Are there any Republican celebrities?

Good point. Given my recent experience I’d offer that party affiliation matters to these people:

Officials elected on a party ticket
Members of City/County/State/National party committees

I’ve been a member of the latter and every single person in that room was a registered Democrat. To not be so was to lose qualification for the office.

Which doesn’t mean there aren’t people who deeply identify with a party. But there’s no official designation about it other than voting history.

Do you understand that the vast majority of people in the country take no part in internal party organizations? That they have no role in appointing leadership positions? That is the world of politicians and party activists, which very few people are, including the majority of celebrities?

Your definition doesn’t even include voter registration.

Your posts in this thread would lead me to believe you’ve never actually set foot in the United States.

“Official membership” is a concept applying to a very small minority of people. Making this the principal criterion means that most people aren’t Democrats or Republicans, and this definition has no utility for the way we usually use those terms.

I’ve said it already. A “Republican” in the most commonly understood and useful sense includes all these people:

  1. Someone who says “I’m a Republican,” regardless of registration or anything other “official” status.
  2. Someone who tends to vote for Republican candidates.
  3. Someone who tends to express support for Republican candidates or causes most commonly associated with other Republicans.
  4. Someone who has campaigned for or contributed to or participated in fund-raising for Republicans more often than Democrats.

This is not an exclusive list.

That’s how things work in a weak party system like we have.

The statement “He’s a Republican” (about someone who is not currently holding office or someone who holds a nominally “nonpartisan” office), in our country, in our political system, is not a claim about any kind of “official” status.

Johnny Ramone.

My definition already included voter registration, but you thought that was the only way people could be registered as Republicans. And the vast majority of the people in this country have at one time made a public declaration that they belong to a political party.

Your posts lead me to believe you have no idea how political parties are organized, how people join political parties, or anything other than some preconcieved notions of peoples political orientation.

Again, this is incorrect because most people have registered their party affiliation on voter registration forms, whether you like their choices or reasons for doing so or not. Anybody who has registered as a member of a party has a right to vote in that parties internal elections and decide who it’s leadership is, or run for those leadership positions themselves.

Those aren’t bad definitions, except aside from claiming to be a Republican you don’t know who someone votes for or why. You rarely see people supporting Republican candidates or causes, and they may expressly claim not to be Republicans (or does that only count when you claim to be a Republican). And only a few people consistently campaign for or contribute to a fund raising with just one party. On the basis of known information outside of party enrollment you fill a large cruiseship with the people you consider to be Republicans.

Read this and thought of this thread. Clint Eastwood Likes Herman Cain.

Do you have a cite on this being the case for most people? Because I know it’s not the case everywhere (certainly not in MI).