Political Party Switchers: Congress (Ron Paul, Pelosi, Afghanistan, Reid)
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If you contributed to a candidate's campaign for the House or Senate and they switched political parties, after they were elected, would you be upset?
Now how about if you contributed to their campaign during the primary and right after you contributed, they decided to run as an Independent candidate because they couldn't beat another candidate from your own party that was ahead in the primary polls...would you be bothered that they were throwing the election to the other political party by diluting the votes in your own?
It's the same individual person regardless of the party he's listed as. The whole thing is foolish, and really nothing more than giving the finger to the party that financed him, but I don't see how it would affect the person's votes.
Last I checked, they can vote however they want on a per issue basis, they don't have to do as the party bosses tell them. They have to do what WE, their employers tell them, or they won't be reelected.
If America fails (or when it does), I would place partisan politics near the head of the list of culprits.
A candidate must align with one of two parties. He must depend on the party for campaign support, and must be in step with the party platform. Which means, if he intends to serve the people of his district and of the country well, he must first lie in order to be elected. Consequently, the voters are blindly voting for a parrot of party rhetoric, neither knowing nor caring what the candidate will do if elected, so long as he is aligned with the stated orthodoxy of the national committee.
If the candidate actually agrees with you on 60% of the issues upon which he votes, that is about as much as you can expect, unless you're one of those who let the national committee dictate your position on issues, in which case you call for his head if he doesn't support 100% of your issues, none of which you actually understand.
How could it possibly matter to anyone who his congressman is or what party he belongs to? My congressman is Ron Paul, and I couldn't have voted against him if I had wanted to---his was the only name on the ballot. A couple of hours drive from here, is the county that currently holds the record for supporting the Democratic candidate in the most consecutive presidential elections. It makes absolutely no difference to my life whether I live in the district of a shrill Libertarian, or the county that has invariably gone democratic for more than a century. Life is pretty indistinguishable from one to the other.
What in the world is the difference between the two parties anyway? We voted for change, and got an escalation of the Afghanistan war, the status quo at Guantanamo, more bailout cash to big corporations, and a law that forces an additional 30-million people to buy health insurance from Montgomery Burns (which the Republicans opposed!!!).
If you contributed to a candidate's campaign for the House or Senate and they switched political parties, after they were elected, would you be upset?
Why should I be upset???, as a fairly normal practice I switch political parties several times during most elections. I do vote more for the person than I do for a party.
During a campaign, a candidate gives simple answers to complex problems ( you mentioned Afghanistan and Gitmo )
Once elected, the person preaching change realizes it is not as simple as he stated during the campaign.
You've in fact confirmed my point. It IS a juggernaut, and a campaigning candidate finds that out when he gets there. American governance is an orthodoxy of papal proportions.
I don't see where Afghanistan (get out) and Gitmo (try them or release them) are complex problems.
If I give money to a candidate I have certain expectations. For example, if I lived in Pennsylvania (I don't so this is just an example) and gave money to Arlen Spector I would be extremely upset that he switched parties because we all know they don't have a mind of their own once they get to Capitol Hill. So regardless of what Arlen Spector believes in or says to get elected, I know and you know, that he's going to go along to get along. If I thought he was going to turn Democrat and vote the Reid/Pelosi/Obama way, I would never in a million years have given him a dime to defeat whatever Democrat he ran against six years ago. I paid for you to side with Pelosi/Reid, you creep? That's what I'd be thinking. Again, I don't live in Pennsylvania and Spector just came to mind because he was a recent switcher.
Now let me hit the second part. There are rumors that Charlie Crist will run as an Independent. Why not just hand the Democrat candidate the victory? If I had contributed money to Crist's campaign I would be furious that he was using my money to get the Democrat elected. It doesn't matter who the Democrat is. Once they get to Capitol Hill, they're all meat puppets.
My money would make me feel like an accomplice to a crime against myself.
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