Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced Friday that he is switching parties and will serve as a Republican-affiliated mayor of the blue-leaning city.
While the Dallas mayoral office is nonpartisan, Johnson previously served as a Democrat in the Texas legislature. He slammed his former party in an op-ed for Wall Street Journal published Friday, blaming Democratic policies for “exacerbated crime and homelessness.”
“The future of America’s great urban centers depends on the willingness of the nation’s mayors to champion law and order and practice fiscal conservatism,” Johnson wrote. “Our cities desperately need the genuine commitment to these principles (as opposed to the inconsistent, poll-driven commitment of many Democrats) that has long been a defining characteristic of the GOP.”
He added: “In other words, American cities need Republicans—and Republicans need American cities.”
Johnson’s announcement makes him the only Republican among the mayors of the 10 most populous cities in the US.
The Texas Democratic Party issued a scathing statement Friday, accusing Johnson of being dishonest with Dallas voters.
“[T]he voters of Dallas deserved to know where he stood before he ran for reelection as Mayor,” the chair and vice-chair of the party said. “He wasn’t honest with his constituents, and knew he would lose to a Democrat if he flipped before the election.”
Real question is: why didn’t the democrat he would lose to win?
Why are we voting for scumbags over non-scumbags?
Why are we not running as fake conservatives in every race? Conservative voters are profoundly unintelligent and are bound to occassionally vote for us.
We could make running as a republicant a trendy hobby. We could “take the challenge” to see who can can fuck the GOP the hardest.
It only works the other way around because the money supports the right wing. Nobody’s gonna fund a secret lefty on the republican ticket.
There’s a standard playbook. Just say the same things as Don or Ron. Talk about woke pineapple slices or something and you’re in. Just commit. Like Chris Rock said, Republicans don’t let “sense” fuck up their argument.
I’ve thought about doing it. For a while, I was in an area so ‘red’ that getting even 10% D votes was horrifying to the population. Trust me, you cannot keep up with the outrage porn and virtue-signaling required. Any critical thought will have you being looked at like an alien that just popped out of the moon.
Plus, remember that the parties are private organizations. The people at ‘the top’ of those organizations, in the local and the state and the federal sense, are the people who decide who will be the next candidate. Unless you have Trump’s money, ‘charisma,’ and luck (read, being able to get free press from media because they’re all, gasp, horrified by what you said), you can’t break into politics as a R candidate without already knowing / rubbing elbows with those people.
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How is this allowed?
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Since it’s allowed, why aren’t Dems taking advantage of the old switcheroo and packing every race with temporary conservatives only for switching back once elected? That would be the funniest thing.
I mean if democracy is a joke may as well get some good out of playing it.
This one Dem from the article just did exactly that, though…
Edit: haha, nice downvotes. So you’re saying that the switching dude was a republican in disguise all the time?
I’ve thought about primarying my rep. She’s one of the far left chuckle fucks, and I stand a decent chance of beating her due to the fact that I am 1. Male. 2. A veteran. 3. Tall.
Where as she is a nut job, but blond.
I’m the mayor of this town and there’s too much crime. So I’m switching parties. That’ll fix things.
Know how you prevent that? Run actual progressives with progressive pedigrees.