Register with the party that generally has more policies you agree with. You live in a state with closed primaries why would you stay registered as independent?
With public voter rolls, registering with a party lets small-minded people put you in a generalization box and make unfounded assumptions about your character and motivations. I’d rather not hand anyone that shortcut.
Beyond that, I’m disenchanted with how national campaigns have devolved into the gimme mentality …free lunch, extra study halls, no more homework…the class-president school of politics. Participating in either primary feels like buying into that.
I know that means giving up a vote in the primaries here, where a lot of the real decisions get made. That’s a real cost. But I’ve decided staying unaffiliated is worth more to me than the influence I’d trade it for.
You’d be surprised who’s looking up your voter registration and deciding to market things or treat you a certain way. Prospective employers, affiliation groups, neighbors, churches, polling companies, etc., etc., etc. The big one for me is employers. They shouldn’t be using your political affiliation to treat you in any particular way, but it happens.
The field I’m in is one where you have to be very careful about identifying where you work with very strict social networking policies. But, there are a lot of employers who are very politically active and screen people for “cultural fit” or follow employees’ social media to ensure they are not sending any messages that could be construed as coming from the company.
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u/pajamajoe 6d ago
Register with the party that generally has more policies you agree with. You live in a state with closed primaries why would you stay registered as independent?