Summary

Florida state Rep. Susan Valdes, a lifelong Democrat, abruptly switched to the Republican Party, citing frustration with being ignored in the Democratic caucus.

Valdes, who represents District 64 near Tampa, said she wants to focus on solving problems for her community rather than protesting.

Her defection bolsters the Florida GOP’s historic 86-34 House majority, drawing criticism from Democrats who called her move a betrayal of her constituents.

Republicans, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, welcomed Valdes, praising her as a strong community advocate and valuable addition to their party.

  • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
    153·
    1 year ago

    Agreed, however how do you word it to actually be effective? If you just make changing parties within X days/months of an election then they would just then not change parties. They’d stay registered as a Dem and vote with the GOP on everything. And what prevents them from just staying that way as a spoiler candidate in the future?

    The only real effective prevention for this is an educated electorate. An educated electorate is what our system was designed for. It was not truly democratic or fair for all citizens, but everyone that could vote were expected to be educated on these matters just as part of society. Not quickly trying to learn about things right before an election, but educated about politics constantly because that’s what their position in society already required. As voting rights have expanded, the systems have not been updated and voter education has dramatically fallen.

    • FiremanEdsRevenge@lemmy.world
      94·
      1 year ago

      It’s quite simple. If you win an election, you can’t switch parties.

      Edit: to add recall elections would help too.

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
        73·
        1 year ago

        I literally just gave the example of them never switching parties and just voting opposite of their party all the time.

        We already know that half of the electorate doesn’t look past the letter next to a candidate’s name. And a lot of elections have no challenger at all against the incumbent, even in areas where people complain about their representatives a lot.

        That doesn’t actually solve a single issue, it’s just a lazy simple answer you think is some sort of gotcha, because you want a quick fix. That’s why we have shit like vague abortion bans and doctors that don’t know what is legal instead of specific guidelines they can follow, even if those guidelines are dogshit. Simple fixes are rarely good fixes, they’re just feel good fixes that actually make the issue worse when the complexity of the real world goes against it.