The two-party system has been in place in the United States for a very long time. This system can be problematic, but it simultaneously ensures that the voters in the U.S. have a clear understanding of the values their preferred candidates hold, as the Democratic and Republican parties are growing to hold more and more polarizing views. People vote in America for a reason, and that reason is not to be deceived when their vote goes to the opposite party when a candidate changes political affiliation.
Recently, concerns have been raised in the United States regarding whether or not political candidates should be able to switch their political affiliation after they begin to run, or even worse, after being elected. While this is relatively rare, it is a massive cause for concern when it does take place.
Many Americans believe they can trust the candidate they vote for to implement their preferred political standpoints into government upon election, but candidates are beginning to do just the opposite. The party that a candidate runs with is a huge deciding factor in how Americans cast their votes and decide who they want to vote for. Because of this, changing parties mid-election or when they have already been elected is undemocratic and a betrayal of the United States’ citizens’ trust.
Party loyalty is a huge expectation in United States politics, and when that loyalty is broken, the reason for that loss of trust should not be allowed to uphold the position they are elected to. By letting these deceitful candidates stay in office, the governmental outline and system start to degrade. It is an absolute betrayal to have a candidate voted for and rallied behind by a portion of the American people, only for the candidate to abandon their support after gaining power and getting into office.
Some may argue that this occurrence is not that big of a deal, and people who get upset over candidates switching parties are not valid because of the limited influence many political positions have on actual government policy because of the separation of powers in the United States. This could not be more wrong. What these people fail to see or understand is that it is less about what these candidates will actually be able to implement into governmental policy when elected or the limited power these candidates hold; it is more about upholding the very foundation of democracy.
The whole concept of democracy is to elect representatives who will speak for the people in government. By switching parties, these candidates are not “speaking for” the people in government; they are representing their own deceitful ideologies.
This is neither a fair nor sustainable notion.
The best thing that we can do as a whole to put an end to this betrayal is to hold these representatives accountable for their unfortunate actions. It is the American people’s job to decide how they want their country to look by calling out unfair actions within the government and letting their feelings be known, regardless of which party they subscribe to.
