• jj4211@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I know a registered Republican who has never voted for the Republican candidate in the general election.

    She says she agrees with the concept of fiscal conservativism, but every candidate she votes for in the primaries always loses to some intolerable asshat. Except she did like McCain, but she liked Obama even better.

    Trump pushed her so far as to donate to the Democrats, but she is still registered Republican.

    I know another registered Republican who did vote Republican back in the 80s, but at least says he hasn’t recently, similar reasons. He stays Republican mainly because he doesn’t see any point in bothering to change. Where he lives is die hard red so he knows the Republican primaries are his only chance to influence any candidate as even if he likes a Democrat, they will automatically lose. He votes Democrat in the general, but considers participating in the Republican primaries his best shot at mitigating the bad of the modern Republican party.

      • barsquid@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        The first one is just delusional. The Dems are the fiscal conservatives. Repubs want to sell off the country to billionaires, foreign or domestic is fine.

        The second one, registering for the one primary that matters in a shithole district is the only sane option IMO. The primary is the real election for places like that. It would be foolish to throw a vote away to make a statement the party will never listen to.

        • elliot_crane@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Yeah… I’ve heard a lot of voters in deep red districts do what the second one does. Granted, never met any myself so this is hearsay, but it does make sense. If your only realistic influence is to bolster the least bad candidate in local/state/federal elections, you’re practicing harm reduction by doing so.