My husband is a registered Republican

[ColoradoBlue]

Has been since the days of Reagan. He views himself as fiscally conservative but socially liberal. He also - unlike most of today's Republicans - has incredible critical thinking skills and has always prided himself on looking at and voting for each candidate based on their merits. He voted for Obama twice and for HRC in the last election.

The other day I was talking about the elections and who was going to be on the ticket. He said, "You know what? I'm going to stop you right there. I'm making it easy on myself and voting straight Dem." At first I thought he was joking but then he said, "Any chance I have to stick it to these f*ckers, I'll take it."

For him to say he's voting straight Blue without even looking at the candidates is pretty remarkable and I think part of a sea change that's going on for SOME in the party. I know he's in the minority but we don't need the majority. We just need enough people like my husband who can clearly see what's going on and refuse to support the continued downfall of our country. He gave me hope and I'll take all I can get right about now.

[Wounded Bear]

1. Hopefully, there are millions of folks like him...

[USALiberal]

2. Did he vote for trump? Nt

[ColoradoBlue]

5. Oh hell no!

He was HRC all the way! (Will amend my original post to include that.)

[Rorey]

27. My husband DID vote for trump

The good news is that we're getting a divorce.

Politics definitely affected our marriage. He was always a staunch Democrat until trump. I think he lost his mind.

Whatever the case, I was trying to stick it out until this whole thing came crashing down and he came to his senses. He decided to have an affair, so I'm done trying to wait out this trump disaster.

[ColoradoBlue]

29. I am so sorry

Fox News and the Trump party have wreaked so much pain.

[Rorey]

31. He was crying about us not having ESPN

The Broncos are on Monday Night Football this next week. I actually went online to upgrade our cable package, and then it hit me that we'd also be getting Fox because it's on every damned package except for Basic. I had dropped down to Basic to get rid of Fox because I couldn't tolerate coming home and seeing him sitting in his chair absorbing all of their poison. So I guess he'll have to find someplace to watch his game. Sad.

[BigGermanGuy]

39. im in the other boat

i'm a male progressive married to a conservative trump voting woman...

it has affected our relationship quite a bit...

[Dave Starsky]

43. I don't know how you all do it.

Politics was always something I screened for on the first date, if not before.

[BigGermanGuy]

46. when we met she was apolitical

as the Obama years progressed, her family went into madness and frenzy...

I love her, but I do my best to avoid politics in general. I also do my best to make sure she is too busy to vote on election day.

[Rorey]

48. Mine changed

If someone had told me 20 years ago that he would ever vote for a Republican, much less whatever -45 is, I never would have believed them. It's sheer insanity.

[Dave Starsky]

51. Wow. I don't even know what to say to that.

There must be something within him that has been triggered by the relentless propaganda put out by Rush Limbaugh, other right-wing radio hosts, and Fox News over the last 40 years. It has really been an ongoing onslaught to attack people's minds.

[Cha]

69. Sorry for all you've been through, Rorey..

but sounds like you're better off for it.

I found out years ago through my kids that my former husband is a faux news truther("it's all true" ) .. We were married 12 years, and broke up in 1979. But, when I heard that I knew we never would have made it since that's who he turned into.

[The Wizard]

74. ".......decided to have an affair"

He wants to better relate with the cult.

[tymorial]

13. That was stated in the OP. NT

[USALiberal]

33. Not on the original post, she added it later! nt

[Blue_true]

24. Was stated in the OP that he voted for Hillary.

Not Stein, he didn't write in Bernie or left the President choice blank, he VOTED for HILLARY!!!!!!!!!!!

[USALiberal]

34. Not on the original post, she added it later! nt

[LandOfHopeAndDreams]

3. Tell Him Thanks

A Sane Republican. I remember those.

[bearsfootball516]

4. My wife did the same thing.

She used to be a registered Republican. Voted Romney in 2012, which was actually before we had ever met. Voted Clinton in 2016, despite being a registered Republican. We moved a couple times last year and ended up back in Indiana, and she submitted her absentee ballot for midterms yesterday, voting straight Democratic.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

10. Sounds like she is a keeper!

[manor321]

6. Except he is the reason for the coming radical Supreme Court

Heck, how many on the current court were put there by Presidents he voted for? And confirmed by the Republican Senators he voted for?

He will OWN every single one of the coming radical 5 - 4 votes.

[babylonsister]

12. Ya know, maybe we should be thanking this

man and not be bludgeoning him. What's done is done, we have to look forward and need all the votes we can get.

