Summary
Florida State Rep. Hillary Cassel, a Democrat representing Broward County, switched to the Republican Party due to concerns about the Democratic Party’s stance on Israel, progressive extremism, and disconnect from “everyday Floridians.”
Cassel’s move follows Tampa Rep. Susan Valdes’ similar defection earlier this month, bolstering Republicans’ supermajority to 87 members in Florida’s 120-seat House.
GOP leaders welcomed Cassel, while Democrats criticized her decision as a betrayal of voters and party principles.
Cassel, first elected in 2022, has been a key Democratic voice on property insurance issues.
“Vote Blue No Matter Who”
Is your suggestion that people vote in the cancelled election differently? Even if there was an R to vote for, should they have voted for the outright R instead of being tricked?
No, vote for people representing your own values, not based on team. Neither the dnc or gop have any workers interests or values. Vote blue no matter who is as fascist and doomed to fail as any other anti democratic nonsense.
It’s a false dichotomy between values and being strategic. Doing both requires flexibility of action.
Being strategic keeps electing far right conservatives to office. So you enjoy that and pretend it’s normal for two dem presidential candidates in a row to have harsher policies on immigration than any Republican candidate in history.
You’re right that we should not simply go with the strategy devised by corporate consultants or their parties. Flexibility of action means that you don’t stick with the same strategy election after election. It means your actions reflects your local context. It means that real strategy is different from what we’ve been told is “strategic”.
The Democratic party campaigned on “we’re not Trump” and tried to court moderate conservatives for their votes. And they lost engagement from progressive and left voters as a result.
I’m not sure if you’re promoting the idea of voting for Democrats unconditionally or criticizing those who did, but Trump can’t be elected again for 2028. There’s no good reason to “vote blue no matter who” now, and it’s important for progressive voters to put their vote (or at least poll opinion) where their mouths are and reject Democratic candidates and policies that shift the party to the right. Conservatism and Diet Conservatism™ is hardly a choice for anything other than choosing how long it will take before self-centered, protectionist legislation ruins the country.
None of the viable candidates on the ballot were people that completely represented my values in virtually any election I’ve voted in. Indeed, I suspect some of my values are a small enough minority of the country that they simply do not stand a chance at winning democratically without a major shift in the opinions of the general population.
“Vote blue no matter who” isn’t really literal, in the the sense that I wouldn’t vote for a republican if somehow one actually reflecting what I think was actually running. It’s a heuristic, reflecting the fact that the dems have throughout my lifetime consistently been closer to my views than the Rs however slightly and really only useful in cases like obscure downballot races where I am unable to locate much information about what the candidates actually want but must still try to determine which is preferable without real information about them.
Their values = “Lying and misrepresenting themselves to get elected by any means necessary. Then use corruption to enrich themselves.”
Nobody even got to vote for this person this election cycle, that’s why your comment doesn’t fit in this discussion. You just went off on an unrelated talking point. This is a result of different failures of the democratic process than what you’re trying to start the discussion about.
Based on how you used the word in this post, I don’t think you know what fascist means.
Using the word “authoritarian,” would have been better, but then I would just think you’re dumb for failing to understand the purpose in telling people to vote against the publicly and openly fascist party.
You saved Palestine!
That you think that’s what going on is why the Democrats will never stop this country from descending into fascism.