Democrat, till about 1999
Unaffiliated, 1999 till about 2003
Republican, 2003 - 2004
Unaffiliated 2004 - 2008
Republican, a few months in 2008
Unaffiliated 2008 - 2012
Republican, a few months in 2012
Unaffiliated, 2012 - 2014
Democrat, April 2014 to present (I haven't gotten around to changing it back to unaffiliated with the county registrar, but when I do I'll be Unafilliated till an interesting primary comes along)
I'd be interested in the reasoning behind all these...
closed primaries.
Well, pre-1990s I have no control over any of it. My parents were very loyal Democrats. Minnesota Democrats at that. For them the Republicans could do no right and the Democrats could do no wrong. They were against the Viet Nam war and against capital punishment, they'd never cross a picket line to enter a shop, even if it meant driving to a different store miles away, they were for socialized medicine, the New Deal, the Great Society, and all the rest. They brainwashed me so thoroughly that until I was 30 I thought Nixon was a dirty word. Reagan too. I dutifully voted in all Democrat primaries and for the Democrat candidate in all elections, odd years and even, May and November. At some point after I reached my 30th birthday I started to think for myself.
Generally I'm what this forum calls a moderate hero. I suspect that it is meant as vulgar and derogatory, but I like to own it. Not unlike Yankee Doodle Dandy. Also, I'm generally not keen on signing up with any faction, so even if I were a left-wing nut or a fire-breathing fascist, I'd probably still prefer to remain unaffiliated. But if one wants to affect the process, one must get dirty. For example, I liked Tom Wolfe early on, and wanted to do what I could to see that he was his party's nominee. Only way to do that in a state like PA is actually become a Democrat at least three weeks in advance of the primary election. Usually I change it right back to unaffiliated immediately. Similarly, in January of 2008 I was living in Iowa and wanted to register my support for Ron Paul in the GOP caucus, so I made my way through the three-feet-thick snowdrifts and the negative twenty degree wind and blowing snow on that January night to the Black Hawk County GOP caucus at Central Middle School to vote for Ron Paul. Now, Iowa has "Same Day Registration" meaning that you can change yourself from Unaffiliated to Republican or Democrat at the door, or even register to vote at the door, but you still have to go to the county clerk's office in person to change it back. Of course within a couple of months I changed my registration back to unaffiliated, and of course faced with the choice of McCain and Obama, I voted for Obama.
By contrast, in California, there's a modified open/closed system, so you can actually stay formally unaffiliated but vote in any party's primary. When I lived in California 2001-2004 I remained unaffiliated (until december of 2003 when I became a Republican for psychological reasons. Being a newly-minted Republican, only recently liberated from my parents one-party agenda I looked for a venue in which to preach and spout, and I stumbled upon this place, but enough digression.)
Anyway, I'm generally with the No Party people, but from time to time I feel compelled to pimp myself out in order to muck about in the primary elections. In most states, that requires a formal conversion. Kinda like if you want to take communion in the Catholic church, you have to become a catholic. California primaries operate more like a Dao temple. Every been to one of those? I've been to a few of them. They give everyone three incense sticks at the door. Even if you're white. No one asks any questions. You can light yours and bow before your dead ancestors even if you've never contemplated any of it before. But in Pennsylvania, it's a little more tight. Ah, well. It could be worse. At least they don't require us to have our foreskins knifed by a mohel prior to voting in primaries.
The thread does remind me that I need to change formally back to unaffiliated.
