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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 28, 2022

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It would be ridiculous for Republicans to not expect primary shenanigans: in 2024, I expect vast swath of Democrats to coordinate in reregistering as Republicans and voting with Never-Trumpers for a particular non-Trump candidate in every state, or at least states which are key electoral states for the primary vote. Obviously, then, Democrats would gladly switch back to their own candidate for the general election. (Rush Limbaugh coordinated Republicans doing this in 2008, Operation Chaos, to force the Democrat superdelegates to pick between the first Black President and the first woman President).

What are ways that the Trump contingent could bring such a conspiracy to light without sounding like schizophrenic conspiracy theorists? And then how to combat such a scenario at the polls effectively?

It would be ridiculous not to expect Democrats voting in Republican primaries. It also usually wouldn’t be “shenanigans.”

There are 18 open primary states. Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, N. Dakota, Ohio, S. Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas were fully open and voted red in 2020. Anyone living in one of these states would be well within their rights to vote in the Republican primary. I expect them to vastly outnumber any partisans going undercover in closed states.

I did it this year, and I’ll do it again in 2024. Texas is still hugely Republican-biased, and I’d quite like to get some input on the election. Plus I get to vote against Ken Paxton and Greg Abbott twice.

Anyone living in one of these states would be well within their rights to vote in the Republican primary.

They'd also be well within their rights to move to a state with friendlier politics or push their own party to field candidates who are more competitive in the above states in question, so as to make the available options better.

Not sure why "cast a fruitless vote in a primary consisting mostly of people I inherently disagree with" somehow comes across as the optimal choice for influencing outcomes.

I'm really not sure how one can conclude this tactic is actually effective at improving the situation.

It seems pretty optimal to me. The cost of voting in one primary over another is pretty low. The benefit is, too, but that’s true for basically all political participation. I could spend actual time and money trying to herd the Democrats and see roughly as much effect.

As a bonus, I don’t inherently disagree with Republicans! In the general, I voted for a couple who were able to make sober, reasonably technocratic pitches. I’m not interested in supporting the populist wing. Is there really a difference between expressing that preference in the primary vs. in a non-competitive general?

I’m assuming, in Texas, that you voted for Hegar but not the Republican candidates to be commissioners of whatever description (who were usually far to the right of the party as a whole), but I’m curious- who running as a republican was a more technocratic governor candidate than Abbott(I mean arguably Beto was less technocratic too, it was just a different kind of populism)?

Broadly correct on commissioners. In the general election, I leaned Dem on those unless the Libertarian seemed competent, in which case I did my part to get him to 5%. Unfortunately, but perhaps to be expected, lots of the L candidates don’t bother with much of a site/statement. Most of my R votes went to county or judicial positions where the Republican was usually more experienced.

You’re correct that I didn’t have a more technocratic/competent option than Abbott. I chose not to vote for him anyway because I really disapprove of his theatrics. Not sure if I abstained from this one or voted for...I think Belew was the most centrist?