Despite the fact that the screenshots showing Dixie D'Amelio registered as a Republican were faked, a large group of people believed them and cancelled her over it. Dixie has clarified that she is not a Republican, nor a Trump supporter and that the registration being circulated on Twitter is fake showing an incorrect spelling of her name alongside an inaccurate home address.
Watching Dixie receive hate for the photoshopped images has made me feel the need to confess something: I'm a registered Republican. But that doesn't mean that I'm a Trump supporter, or that I identify with the Republican Party platform or ideals. In fact, I consider myself to be a strong Democrat and I've been vocal over the past year about my identification with that party as well as my intention to vote blue in the 2020 election. If the fact that I'm registered as a Republican but appear to be a Democrat is confusing to you, let me explain why someone like me might register with one party over another and why you shouldn't cancel someone simply over their party registration.
Even though I voted for Joe Biden and other Democratic candidates up and down the ballot, I did so as a registered Republican. When I first pre-registered to vote at age 16, I registered as a Democrat. I knew I identified with that party and it's ideals and so it felt right to register as a Democrat. However, after time passed and I became old enough to vote in the 2020 elections, I had to switch my registration to Republican. This is because Florida operates under a closed primary system meaning if you aren't registered as a Republican you can't vote in the Republican primaries and vice versa for Democrats.
Most people only really pay attention to presidential elections every four years and midterm elections every two years, but there are also primary elections that occur intermittently to vote for presidential nominees, and local offices like superintendent of schools, tax collector, and sheriff. In states like Florida, you have to be registered with a specific party in order to vote in their primary elections; that way Republicans can't vote for a terrible Democratic candidate for president in hopes of tanking the party's ability to compete in the Presidential election or the other way around.
In my home county, Republicans outnumber Democrats heavily. Democrats had their highest turnout in the history of the county in the 2020 election coming in at only a measly 33% of the vote. For this reason, Democrats do not run for office in my county. There's no way that they could win enough votes to be elected into any office. So, in local elections the only way to participate is if you are a registered Republican due to the closed primary rules and the fact that no Democrats are on the ticket. That's why I'm registered as a Republican.
To me, voting in local elections is important. Both of my parents are educators, so voting for positions on the school board like the superintendent really matters to me. As someone who recently moved back in with their parents due to covid cancelling my in person classes, the goings on within my home county are important to me too. In order to vote for superintendent of schools, sheriff, tax collector, and a host of other positions, I am registered as a Republican. I voted for Joe Biden in November as a registered Republican even though I don't strongly identify with the label of "Republican" or their party platform.
I think the moral of the story is that it's important to not rush to judge people off of information that is incomplete or provided without context. Simply looking at someone's party identification is not enough information to make a judgement on them as a person. Dixie D'Amelio shouldn't be cancelled for a screenshot of a registration showing her to be a Republican whether it is real or fake. I shouldn't be cancelled for being a registered Republican either; as the old saying goes "don't judge a book by its cover".
