Originally a comment by Sackbut on Look how energizzzzzzzz.

Kevin Drum raised an interesting point on his blog. He began by expressing some sympathy for the Republicans who don’t like Trump, but nonetheless feel compelled to vote for him. Drum then muses about what it would take for him to vote for the Republican candidate for president (not specifically Trump, just in general).

At least one commenter noted that we aren’t just electing a president, we are electing an administration. The people appointed and hired by the president and those around him matter as much as the president. And they almost always come from one political party, that of the president. Given this, and even absent the aberration that is Trumpism, I cannot conceive of a situation where I’d vote to give the Republican Party the administration. The goals and aims of the Republicans are contrary to what I think is reasonable. I am much more aligned with the positions of the Democratic Party, and would vote to give them the power to create an administration, even if I didn’t care for the candidate.

Trump and his followers have gravely damaged the Republican Party, but I expect there are many Republican voters who nonetheless want their party to be in charge of the administration, and will vote for the Republican candidate, even if that candidate is as awful as Trump.

It is of course the case that the election will not be decided by people like me or that hypothetical Republican who values which party is forming the administration, but rather by people who are open to voting for the other party. Personally, I’d hope that people who might vote Republican can see how terrible the Republicans have become under the influence of Trump and his followers, and they might vote, if not so much for the Democratic Party, at least against Trumpism. But it is more likely voters will vote for or against Biden or Trump, rather than for a party.

If the Democratic Party were to undergo a transformation as macabre as what’s happened to the Republican Party in recent years, maybe I’d vote against them. I still can’t see voting for the Republicans, though.

I voted once for a Republican for a top office, William Weld for Governor of Massachusetts, against the conservative Democratic candidate John Silber. I don’t think I’d make the same choice now.