What would you take for you to vote for the opposite party that you generally lean?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The only way I could possibly see myself voting for a Republican is if I lived in a city with partisan municipal elections and my choice was between a reasonable person running as a Republican and an utter fool and/or lunatic. Right now I'm actually basically always voting for the right in Minneapolis elections because the progressives on the council now are seemingly intent on completely ruining the city via things like an already tried right next door and proven to be disastrous rent control policy paired with NIMBYism (under the guise of "standing up to big developers!") and making Uber and Lyft unaffordable in the city and possibly driving them out altogether (thus hurting the drivers, the same people they're claiming to be trying to help.) The "establishment" faction is pretty lousy too, but considering that they aren't actively trying to make the city unlivable I don't have much of a choice. My favorite Minneapolis City Councilor is actually Andrew Johnson, who is generally reasonable and opposes the insanity pushed by the "progressives" but doesn't outright align with the "establishment" side probably because he knows how much they suck too and is known for actually engaging constituents on social media regularly and just seems like an overall nice and friendly guy. Unfortunately he's not running for re-election.

But those aren't Republicans, just relatively moderate Democrats, and actually are in the greater context arguably to the left of the median Democrat, Jacob Frey for example would be seen as a progressive if he were in state or federal politics and is a staunch supporter of that progressive agenda Walz just passed but he's aligned with them here (this can perhaps be evidenced by one of his proteges who I put in that "guess if these legislators are Democrats or Republicans" post being regarded as a progressive in the Minnesota legislature.) You do have people like candidate Victor Martinez who is basically a complete DINO and a stealth Republican in the mold of Rubén Díaz Sr, as well as Michael Rainville who is more of a legitimate moderate Democrat than a conservative DINO but regardless is still well to the right of the median voter in Minneapolis and probably would be even in DFL suburbs. And a scenario where Republicans are actually competitive but the Democrats are backing the type of psychos we have here is pretty far fetched.

One actual election where I guess this would technically happen is that last Seattle City Attorney one, but in that case it was still nonpartisan and the "Republican" was a Biden-backing RINO while that crazy lady who lost never claimed to be a Democrat and actually was less supportive of Biden and Hillary than her "Republican" opponent, so not really an example.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I probably have somewhat lower standards for Democrats than Republicans, actually -- because both parties will rule America about half the time, it makes sense for me to vote for better-than-replacement Democrats, who will then hopefully have more of a voice in their parties, even if I would find a Republican with the same views very distasteful. In the past I've used gun rights as a good litmus test, with people like Manchin/Donnelly/Heitkamp getting my hypothetical vote so that the Democratic Senate caucus is more pro-gun-ownership, though as the conservative victory on this issue gets more entrenched and it becomes less relevant I'll probably need to find something else.

I used to have this approach, and it's why I voted for Steve Glazer when he ran for state Senate. Then covid rolled around and he was one of the loudest and worst advocates for eternal lockdowns and all sorts of other bad stuff. Not making that mistake again.

No one aside from Arthur Chu who is no longer relevant in the slightest and perhaps a few other Twitter clowns was calling for "eternal" lockdowns.