So, after thirty-some years and across multiple states registered as a Republican, I’ve reached the final straw and registered as a Democrat instead. It’s not like I’ve voted for any Republicans recently in a general election. And California’s open primaries for everything except president mean I don’t lose much power to affect those. Of course, I’ve now shifted both parties a smidgen to the right; sorry, about that.
Anyone else switched parties recently, or ever? Were you happy with the switch? Anyone return to a party they left?
(Note, this is really a MPSIMS-style thread, but with these new-fangled topical forums, I’ve put it in P&E.)
I switched from Republican to Democrat and then to no party in 2008.
I was already mostly voting Dem anyway.
In New Jersey as a registered No Party I can just walk in and vote in either primary.
I overwhelmingly vote Democrat now.
I didn’t leave the Republicans as much as they left me. I was basically a Roosevelt or Rockefeller Green Republican. There is no room left in the party for us. Cheney was bad enough, the current McConnel/Trump party is anathema to my beliefs.
I left the Pubbies when they turned towards Reagan in 1980, I was supporting the maverick Republican John Anderson instead. I came back long enough to vote for Bush I for his first term, but saw him following Ronnie’s path during that 4 years so voted for my first Democratic candidate for president, Clinton. I’ve not looked back since.
I was an Eisenhower Republican. I had the marvelous opportunity back in college to not just meet, but get to know Dwight’s brother Milton on several occasions (including hosting his 80th birthday party at our student ghetto apartment), and listening to him recount his experiences in government (lengthy service/advice to many administrations, from Coolidge to Ford) influenced me a lot.
But Republicans of that nature just don’t exist anymore.
I was registered as nonpartisan up until 2017 when I switched my registration to Democratic. It was while I was watching Trump’s inauguration that I decided I wanted to be a Democrat.
I started out as a Bob Dole Republican, then was a Democrat for a while and am now unaffiliated. I still vote pretty much straight Democratic these days, although I scour the ballots each time in the vain hope of finding any Republican who isn’t crazy, corrupt or outright evil because I don’t want to vote straight party - if I did, I’d have stayed a Democrat - but the GOP aren’t making it easy.
I switched from Republican to Independent after Trump was elected. Then went back so I could vote in the primary for the midterm. Here in Kansas, most of the action takes place in the Republican primary. The last couple have had some real crazies like Kobach and Watkins but there is a glimmer of hope in that they are getting beat at least some of the time. We do have some moderate Republicans left and they regained some ground after Brownback. I was heartened to see many endorse Barbara Bollier. Honestly, I don’t even know how to describe where I am at now. One of those online surveys suggested the Modern Whig party but that’s not going anywhere.
And if they did they’d be kicked out of the Republican party urgently and with extreme prejudice. The GOP has become more insular and inflexible than the post-revolution Bolsheviks, and are about two steps away from just putting a bullet in the back of the head of any member who speaks out of turn.
I think that if the concept of Republicanism is to survive at all, the current GOP has to die off.
That means that republicans would be better off going Dem on the right wing and moving over to independene when they can no longer reach and accommodation with the rest of the Dems and finally cut the remains of the GOP from under the idiots that support it.
The ideology would have to die which would mean that it would have to be shown to be inferior by defeating it with better ideas. The majority of the country that isn’t far-right needs to push for a government that works for people so that they don’t keep turning to nihilistic demagoguery.
I changed from Libertarian to independent in mid-2017 after it became really apparent the Trump administration was not going to be getting any better. In Arizona for the primaries I can request any party’s ballot I like.
For both the 2018 and 2020 primaries I requested a Republican ballot. I was hoping to do some strategic voting, helping nominate a real looney-tunes candidate that would be easier for the Democrat to defeat.
Unfortunately, conservative voters in the state kept going further and further into the weeds to the point I was afraid no candidate would be too looney for them to hold their nose and vote D so I chickened out and voted for the most centrist candidate – centrist being a relative term.
I debated using the reverse tactic in Florida: registering as a Republican to vote for Jeb Bush against the crowd of wackadoodles, but by the deadline came for signing up it was down to Trump versus Cruz, and I couldn’t tell which one would be worse.
But I haven’t changed parties. I’m still registered as an independent and have been since voting age.
I registered Republican at 18 basically because my whole family was. I didn’t care much about voting or politics until 2016 because up until then the president was just some guy in a suit who made speeches on TV sometimes. Nothing really affected my life very much. Vanity of the white straight middle class I guess.
But once it was looking like Trump was going to win the nomination in 2016 that all changed. He had this cult leader thing going on even then and I know a couple people who had met him in person and they all said that he was a mean sleazebag. I tried to get people to vote for Kasich because he was at least normal and then Clinton in the general election but obviously that didn’t work.
I changed to Democratic right after Trump’s inauguration because I was just disgusted.
Always on the left edge of politics, I registered independent for a couple decades just to distance myself from the corporate wing of the Democratic party but since all the effective people were Dems anyway I eventually switched.
I thought about registering as “no party preference”, but for me voting and party registration is more about exercising political power than about self identification. Changing now is my tiny quantum of protest against the Republican party. And choosing the Democratic party is a show of support. I just don’t see any benefit to no party preference compared to having one.
but that’s not going anywhere.