKK, I’ve realized that conservatives are the real racists, and that expecting someone to show a photo ID at a voting booth is not only ableist, but disenfranchises liberal politicians- I mean my community, and I can’t turn a blind eye to it any longer.

Unlearning all of the internalized racism and misogyny that I’ve regarded as truth for the past few years is going to be a long, difficult process, but with your support, particularly to my GoFundMe, I’m sure I’ll be able to do it.

I don’t know if it was the condescension and passive aggression from my classmates or the groundbreaking creativity of terms like “Uncle Tom,” but I’ve finally seen the light. I have resigned my position on the Cruz campaign and endorse Bernie Sanders for president.

April Fools.