Bartholomew Roberts
Moderator
This is a broader link describing trends in our political system; but I'm linking to it because the part about primaries is especially important in understanding how important these elections are to the Second Amendment.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-political-process-isnt-rigged-it-has-much-bigger-problems/
The short version is practically nobody votes in the primaries; but at the same time the general elections are less competitive than they ever have been. This means if you can win the appropriate primary, then the red/blue preference for your region will almost guarantee you the general election.
The end result of this is that if you are contrary to your state's regional red/blue preferences, you are wasting time trying to influence the choice of the party that best represents your beliefs. You are actually better off registering for the party that least represents your beliefs and using the primary to cut off the source of candidates offensive to those beliefs.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-political-process-isnt-rigged-it-has-much-bigger-problems/
The short version is practically nobody votes in the primaries; but at the same time the general elections are less competitive than they ever have been. This means if you can win the appropriate primary, then the red/blue preference for your region will almost guarantee you the general election.
The end result of this is that if you are contrary to your state's regional red/blue preferences, you are wasting time trying to influence the choice of the party that best represents your beliefs. You are actually better off registering for the party that least represents your beliefs and using the primary to cut off the source of candidates offensive to those beliefs.