This seems a bit pedantic, if their affiliation is on paper only (“leftover registered”) because they haven’t gotten around to changing it. If there are tons of folks who self-identify on an ongoing basis as Democrats but tend to vote for Republicans, I’m unaware of them.
I guess I’ve never seen “party affiliation” as a pre-existing condition, after which I would decide which candidate to vote for. I just supported those candidates I agreed with the most, and after supporting 1000 Democrats in a row, it was clear that I’d been a Democrat all along. But I never once thought “I’m a Democrat, so that’s who I must support.” it seems strange to me to define one’s party affiliation first. You define it, it doesn’t define you.
Also, please remember what I describing in the OP: someone who thinks of himself as a member of Party X, not someone who registers as an X Party member or votes that way. It’s the self-identification I find so strange: “I think of myself as a Republican who’s voted the straight Democratic ticket for years and can see me continuing to do so for decades into the future.”
OK, fair enough, but we’ve had at least a few posters on this site talk about how they finally gave up their Republican affiliation. They hadn’t voted for a Republican for a while, and realized, they’re probably never going back. I think WE? is one of them.
Same here, but it’s clearly true for some people.
It’s important to keep this conversation in context. @Saint_Cad was disagreeing with @slicedalone for judging folks’ rationale for changing (or not changing) their political affiliations. I was disagreeing that it was inappropriate to make such judgments (in other words, agreeing that it’s okay to make them).
In that context, I’m pretty sure we’re talking about people who act on that affiliation. If we’re not, then I misunderstood the conversation.
I see. So, you’re talking about a voter who basically disagrees with a party’s positions but votes for them anyway because they’re registered that way? I don’t really understand that, but what’s probably happening most of the time is that voters aren’t nearly as tuned into what the positions are as the folks who post on the P&E subforum and are just voting R or D because they are an R or D.
Personally it’s because I dislike all political parties as entities. This despite realizing that’s a bit irrational because a.) they’re utterly inevitable for social and structural reasons (we’re pack animals after all) and b.) they’re absolutely necessary in terms of aggregating and managing resources, particularly in this modern world.
But there you go. I’m pragmatic enough I don’t vote for third parties except for non-partisan seats and I find I am no longer willing to vote for the vast majority of Republicans. I do still make the perfunctory effort to read position statements and I don’t automatically veto someone just because they’re a Republican. But I have a whole list of automatic disqualifiers that in the last several years in particular has pretty much ruled out every R candidate I’ve had a vote on. A big one just lately is whether they voted for Trump in 2020 (not 2016, just 2020) - rare is the Republican political candidate who can get through a primary without having that glaring check mark on display.
So I almost always end up voting for Democrats and frankly I mostly have for a long time for social issue reasons in particular. But fuck the party. I don’t like bureaucratic edifices and I refuse to a be a joiner. I make a conscious effort to try and not be excessively tribal to the limits of my ability (and of course there IS a limit).
No? Not sure how you got that. I explained what I was talking about, nothing besides that.
Well, I’ve clearly lost the thread here, so I’ll bow out. Sorry for the confusion on my part.
I had planned on changing parties this year but just never got around to it. My party affiliation has never reflected how I vote.
Thank you for your kind words! 
There are plenty of people who just believe that regardless of how good or bad a candidate is, they are going to obey their marching orders from party leadership, and support things they are told to, and vote the way they’re told to. And so for that reason, the R or D behind their name is all that matters.
And, sadly, there is probably some truth to that. It also feeds into the strategy of voting… I know that this candidate is an asshat who has been in and out of jail for domestic abuse, and says bigoted things on social media, but the party I support has a slim lead in the legislature so I’m going to vote for them anyway. That’s common. And there are many times a person will vote against someone rather than for someone, and even vote against a party rather than for a party.
Myself, I’ve always tried to vote for individuals, not parties. For the most part. For years, I voted for Republicans almost exclusively. Now, it’s the other way around.
I’ve never been “registered” for a party. I’ve lived in Washington State for most of my life, and almost all of my adult life, and they don’t do that here.
I’m reminded of an old graffito that read, “become an anarchist and never be disappointed by a politician again!”
I changed it in 2016 and could easily go on the internet and change it again.
While the national parties are obviously quite different, locally the GOP has rejected Trumpism and ignores the national party ethos. So I could see circumstances where I went back to being registered Republican because of a local situation.
My voting straight Republican would be unlikely. I rarely if ever did it when I was a Republican.
I say on SD that I am a Democrat since it is a matter of public record. In Pennsylvania, you can’t vote in a primary unless you formally register with that party. But if I lived in a state where you don’t have to declare until you get to the voting booth, I wouldn’t say I had a political affiliation.
In Canada the major parties are more similar than different. People often vote for one when tired of the other. Most people I know have voted for several different parties. So this is an American question.