Before 2016 I was definitely in the camp of looking at both major parties as well as any third parties. I was voting for who I thought was the best despite whatever party they were in.

However, 2016 really opened my eyes to what the Republican party is. They are a party that isn't allowed to have different ideas. You follow the party line and do what you are told or you will be kicked out. Even republicans I thought might have cared for this country would have taken a stance but they didn't. They tucked their tails and bent the knee.

I will never ever vote for a Republican. I can see clear as day what they are now and it isn't good. They aren't able to hide who they are anymore.

You can have debates in the Republican party. You can in the democratic party. Which unfortunately makes the Dems a weaker party because it isn't a cult you are allowed to have a different opinion. The democratic party is basically all the sane adults that are left. It's not just the "left" anymore it's those in the center or those who didn't go far right with the Republicans. The Dems will spend the next year attacking each other and fighting within the party because they aren't unified and told what to think by one leader. So not all Dems will turn out.

It seems voter like to dismiss everything the democratic party does if they don't line up with them completely on every issue. The voters find one reason to vote for Republicans and ignore the rest of party line.

American politics didn't used to be the polarized team sport it is now.

We're seeing the ultimate culmination of the Southern Strategy: Get with the preachers who run those "god says hate the blacks" churches that the South is full of, pay them to say "God says vote the Republicans in so we can use the government to take it out on the blacks." Fast forward 60 years, and take a look around.

Let me put it this way, anyone who still identifies as a Republican is not worth voting for. If you can look past the fascists, racists, nazis, misogynists, fanatical religious nut jobs and still go "yeah, I'll associate with these people", then there is something irredeemably fucked up about you, and I'm not going to vote for you. Sure, democrats aren't perfect, but they tend to throw out their trash, instead of giving it a megaphone and a fancy committee seat.

There IS some degree of factionalism within the two party system. It is much more pronounced in the Democratic Party. Ever since Reagan in 1980, the Republican Party's factionalism became severely diminished. The Libertarians are kind of their most loosely held affiliation.

The primary system is largely designed help direct and influence the political platforms of the two parties. The two parties have made some significant pivots and switches over its history.

But far more importantly however: What has really happened is the Citizens United and lesser known Speechnow decisions by the US Supreme Court effectively legalized corporate buyout of the American electoral system.

And now we got fascists.

lol fuck outta here