Exactly Rick, the Republicans have the same motto except theirs is “Vote Red no matter who.” As a swing voter it seems to me hard core partisans don’t care about the quality of the candidates or whether they’d be good at what ever elected office they are running for. They care only about the letter behind the name.

While both parties have basically expunged their moderates leaving only hard-core partisans as can be seen in the rise in independents from 30% in 2006 up to 42% today. Those of each party willing to cross over and vote for the other party’s candidate has shrunk into the single digits. As an example, 27% of Democrats voted for Reagan in 1980, 11% of Republicans voted for Carter, 26% of Democrats voted for Reagan in 1984. 17% of Democrats voted for Bush in 1988, In 1992 16% of Republicans voted for Clinton and 21% voted for Perot while 9% of Democrats voted for Bush with 17% voting for Perot. With both major parties shrinking, becoming more highly partisans come 2008 we’re down to single digits of a major party voting for the candidate of the other party. 9% of each major party voted for the candidate of the other party in 2008, two years after independents begin their rise to becoming the largest group in the electorate overtaking either major party’s base. 2012 it was down to 7% of democrats voting for Romney and 6% of republicans voting for Obama. 2016 7% of each party voted for the other party’s nominee and finally in 2020, we’re down to 6% of republicans voting for Biden vs. 5% of Democrats voting for Trump

Both major parties have become much more ideological and partisan which has led to today’s modern political era of polarization, the great divide and the super, mega, ultra-high partisanship. This began much earlier during Reagan when both major parties expunged their unwanted conservative and liberal wings. Followed by both major parties getting rid of their moderates beginning in the 2000’s. I think this expunging has pretty much been completed. Now independents are the sole decider of elections, not neither major party’s base.

It's high past time that we start electing Americans to congress and the presidency who put America first instead of their political party. For way too long we have been electing Republicans and Democrats who happen to be Americans instead of Americans who happen to be Republicans and Democrats.