[godfry n. glad]

If one of the parties would field a candidate I could actually support and vote 'for', it might be different. That has not happened in quite some time.

No...The usual state of affairs is that both parties field some lapdog to their donors' dollars and I end up having to vote for the 'lesser of two evils', who all too often ends up being 'the lessor of two evils'. I think that the strangehold that the two major parties have on the process should be minimized. I'd like to see ALL races de-partisanized. No political party affiliations to be listed on any ballot. The primaries should be 'casting call' contests for all positions with no partisans; the general election is a non-partisan run-off between the top two finishers in each of the primary races. Political parties are side organizations trying to get their candidates elected in the primaries to the general election, but those candidates cannot run as partisans. No primary would EVER be closed, as they would ALL be open, non-partisan races. Then we taxpayers will stop paying for political parties (which are private, exclusive organizations) to select their the candidates. Political parties are extra-governmental organizations and should not be enjoying the largesse of the public till.

PS - I was raised in 'building trades Democratic' household. My old man was not union (he was a construction inspector), but supported unions, particularly those in the building trades. His mother was a 'Red-Card Republican', who'd registered as a Republican in order to obtain work, but supported Roosevelt through all four tickets. I ended up well to the left of my old man, being active in the Democratic Socialist movement as a young man and a budding professional economist in the mid-1970s. I explicitly followed Michael Harrington's advice and joined the Democratic Party in 1979. I was a party activist and served as a District Leader and county Executive Committee member, briefly. By the new millenia, I was heartily disgusted and when the sordid past of the state Democratic party's golden boy, fixer, and lead shaker and mover was made public, and the role which other party functionaries covered for him for years, I quit in disgust. I am now proudly NAWAPP....Not Affiliated With Any Political Party. Consequently, it chapped my hide that I had to re-register as a Democrat in order to cast my vote for Bernie in my state's closed primary. I re-re-registered after the primary, but I felt so dirty for that brief interval.

I'm sorry, but these days I tend to only vote for Democrats. But that is not because I want to, but just because the alternatives are even more reprehensible. And, I might note, that my historical ideal of a state politician was a Republican, Governor Tom McCall. But that was a different era all together.