I live in Ohio, but couldn't be a registered Democrat even if I wanted to be. Ohio, like many states, doesn't have party registration. When you vote in the primary, you ask for the party ballot you want to vote - or if you want an issues only ballot. That is the process in many states.
That said, I have always considered myself an independent (and I've participated in a lot of these polls). I vote in the Democratic primary. I am a poll observer on the Democratic side (appointed each time by a Democratic candidate - including Obama and Brown). I've phone-banked and pounded the pavement for Democratic candidates, as well as participating in other voter turnout efforts. When the only options with a reasonable chance of being elected are a Democratic candidate and a Republican, I vote for the Democratic candidate.
But, I do not owe my allegiance to any specific party. The Democratic party currently matches far more of my values than the Republican, so if those are the only two choices with a realistic chance of winning, I'm going to vote Democratic. But both parties are more hawkish and nationalistic than I am comfortable with.
If we ever move to ranked choice voting, the Democratic candidate will be either first or second choice - depending on where the third candidate stands on issues that matter to me - with the hope that it will either force Democrats to move to the left - or that a third party gets enough votes in the first round that it might provide an opening for a truly progressive party to replace the Democratic party (without sacrificing the country, as voting third party now currently does). But that's not where we are now. So as a matter of practicality, I lean Democratic (or farther left). So it's not just, or even primarily, the center of the party viewing themselves as independent.
I see this move, not as a downward spiral, but as a hopeful one. We need more people who aren't into my party-or-die politics.
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