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The choices faced by my Republican friends

Yes, I have a few of these.  I came of age in 1991 when the gray man of politics was running the country.  John Major had succeeded Margaret Thatcher who had dominated the political landscape my entire adult life.  I was always a conservative, even at University, small government, light regulation and the free hand of commerce appealed to me, it was before I found out about the corruption that cesspool that was the City, nevertheless, it was a fundamental aspect of my political views.

Many of my friends at University were Americans, the vast majority were Democrats who never voted, not out of conviction but out of boredom.  Still, we remained in touch, many became Republicans and even voted.

The ascendence of Trump was something to behold, for many who voted for the man in 2016, he appeared to be a TV reality person but seemed to surround himself with a powerful team that could run the government correctly.  2018 was a disaster, but midterm elections are always disastrous for the ruling party.  However, by 2020, they supported him because they hated the alternative even more, in 2020, Trump got more votes than he did in 2016, the problem is that the Democrats and Independents voted in mass, the actual percentage of eligible voters who bothered to vote rose, currently only about half of eligible voters take the trouble...

The elections in November are a big challenge for all my Republican friends, granted they are in their 50s now, and they don't like Trump.  As one of them told me recently, my wife and I have three choices, vote for Trump, abstain or vote for Biden.

In 2022, they didn't vote, they really didn't like the republican candidate in their district and their Senator was not up for election.  This year is different, but their decision is either to not bother voting, a split ticket or vote Democrat down the line.  In their case, it seems that option 3 is it!  As incredible as it may sound, this year some Republicans so detest their Republican nominees that they will actually vote for the Democrats.  

This is a very unexpected outcome, their goal is to punish the GOP so that it reforms, and that the entire MAGA crew is ejected.  I think this is unlikely, the GOP is now a white & Hispanic, pro-labour, anti-immigration, "family values" party, and the business lobby and the National Security lobby have been ejected.        

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