-C!

it's an opinion Charles; nothing more. 

Sure, and you have every right to yours... just as we all do. 

Just saying that what this lady did is PURE FRAUD and she should have consequences. It would send a message to any other politician that tries to do the same.

-C!

She has been serving in the state legislature for 10+ years as a Democrat, and while voting occasionally with Republicans, she has mostly supported Democratic causes. 

She says she will still be the same person.  So lets see how she votes. 

You defrauded the people who voted for you. Not just those from your former party, but also the independents and others who voted for you because they oppose what your new party stands for. Voters essentially had a choice between two members of the same party, except one was actually honest about which one they belonged to. 

You defrauded everyone who contributed money to your election (or re-election) campaign. They should be able to sue either you or your new party (meaning they'd better have a huge treasury) to recoup.

You defrauded your former party, who could have supported someone who actually is a member of the party, but wasted time, money and resources on you. The money should come out of your pocket, your new party's treasury, or both. Or your campaign spending if/when you run for re-election should be limited. 

Enjoy commercials calling you out on what you did if/when you run for re-election or a different political job in your state. Especially ifs a state where your former party is the majority and/or there's a lot of independent voters.

And this doesn't matter which parties we're talking about. Its wrong, either way.

———

Here in California, where once upon a time you could be a socially liberal, fiscally conservative person and still call yourself a Republican, we had a Republican state assemblyman who won re-election by 607 votes and then switched parties to become a Democrat. His explanation was not only had Trump pushed the party to the extreme, but his own party had marginalized him. While he was a Republican, he worked across the aisle and focused on issues that mattered to his constituents. Is it fraudulent to say that I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing, but I can’t align myself with the national party anymore because they are focused on marginalizing LGBTQ folk?

In many ways, I think Thomas is actually at the very bottom of the deep trench of GOP corrupt tools.  Trump, at least, was in for only four years and had a lot of limits on his power from Congress, and we could (and did) vote him out after his term.  Thomas knows he's untouchable and is gleefully using his seemingly uncheckable power to change everything about our country he can.

And I'm sure I've made this point upthread, but it again shows how canny Mitch was at playing the long game.  Get a supermajority in the Supreme Court and you've pretty much won it.