A very good piece on X on 'D vs. R'

and what's happened with her to move her from the 'D' category.  If you're on X I'd recommend the whole thing, as I can only copy part of it here.  Or maybe it's only me having trouble reading it without signing in, give it a try.

Changing your political beliefs is not easy. It's especially difficult when you've invested years of your life believing that your side consists of the Good Guys. If your side is the Good Guys, then the other side must be the Bad Guys. And if the Bad Guys turn out to have been right about something important, you have a problem. You can either reconsider your beliefs or construct an elaborate series of excuses explaining why reality is being unfair. I became very good at the excuses. For example, I've been a gun owner for a long time. I used to tell myself: "Obama isn't stupid enough to pick a fight with gun owners. He knows better."

Well. He certainly picked that fight.

To be fair, not every gun-control proposal he supported became law. But his willingness to pursue restrictions was quite real, and I had been kidding myself about it. This was one of many issues where I found myself defending positions I didn't actually agree with, simply because the person advancing them belonged to my political team. Eventually, I had to admit something. I had been wrong.

I had been wrong about enough important things that I could no longer pretend otherwise, and I changed my political allegiance. I could no longer pretend. That was about eleven years ago. You might think this would be the end of the story.

HA HA HA.

And this part on the Stupid Party:
See, Republicans have a problem. They're lazy. As a political institution, the Republican Party has developed a remarkable ability to avoid doing anything useful while pointing across the aisle and shouting: "WHAT, ARE YOU GOING TO VOTE FOR THOSE LUNATICS?"

And the infuriating thing is that this argument often works. Its working for me, now during the midterms. That pisses me off.

When the opposition is busy defending political absurdities, Republicans don't have to work very hard to present themselves as the reasonable alternative. They don't have to develop good policies. They don't have to solve problems.

They don't even have to keep their promises.

They just have to be marginally less insane than the other guys.

This is not a healthy political system. It's the electoral equivalent of two restaurants competing for your business, except one serves spoiled meat and the other serves cheap, frozen pre-packaged crap.

The first restaurant doesn't have to improve its food. It just has to point at the spoiled, smelly garbage the other place is selling.

"At least our dinner isn't trying to poison you, ma'am."
And, they're right. But I'd still like a decent steak.

I want Republicans to have to earn my vote.