Because you always research who you vote for.
Here's the synopsis for a local Democrat for mostly irrelevant local position (think of it like, local village official dog-walker or some shit):
Former US military (infantry officer), no obvious Leftist endorsements, many years spent as a Judo athlete, private practice attorney, no significant political experience, adequate physiognomy, official Democrat Party information page made no appeals to Culture War topics, or even really any significant political topics at all. (I live in a pretty red area)
Here's the quote for the local Republican for the same position:
Accomplishments:
Promoted diversity training for [government strata] employees
He's a multi-year incumbent. Has been either an attorney or a politician for the past 30 years. Poor physiognomy.
Just because there is an R in their name doesn't mean they aren't supporting DIE in the government.
CLEAR. THEM. OUT.
They all support that, including Gizortnik's Mr. "physiognomy". The fact that he's a Democrat means he will vote in favor of all that shit.
That's why it's good to just be a straight ticket republican, and the true choice you make is in the primary, not the general.
I generally agree (see my comments on Oz v. Fetterman) but the one caveat to that is if the person would be so outnumbered in their office that they can't do any harm, then its safe to vote down the compromised R for the L or D and then work to elect a non-compromised R next time around. For example, I'd vote L if I lived in eye patch McCain's district because I'm confident that the GOP will have a comfortable margin in the House this election.
You can do protest votes by writing in, for example write in "eyepatch mccain"