[tymorial]

18. Some will never give an inch to anyone and its extremely frustrating

Its like demanding perfection in people; a perfect history with no errors or mistakes. It doesn't matter that perfection is impossible, the imperfect must be shunned and purged. I've seen far too often; condemning a person based upon a sliver of knowledge.

[tymorial]

15. oh for ffs.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. Unbrilliant (eom)

[Loki Liesmith]

52. Simmer down

[Aristus]

7. Good for him. And good for you.

I tend to distrust anyone who describes him or herself as 'fiscally conservative and socially liberal'. Conservative fiscal policies are inherently regressive, and tend to harm socially progressive policies.

It's just a dodge. People want their tax cuts, but don't want to be tagged as misanthropic.

[ColoradoBlue]

16. True

And between you and me, I always roll my eyes when he says it. Because recently, nothing he's done or said has supported that supposed stance. But when you've been married for over 25 years, sometimes you just have to roll with it.

[Aristus]

19. My marriage has changed for the better politically, just like yours.

Mrs. Aristus used to be a staunch conservative Republican and evangelical Christian. I always thought they were both a bad fit for her, since she is exceptionally intelligent, loving, compassionate, and mostly progressive (abortion is her one sticking point). Well, she has ditched the Republican Party, probably forever, and we never go to church anymore, she feels so betrayed by the 81% of evangelicals who support Trump.

Now her battle cry is: "Vote for every Dem on the ballot!"

This is the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal electoral cycle.

[druidity33]

54. I always hear "fiscally conservative"...

and think, "so you don't want to pay for welfare or medicare?". The reality is of course that those programs are the cheapest and most effective ones in our current clusterfunk of a National citizen/resident support program. I also tend to find that the people that describe themselves as fiscally conservative are usually middle aged white men... it's anecdotal but true in my experience. There's a Privilege aspect to that term that i can't seem to pin down.

[quakerboy]

55. I mean, I'm kinda fiscally conservative

I think we should spend a ton less on our military, esp on military related contractors. And we should spend less on tax breaks for the rich. And reduce our national health care spending to be more in line with the rest of the developed world via single payer. And reduce our spending on building prisons. And I damn sure oppose squandering massive amounts of a pointless wall.

Like I say, fiscally conservative.

[stopwastingmymoney]

66. +1 eom

[The Wizard]

75. Military waste is the 800 pound gorilla in the room.

If you frame it as waste people will listen.
I had a chance meeting with former Congressman Barney Frank. One of the things he focused on was excessive military spending. He was one of the few talking about it. But even the Congressman wasn't calling it waste.
Eisenhower warned us in his 1961 Farewell Address.

[librechik]

8. congratulation, ColoradoBlue--

My Colorado husband said he would register as a Republican so he could have some influence on that party.

I told him that would mean divorce.

[TheBlackAdder]

9. He needs to change his affiliation to cause a direct link between his change and today's sham.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. With all due respect to your husband

(and the next thing to ask him is why in hell he doesn't change his party registration) I am tired of people hiding be the Republican lable by claiming to be fiscally conservative but socially liberal. First off, Republicans are NOT fiscally conservative. Yeah, they do everything in their power to transfer money from the poor and middle class to the rich, but that is not being fiscally conservative. As for socially liberal, don't they notice that the Republican Party is simply not socially liberal? It has voted against liberal positions consistently since at least the Great Depression.

It's Democrats who balance the budget and reduce the deficit. If that's not the definition of being fiscally conservative, then I don't know what is. If voting to uphold the rights of women and all minorities, which is what Democrats do, isn't being socially liberal, then I don't know what is.

So please explain to your husband that he really is a Democrat and stop claiming to be a Republican. And stop being registered as one.

[ColoradoBlue]

17. Ha!

Totally with you! And I have explained that he is a Democrat many times or at least an Independent. But while he has many, many good qualities, he is also quite stubborn. So I humor him while supporting his latent Dem tendencies.

[airplaneman]

50. Mind bobbling isn't it and just on an overview...............

Democrats the true conservatives believe in tax and spend responsibly while balancing the budget. Republicans the truly irresponsible ones believe in tax cut, borrow, and spend even more blowing up the budget.
-Airplane

[phylny]

14. Same with my husband

who did not vote from Trump. He just today said, “We need to vote for people who are going to do what’s best for 80% of us, not 20%.” He’s been voting blue since Obama ran the first time.

In other news, my nephew who HATES both parties and always voted for “other” just announced on Facebook that he’s voting Democratic for probably the rest of his life.

