again i feel like this is a weird mix of correlation versus causation i am wary of revealing my political leanings in detail because i don't want them to be pi

again i feel like this is a weird mix of correlation versus causation i am wary of revealing my political leanings in detail because i don't want them to be picked apart rather than the argument i'm making, but for an extended period of time the republican party has essentially poison-pilled my ability to vote for them with stuff that's just straight up not negotiable according to my personal values. i may think you have a decent economic plan, but the fact that you take issue with the existence of close friends of mine or seek to enact policies that will harm them is basically a red line for me. i have a few red lines, things that i personally value based on mine, my friends, and others' lived experiences and my views are informed by that. i do not affiliate with the democratic party. i do not donate to them, i do not volunteer with them, i don't particularly like them. i find them disappointing-to-distasteful at best, with very few standouts (and many people i started out respecting have grown to profoundly disappoint me.) at the same time, because of some core beliefs that I hold, I find it impossible to hold my nose and vote in the other direction despite the fact that I give the other party a fair shake every election cycle. i do not feel like they are headed in a direction that is likely to change that. i'm not ashamed to admit that i've voted this way up until this point. i'm also perfectly fine admitting that there may be a time in the future when things change and i'm able to choose freely between the two. it feels a lot more like a failure of the two party system than an issue with the concept of "independents." you can easily be open to both parties right now while literally never running across someone in the other party you can get on board with. in the state in which i live, i must register with a party in order to vote in the primary, so i have no influence over which 2 candidates are presented to me. the most extreme voters tend to determine who the candidates are, thereby i don't have much flexibility in choosing, save for going third party (which i have, primarily in super-local elections, where they actually have a chance of winning and do win regularly.) i don't think it's fair to suggest that people in this position are simply party loyalists. edit: i feel like you've added content to this post that i'm re-reading and i better understand specifically what you're saying (which aligns with what i was saying) so apologies for basically responding with an opposing agreement.