Friday marked a moment in history when the House of Representatives voted to expel former Congressman George Santos (R-NY). Santos is now the third person expelled from Congress since the Civil War and heads back to his home in Long Island with his head lowered in shame. 

In a 311-114 vote (with two members voting "Present" and eight not voting), Santos lost all but two Democrats and roughly half the Republican conference. The vote came after it was revealed, among other things, that the Santos campaign had allegedly committed fraud not just on voters, but on some of Santos' own colleagues.

But what is the real story here? Are we just going to stop there, or are we going to go after all the men and women that are under indictment? Is it that the House expelled an allegedly corrupt and morally bankrupt man from Congress, or is it that the House now decides who gets to stay and who gets to go depending on whether they're liked or not? Furthermore, it raises some serious concerns about precedent-setting and the establishment of practices and procedures for the future of this nation. 

Thursday, before the expulsion vote was conducted, Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) gave a very strong and impassioned speech on the House floor that supported Santos in the fact that his expulsion would be a violation of his due process rights and taint his defense in his criminal trial. 

He started by pointing out that historically, “there’s only two ways you get expelled, you get convicted of a crime or you participated in the Civil War,” and that “neither apply to George Santos.”

Gaetz said he is not defending Santos, but trying to safeguard “the very precedent that my colleagues are willing to shatter.”

The lawmaker continued, noting that Santos has not yet been convicted of a crime and managed to make a jab at Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), who got away with pulling a fire alarm to disrupt a legislative session last month...

I will be voting AGAINST the resolution to expel @RepSantosNY03 from the House of Representatives.

Here’s why 👇 pic.twitter.com/glONsRxvhy

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) November 30, 2023

Gaetz brought up some very strong and compelling arguments against Santos' expulsion from Congress, I can honestly say that it changed my mind on the matter. I do not have any love for Santos, and my personal opinion of him is not a favorable one, but it is just that: my OPINION. 

He mentioned former Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and that he was charged with similar election fraud charges while in office and pleaded GUILTY to some of them while still serving in Congress. That was even after he pleaded guilty to other charges just a few months before. Hunter remained in office and was allowed to resign from Congress in 2020.

Currently, there is one member of Congress under federal indictment, Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ). Menendez is under indictment for several bribery and FARA charges yet remains in office and has faced no vote or resolution for expulsion, even with members of both parties calling for him to resign. With Santos' expulsion, would it not be proper for Senator Menendez and Congressman Jamal Bowman (D-NY) to face expulsion votes for being convicted and or under indictment for crimes? 

Furthermore, the Republican party just announced that they did not want anyone from their party, at least, to serve as an elected member of government. So naturally I ask, where are the calls for former President Donald Trump to abandon his presidential campaign? The standard is set now, and anyone convicted of or under indictment for a crime should be expelled from Congress. Furthermore, anyone running for office can no longer run for said office if they have recently been convicted of a crime and have not served their sentence, whatever that may be. Am I missing something? 

Our elected leaders are completely and utterly failing us and the nation by setting double standards, bowing to pressure from their parties and not their constituents, and more. Our entire House of Representatives, along with the Senate, has become completely dysfunctional and the sad part is, Americans keep voting for these people, all because they have a "D" or "R" by their name. It is almost like the common slogan that Democrats use when getting people out to vote when they say, "Vote blue, no matter who." The Republicans are just as bad and equally to blame for this as well, nobody is without sin. 

One thing I have learned in my time in the political world is that the average American voter can be just plain ignorant. In California, voters passed a ballot proposition called Prop 47. This measure was a huge gutting of the California Penal Code, reducing several felonies to misdemeanors, including possession of narcotics and firearms under $999 in value. It was a disastrous proposition, to say the least, but it passed by almost 60 percent of the vote. I spoke with several Republicans after it passed that were complaining about the rise in crime even though they voted for it. Every single one of them asked what Prop 47 was, and I told them: it was named on the ballot as The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act. They responded with a proud "yes" because "who doesn't want that?" They all admitted to not reading the language because they trusted the title of the proposition instead of reading further. It was then-Attorney General of California Kamala Harris who was legally allowed to draft the body and title of the proposition and purposefully mislead the voter. 

The point is that while American voters are not all dumb and ignorant, they are lazy and don't feel like reading or conducting research to educate themselves on a particular ballot proposition or candidate. They are suckered by fake organizations that claim to represent a cause when they don't, like one organization did by fooling people into voting for Prop 47 by issuing a "COPS Voter Guide." The organization claimed to be made up of current or former cops, but that wasn't true at all. None on their board were ever police officers, but their voter guide with red and blue lights and a fake police badge told the voter a different story. The bigger problem is that many voters don't learn from their mistakes and just keep voting without doing any of their research on ballot propositions or candidates. They trust others to do that work for them, and we end up in the current situation we find ourselves in now. We have a body of elected leaders in local, state, and federal offices that continue to let us all down, but we ignore their transgressions because it's either them or that crazy Democrat or Republican. We keep figuratively shooting ourselves in the foot and then yelling at the person next to us about the wound.

My message to the American voter: be better; do your research and not just look for what you want, look for what you need. Stop trusting just one source for everything. Look around and see what other people are saying about the same thing, compare and contrast. Take the time to read past the title of a law or ballot proposition; believe me, it’s worth it. Yes, it is hard, it’s really hard for me due to ADHD, which I've had since I was a kid, and yes, it took me five minutes to write that one sentence because I keep getting distracted. There is a good chance that some of the people in the comment section of this article that maybe read only half the article and came to their own conclusion. Don’t be that guy or gal. Be better, vote better.