Florida state Rep. Susan Valdés announced Monday she is defecting to the Republican Party — immediately after being re-elected as a Democrat.
I don’t understand how this isn’t illegal in some way. It’s misrepresentation of your goals in taking the position. Unless she’s just going to call herself a Republican but vote with Democrat lines, which would be even weirder.
I don’t understand how this isn’t illegal in some way.
Who is going to arrest her? DeSantis?
She’s a Cuban ex-pat whose harshest criticism of the GOP was that they were too much like Fidel Castro. She ran unopposed twice, after the Dems cancelled the primary and let her waltz through unopposed. Now she’s facing an entrenched majority GOP that happily rewards turncoats and completely freezes out the rump opposition. This is her last term in office before retirement, so she can flip the bird to her constituents and cash out at last. Why are you surprised she flipped?
It’s the inherent flaw in representative democracy. You elect a person and empower them to just do whatever they think is best, with the assumption they’ll do what they said and what you supported them for, but there’s no enforcement or law requiring it. They just presumably want to be reelected, but if the deal is good enough or they think they can get reelected some other way, they can flip you off and you’re screwed.
This is why, when George Santos was found to be lying, the argument that there’s no need to expel him from Congress because people will unelect him is bullshit. George Santos ran on being a completely different person than he turned out to be and so completely misrepresented himself. This is very much what what’s her face OP posted did. Waiting until the next election cycle for that position doesn’t really do the Justice needed, does it?
A politician? Misrepresenting their goals? Changing them after being elected? Impossible!
You must be young.
Not young. I get your point, but I think you understand mine. There’s a huge difference between not fulfilling campaign promises and totally voting opposite the party you were elected under. So I toss it back…do you think this is fine or okay, or even typical, and we should just shrug it off?
I think it’s typical, yeah. I don’t think it’s fine. I have no expectation of things ever being fine in government so I’m hardly surprised.
I also think it’s less egregious (so far) than, for example, Obama running on “hope and change” then renewing or expanding all of Bush’s worst excesses, the things we hoped he would change.
What law was broken? And if there isn’t one (there isn’t), how would you craft such a law?