Finally, the owner of my company told me at lunch last week that she’s horrified by Trump. Yes, a former tea partier is now voting for Dems.

[WhiteTara]

21. Give him a registration form and tell

he can really stick it to them by reregistering. Last Day Oct 8th

[Permanut]

22. Old School Republican..

My father has been gone for 30 years; was an Eisenhower, Tom McCall and Hatfield fan. Same with my wife's father, who has been gone for 12 years. Both were honorable men, and neither would recognize the Republican party today, or vote for anyone with an (R) after their name. Both had the idea that Republicans are the job creators, which of course has been one of the propaganda tools of the Republican Party since before Reagan, but formalized with "Reaganomics".

[charliea]

35. Oregonian?

We've lived here for over 35 years, and up until 2016 I was an Independent. Joined the Democratic party so I could vote in the primary for Bernie. Tom McCall would be a radical socialist lefty by today's Republican standards, I like what he did for the state. My biggest regret was that I didn't vote for Norma Paulus when she ran for governor in 1986, I didn't believe her stated positions, arguably more liberal than the Democratic candidate's (later shown to be a pedophile), simply because she had Republican next to her name, and Rayguns was president.

Glad you mentioned Eisenhower. My dad was a WW II vet and he loved Ike. The Republican party 1956 platform is one I could support. I recommend it to all as an interesting read.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25838http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25838|

Here's a few bullet points of what it championed:

Provide federal assistance to low-income communities
Protect Social Security
Provide asylum for refugees
Extend minimum wage
Improve unemployment benefit system so it covers more people
Strengthen labor laws so workers can more easily join a union
Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of sex

I could, and would, vote for all of those...

How could a party change so much in my lifetime?

It's our dream let's bring it back.

#RESIST

[Permanut]

47. 100% Oregonian..

great info, charliea. That's the party platform the old school Republicans stood for. And you're so right about Tom McCall. One of my treasures is a coffee table book by Ray Atkeson called "Oregon", and instead of the author's autograph, it has Tom McCall's. Probably a giveaway by Tom when he was governor.

[TwistOneUp]

81. Hear here! nt

[Blue_true]

23. Your husband is right.

To pull the country back from the brink, we need shock therapy via the voting booth. Republicans MUST go down to defeat across the country.

[grantcart]

25. I have a Republican relative who is voting straight blue

"If the Democrats don't win in a landslide the Republic is lost."

[grantcart]

26. All we need is 3 Republicans in 100 to change and vote Dem

And 4 in100 to stay home.

On top of what is going on it will transform a wave into a tsunam2

[mountain grammy]

28. My husband is also still a registered Republican.

Hasn’t voted that way in decades.

[leftynyc]

30. You married well (n/t)

[hibbing]

32. ahhh...Reagan was a fiscal conservative...myth n/t

[TwistOneUp]

36. Your husband is a Real republican.

We used to have those in this country, until the party got taken over by the RW fundagelicals. I know that happened when Reagan appointed a "porn czar" and actually shifted FBI budgets around to fund the porn czar department. That's when the fundagelicals began calling themselves The Moral Majority. Stripping peeps of their voting rights and human rights is completely immoral, yet they have the cojones to consider themselves "moral" (and Only themselves!)

Now we'll all frame shift back into 1950, My Three Sons, and - of course - Father Knows Best. Ladies, get out that crinoline and the 4" stilletos, it's time to wash the dishes! (Groan)

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

37. I think today's Republican party is socially conservative (repressive) and fiscally irresponsible.

They lower taxes for the rich and create huge deficits. If you want responsible taxing and spending, vote for the Dems. If you are socially liberal, definitely vote for the Dems.

[TNLib]

38. My husband is too but I don't think he's voted for a National Republican candidate since McCain

He usually votes for some unknown independent in national elections and republicans in local elections.

It makes me wonder what it would take for democrats to win over voters like him who are disgusted with the GOP but can't vote dem because of years of brainwashing from their ultra conservative families.

[Olafjoy]

40. My husband was raised in a family of Country Club rethugs

Marrying me has made him much more politically aware. He is a registered Independent but hasn’t voted for a rethug in 25 years. I came home from work last night and he was watching Rachel! I mean, there was a football game on! He looked at me and said “I can’t believe these fu*#+rs”. He does not usually engage like this. He waits for me to fill out a sample ballot and takes it to the polls. My husband flipping from a good football game to watch Rachel tells me reasonable people are horrified.

