Humanities desk
< November 9	<< Oct \| November \| Dec >>	November 11 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

November 10

Elections in the USA - Once elected by one political party, can an elected official change over to the other party?

Banned user

The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

As a “regular citizen” / civilian, in the USA, I am free to change my voter registration’s party affiliation (Republican, Democrat, etc.) ... basically whenever I feel like doing so. My question deals with elected representatives (Senators, House Rep’s, etc.). Do they have the same liberties that we (regular citizens) have ... or are there any limits? For example ... just as a hypothetical ... let’s say that Jon Ossoff runs as a Democrat and gets elected. At some point later ... a day? a week? a month? whatever ... can he simply change parties to Republican, with the same ease that any other citizen can? Or -- once in office (or, at least, elected) ... are they subject to any special rules? Like, for example, can the National Democrat Party -- or the National Republican Party -- somehow have some standing to object? Thanks. 32.209.55.38 (talk) 03:39, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Sure they can. But there can be significant political consequences. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:36, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Your belief is correct. The U.S. has what political scientists call "weak parties", meaning political parties have less power over elected members. Article: party discipline. This is in contrast to systems such as the Westminster system which generally features "strong parties" that have more power to keep members with the "party line". In the U.S., anyone can throw one's hat into the ring, call themselves a member of X Party, and run for the party nomination for an office, though in the modern practice they have to win a primary election to get the nomination. Similarly it's up to an officeholder what party they want to belong to.

Jim Justice, the current governor of West Virginia, pulled a fun little trick by switching parties to the Democrats, running as their candidate for governor and winning, then switching back to the Republicans after being elected. Arlen Specter is I believe the last person in Congress who switched parties while in office. The one big consequence is, of course, their former party won't support them if they run for re-election and will run a candidate opposing them. And if they're not particularly liked by their new party, they can even lose the party primary and therefore not be nominated by the party for re-election! This happened to Lisa Murkowski, who is one of Alaksa's U.S. Senators. She lost the Republican primary for her seat. However, she then mounted a write-in campaign for re-election as an independent, and actually won! --47.147.118.55 (talk) 04:50, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@47.147.118.55: you forgot Justin Amash; see below. --Trovatore (talk) 05:00, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

What it means for an elected legislature to hold a party affiliation is not quite the same as party registration. Party registration is a feature of the election codes of states that hold party primaries, particularly "closed" primaries, regarding who gets to vote in those primaries. That has no necessary relationship to what party a legislator affiliates with in the legislature, though I suppose it's usually the same. There is also no "national" version of this concept; it's entirely state or local.

As for "national" party affiliation, parties generally have national committees, ~~and you can join those if you like, though relatively few people do~~. Update: It looks like I was a little off here. You can join the Libertarian Party, and this used to be called joining the Libertarian National Committee, but apparently no longer is. At a quick search I don't see any way to "join" the national Democratic or Republican Party. Your membership in a party national committee has no necessary relationship to your state party registration (or to your party affiliation in a legislature, if you happen to be a legislator).

If you are a legislator, you generally affiliate with one of the parties. Committee assignments are usually divided up by party, with the party in control of the house getting a majority in every committee, but with others also represented. From that quota (I'm a little shakier on this point, but I think it's true) your party divvies out committee assignments, and if you aren't in good graces with your party you might not get good ones.

All that said, a legislator can "cross the floor" at any time, with no great formality. They just announce that they're now of a different party, or decline to affiliate with any party. Justin Amash was briefly a Libertarian congressman, just by saying so. Bernie Sanders and Angus King say they're independents (and therefore formally are independents) but in practice caucus with the Democrats and get committee assignments as though they were Democrats. How any of these are registered for the purposes of primary elections in their home states, I wouldn't know. --Trovatore (talk) 04:58, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

32.209.55.38 -- In the state of Texas, you are not entirely free to change your voter registration party affiliation whenever you want. You declare your affiliation by voting in a party's primary (there's no way to indicate your political party on a voter registration form) and for the rest of the political cycle (biennium) you're confined to voting in the primaries and primary run-offs of that party only... AnonMoos (talk) 05:20, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

See List of American politicians who switched parties in office. WP:WHAAOE. --Jayron 32 12:57, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

We also have List of United States senators who switched parties and List of United States representatives who switched parties (not sure if these two duplicate the first one). Alansplodge (talk) 15:22, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

BTW, in the Westminster system (in which lie some of the roots of the US system), changing allegiance after being elected is called crossing the floor; the principle being that the people have elected a person (and their personal judgement), rather than a party. Alansplodge (talk) 15:16, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

As opposed to List of prime ministers who partied in office. Clarityfiend (talk) 12:25, 11 November 2022 (UTC) [reply]

Thanks, all. 32.209.55.38 (talk) 03:12, 13 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

The process of listing a property on the National Register of Historic Places

Has anyone following the reference desk had any experience listing a property on the National Registry of Historic Places? I own property in a district that was developed by what Wikipedia describes as "the largest land development company in Florida" and I've found there is community support for preservation, so I'm looking into the process of nominating some of the structures in the area for inclusion on the National Register. I'm wondering if there would be any benefit to creating a non-profit organization to lead the effort or getting expert opinions rather than just doing this myself as an individual property owner. It appears a simple process, but I would like to know that I'm doing everything the best way. PCHS-NJROTC ^{(Messages)Have a blessed day.} 16:24, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Have you checked out https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/how-to-list-a-property.htm ? Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:08, 11 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

‘Healthy origins’ in Communism

In Communist Romania people would be sorted by class background of origin (proletarian or bourgeois). Those of proletarian descent would be deemed ‘of healthy origin’ (literal translation) and would be favoured. How is this designation and phenomenon translated into English? —Biolongvistul (talk) 17:56, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

(Referring to Marx's theory of human nature) I would devise some contextually flattering variation of "an active natural being" - of course. Askedonty (talk) 19:08, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"From good stock" is a semi-equivalent English phrase. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 20:26, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Did the queen live in seclusion?

Did queen Aliya bint Ali of Iraq live in traditional Islamic seclusion, or did she appear unveiled in public and participate in official functions? I know that her predecessor did live in seclusion, but I am less sure about her: the 1930s was the same time period when the queen of Egypt and the queen of Iran became the first queens of their nations to appear unveiled in public, so perhaps the queen of Iraq did the same? Does anyone know? Her article does not make this clear. It does have a picture of her in modern attire, but that may just show her as she appeared in all female company, so it is not conclusive. It would be interesting to know and relevant to mention in her article. Thank you.--Aciram (talk) 20:49, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Here she is at a fashion show in Berlin in 1937. DuncanHill (talk) 23:21, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting, thank you for this image. But I'm afraid it is still not enough, because it is known that Muslim upper class women in this time period - and even before - could appear unveiled when they visited the West, but would still observe veiled seclusion in their own home country. For example, queen Nazli Sabri of Egypt appeared unveiled and dressed in modern fashion during her official trip to France in the 1920s, but when she returned to Egypt, she still lived in traditional seclusion and was never seen in public. So queen Aliya may in the same fashion have appeared unveiled in Europe, but still not done so in Iraq. Are there any pictures of her unviled in public in Iraq? Because that would solve the question.--Aciram (talk) 00:44, 11 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]