USA – -(Ammoland.com)- “Two Miami lawmakers were forced to admit and apologize for their bipartisan extramarital affair after an anonymous website claimed to have evidence of the swing-state senators getting busy behind closed doors,” Fox News reported Wednesday. “On Tuesday, shortly before the start of the session, veteran lawmakers Sens. Oscar Braynon, a Democrat, and Anitere Flores, a Republican, issued a joint statement saying their ‘longtime friendship evolved to a level that we deeply regret.’”
Right. Except there’s no indication they’d have broken things off and stopped betraying their respective families had they not been caught and “outed” by videos on a website that has since been taken down (but which has not yet been removed from Google cache).
Still, why is it anyone’s business besides their families? This is personal, right? Who knows what motivations drove them to seek fulfillment in each others’ beds? It’s not really fair for outsiders to pass judgment, is it?
On their public conduct it is, and this scandal gives a telling glimpse of character. Their personal conduct regarding fidelity becomes the business of everyone whose lives Flores’ and Braynon’s penchants for betrayal directly impact. So it’s really no surprise that people unfaithful to marriage vows show similar infidelity when it comes to their oaths of office.
How so?
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support, protect, and defend the Constitution and Government of the United States and of the State of Florida; that I am duly qualified to hold office under the Constitution of the state; and that I will well and faithfully perform the duties of (title of office) on which I am now about to enter. So help me God.”
That seems pretty unequivocal, and they took it of their own free will. Yet here’s how Braynon treats the right to keep and bear arms:
“Braynon pushed for the Democrats’ agenda, which includes Senate Bill 142 requiring safe storage of firearms, Senate Bill 170 prohibiting guns in performing arts centers, or theaters and 254 prohibiting sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and opposing open-carry and campus-carry legislation pushed by Republicans.”
The guy’s a Democrat. He was never a friend to gun owners. But “Republican” Flores pretended to be, and used them to gain political power.
“Until yesterday she had a 100% rating with NRA and USF,” Unified Sportsmen of Florida executive director and past National Rifle Association president Marion Hammer admitted in a Mar. 8, 2017 legislative advisory.
You don’t get 100% unless you deliberately make all the right promises. And that makes going back on them all the more immoral.
“In a stunning setback for gun rights supporters, Sen. Anitere Flores, one of the most powerful lawmakers in Tallahassee, declared on the very first day of Florida’s two-month legislative session that she likely would not support any of Steube’s 10 other gun bills, leaving them with little chance of moving forward,” the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported. “I do not support having guns on campus, I do not support having guns in airports, I do not support having guns in school zones.”
That and she flouted her new “BFF” status with Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action.
It’s up to Braynon’s and Flores’ respective spouses if they want to continue putting up with betrayers who have treated them with such disrespect and publicl humiliation. And the same can be said for Florida voters, and particularly for those who are gun owners.
In Flores’ case, the next time she runs for office, will any make the excuse that her opponent is an anti-gun Democrat, and at least she’ll be the lesser of two evils?
Would they similarly reach for excuses to forgive a husband or wife who cheated on them, understanding such deceit is an act of contempt? How would they be sure the affair they found out about was the only one? Isn’t there a word for desperate spouses who willingly subject themselves to that?
If they wouldn’t put up with that, why would they take it from a politician, especially since legislative infidelity can also tear your life apart?
How could you ever trust such a person again?
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.
In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.