[lovemydogs]

41. Colorado, for some republicans there is anger at what's happened to their party

I was in my 20s during the 80s. While I very much disliked Reagan, republicans did not start becoming toxic until the 90a.
I remember the night Clinton was elected and Bob Dole was interviewed. He sounded like Mitch McConnoll and his one term snark about Obama.
Dole said they were going to make it tough on Clinton. The republicans, after 12 years, were pissed a democrat was elected President.
Then came Newt.
And Delay.
They fundamentally changed the House and the party.
Since then, Republicans who loved the Reagan years have found the party, instead of the joy they had during the 80s continue but, found their party taking more and more dark turns.
Republicans becoming ugly and nasty.
It led to a Trump party today

[calimary]

42. Welcome to DU, ColoradoBlue!

Great to hear about your husband's change-of-heart. Thanks for sharing it with the rest of us here. Any wee bit of good news on a morning like this is MUCH appreciated. I hope there are many others like him. A critical mass of others like him.

[Upthevibe]

44. Thanks for posting...

I'm hoping this is happening in other families....

[Luciferous]

45. My Republican mother-in-law is doing the same thing. She is disgusted with the way

the Republicans are acting.

[sellitman]

49. Welcome to DU

My wife was a Con her whole life until we married 31 years ago. I never asked her to but she left the GOP and has voted Dem every year since.

Makes things easier for sure.

[redstateblues]

53. Spoke to a Bredesen canvasser in deep red Blackburn district and he said

lots of Republicans have said "Don't tell anyone but I'm voting for Bredesen" I'm seeing a surprising number of Bredesen yard signs as well.

[ROB-ROX]

56. THIS IS GOOD, BUT IT IS SAD ALSO

An intelligent person who makes a choice to vote BLUE. This tells me that those who do not think will continue to make the same mistakes. California has a minority of 30% RED who no matter what happens vote RED. They do not see any wrong with the GOP; they are just brain washed. I am glad there are a few who are strong and smart enough to decide for the themselves right from wrong.

[Jakes Progress]

57. I keep running into these guys. They won't admit

that when they voted for reagan/bush/bush they were voting to set up exactly what we have no. If they had woken up twenty years ago, we wouldn't have a lying molester in the white house and a lying rapist on the Supreme court.

When I talk with these "born again" Democrats, I want them to apologize for setting this up. Of course I have to see if they are actually thinking people or not. The idiots who don't think believed that republicans were fiscally honest and careful and don't see how racist and misogynist they are. The "thinkers" knew that even before reagan, republicans were using dog whistle rhetoric to lure racist votes while fanning the flames of bigotry for their own benefit. The idiots have to apologize for being dumb. The "thinkers" have to apologize for the racism that is now accepted mainstream.

[ColoradoBlue]

59. My husband

My husband has nothing to apologize for. He is a good, kind, smart, loyal, thinking individual who chose his party affiliation when he was 18 years in the 80s in Oklahoma. There is not a soul on earth who could have accurately predicted, in 1985, the rise of Trump or what the Republican party has become. If he had known, my guess is his choices might have been different.

However, like most of us, his views and understanding of the world and politics have changed since he was 18. But unlike so many who cling to identity politics at any cost, he has recognized the growing threat and is now doing what he can to fight back. His actions are what count, not some worthless "apology."

[Jakes Progress]

65. So

those who chuckled when the republicans were playing to the yokels for their bigot votes are without need for apology. (The best part of an apology is that one acknowledges error.)

In 1988, did all the good, kind, smart, thinking individuals fall for bush1's Willie Horton ad and believe that Dukakis was uncaring about rape and murder? Or were they the ones who knew the evil trick that lee atwater was doing and chuckled at the dumb Democrats?

If someone can't admit they were fooled . . . well listen the the lyrics by the Who. (Not bush2's version).

Sorry. He sounds nice. I just wish he could see his errors from the past.

[ColoradoBlue]

68. I will not argue this with you

I know him. You do not. I respectfully ask you to stop casting aspersions and making assumptions about someone you know nothing about. Thank you.

[Jakes Progress]

73. Nor I with you.

I wish I knew him. He sounds like a very good man. You see aspersions where there are none. I didn't assume anything about him. I drew on knowledge of other people I have known - as I stated in my first reply.

I didn't say that republicans who see the light and begin to vote Democratic are bad. I said they need to learn from their mistakes less they repeat them in the future. For instance, I upset you by posting something of my beliefs that upset you because of your relationship. That was evidently a mistake. One I won't repeat. That's how growth works. I have more admiration for you husband than I do for someone like me who was raised in a union backing liberal family and have always voted Democratic. He has changed for the better. My only point was that unless my erstwhile republican friends (most of whom first balked at sarah palin) need to see why they were wrong even before mccain made that horrible mistake. If they don't, they risk falling for the republican bullshit again.

