Earl from Ohio's post on the nefarious plans of his republican governor Kasich got me thinking--is there any benefit for democrats also to try electing better republicans? Earl notes that Ohio's republican Secretary of State has opposed some of Kasich's attempts to manipulate the election system in his favor. You might also recall that some state republicans in Ohio lost their committee leadership positions for opposing the extremist wing of the GOP's union-busting bill.
Rachel Maddow has featured republican women on her program who elqouently spoke out in their state houses against legislation designed to curtail a woman's right to choose. We have republicans in New York refusing to toe the Tea Party line and coming out in support of gay marriage rights.
Ever since the second election in which I voted, I have always voted a straight party-line Democratic ticket. Republicans--at least on a national level--generally vote in lockstep with their party even when they campaign as moderates (ie, Snowe and Collins) to the point where their individual claims of having "moderate" views are rendered moot. Thus, I expect I will continue voting straight party line unless the day comes when Bernie Sanders moves to New Jersey and polls promisingly.
But is there anything wrong with a democrat expressing support for a seemingly reasonable republican choice in the primaries?
I do hate when the right advertises plans to skew the outcome of democratic primaries by hitting the primaries to vote for the democrat they think is least electable on a national level, but it does not seem dishonest to me to vote in a primary for the other party as a means of indicating a genuine preference for one candidate over another.
Indeed, if I were unfortunate enough to reside in a state where my elected officials were almost guaranteed to be republican, I would far prefer to have moderate republicans representing my interests than tea party-type republicans or tea party-pandering republicans. Or bat-shit crazy republicans.
I can see a possible downside in helping a moderate republican survive the primary in a republican-leaning area: you end up with a moderate republican pitted against a moderate democrat and risk splitting the moderate vote.
Part of me feels we all benefit if we can push the republican party away from the right edge of the cliff where it now stands and more toward the sane middle. Then again, perhaps we are better off leaving them teetering on that edge, with the hope that they fall right over into the abyss.