Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) has “been with the Republicans” since Congress returned, after the Michigan Democrat endorsed former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) in the midterms.
“She’s been with the Republicans ever since she’s come back. So she’s been on the Republican side of the aisle,” Ocasio-Cortez said during an appearance on “The Don Lemon Show” that aired Thursday.
“This is just the epitome of a certain kind of transactional politics,” she added. “And it’s really sad.”
It’s tough because the nature of a Representative Democracy means we should empower representatives to make decisions that we ourselves wouldn’t necessarily make – much like parents stopping children from eating candy every day. They should ideally have a full-time job of educating themselves, consulting experts, figuring out what is best for their constituents.
haha. Funny. I know.
But maybe there is a middle-ground where we can not keep them so rigid to campaign promises, but permit Recall votes at any time during their terms on any elected official – even if the threshold may be higher at 60 or 70% to prevent too much knee-jerk reactivity.
Corruption can and should be treated as an act of treason to democracy, and should have legitimate criminal consequences.
The vast majority do not have a problem with representatives changing their opinions based on new information or empiric evidence. That’s what is expected of moral and ethical leadership acting in good faith. The expectation is that there must be logical consistency, and actions must be based on attempts to do what is morally and ethically justifiable.
The problem is they don’t even attempt to do any of that. They just lie to win and essentially tell their constituents to go fuck themselves. That is corruption, and lying only to defy the will of the people should be treated as the most serious crime possible in a democracy.