[Crunchy Frog]

78. Jon Stewart voted for Bush in 1988.

Are you going to beat on him as well? Liz Warren was a Republican during the time of Reagan, and, I believe up until Clinton ran. Better demonize her as well.

Republicans are glad when former Democratic voters vote for them. That would seem to be a more effective approach than what I've been seeing from posters here.

[Jakes Progress]

87. I believe Stewart is aware

of how wrong he was. I think he has shown that he realizes his errors and is unlikely to repeat them. Warren, too, shows all evidence of realizing that reaganomics was a joke and a scam.

Please stop misreading things. This was not about demonizing anyone. It is about actually changing instead of going with the cool trend or bending only to the most obvious offenses of the republicans. I'm an old guy. I watched "hippies" from the sixties who graduated and then became corporate stooges. They were only hippies because it was cool and got girls. We have all the questions about why did those white voters vote for Obama and then trump. They were just following the hot new thing. My question about these turnaround spouses is whether they truly realize the damage they have done and see that they were either being duped or hypocritical when they voted for republicans.

When John Stewart voted for bush, he helped prove that negative, racist advertising works. If someone voted for reagan, they helped destroy whole parts of the ecosystem as watts sold off our national heritage to the mine owners and foresters. If someone voted for bush2, they helped cheney kill hundreds of thousands and create a terrorist threat that will be with us for generations.

If you don't recognize that you've been duped, you can be easily duped again.

[phylny]

77. I feel this way about my husband as well (see my post above).

I'm happy he's made the change. I hold no grudge against him.

[Jakes Progress]

86. Misreading.

I didn't say anything about grudges. I said that those who fell under the spell of republican lies and have seen that Democratic candidates are a better choice should recognize that they were misled and lied to, and they need to examine why they were susceptible to politics that used race and division as a tool. Otherwise, they are still open to the lie of "fiscal conservativism" masking bigotry and hatred.

[Owl]

58. The Democratic Party is more fiscally conservative and socially responsible than the GOP.

[ColoradoBlue]

62. Yep

Absolutely true

[eleny]

60. Hi from Lakewood!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

61. Greatest thing when a mate

Figures it out by themselves. I stopped browbeating my husband and he came along on his own by reading and thinking

[lindysalsagal]

63. Kiss him for me!

You married a good man.

[PJMcK]

64. You have a good man there

In your story, he exhibits two examples of intelligence.

1. His critical thinking skills brought him to the obvious conclusion that the fuckers need to be taken down.

2. He was smart enough to marry you.

[stopwastingmymoney]

67. These contests are fought in the margins

to Norman Goldman

[many a good man]

70. Got to Spank 'Em

He is absolutely right they need a great big spanking. It's now or never

[bdamomma]

71. I think there

will be many more to switch over. Your husband has seen the light.

[lastlib]

72. Tsk, tsk, tsk...but you married him anyway.....at least he's slowly coming around to the light

[Turbineguy]

76. A smart republican

will vote Democratic in order to save the republican party.

[TwistOneUp]

80. They better...

Kick out the fundagelicals or the GOP will be 10% of the population, just like the fundagelicals.

[WinstonSmith4740]

82. My late husband had the same epiphany!

There's a lot of similarity in our experiences, except he was a Republican since Nixon. He was one of the only people I ever knew who admitted to voting for him...twice. And Reagan...the first time. That was the last time he voted for a Republican for President. The Republican Convention in 1992 was his moment of enlightenment, and his words are burned into my memory. "Could you please pick up a voter registration form for me tomorrow? I don't want to be associated with these people anymore." Thinking about it always gives me the warm fuzzies. Thanks for re-kindling the thoughts, and congratulations for guiding your husband to the light!

[MadDAsHell]

83. We need to change REAL R's, not "Republicans" who have voted Democrat for 3 straight elections. nt

[ColoradoBlue]

84. Presidential Elections

He has voted D in the last three presidential elections. That doesn't mean he's voted for all democrats in all elections since 2008. The fact that he flat out said he's voting straight blue in the upcoming election is huge and shows how fed up he is. And I don't think he's alone. That's why I feel positive (although I'm not taking anything for granted) about a Blue Wave.

[flygal]

85. Mine is Independent and voted straight Dem without reading up on them

He's disgusted and can't vote R until they disavow trump.