>> “I really am beginning to think the best approach is try to infiltrate the Democrats...The Republicans are irrelevant now, so might as well get with the winning team.” <<
That sounds like a whimsical idea, and we probably aren’t anywhere close to the point at which it would be advisable, but I wouldn’t rule it out. The segregationist South was in effect a one-party system, where with few exceptions anyone who wanted to participate in the government had to belong to the Democrat party. Also in Communist or Fascist dictatorships joining the ruling party is expected, but people adhere to its positions to varying degrees. Observers desperate for an alternative try to seek out hints among the ruling elite that someone might dissent in some small way.
If the United States moves toward a de facto dictatorship — whether soft or hard — infiltrating the Democrats by devious means may be one of the few options remaining for opposition. If non-Democrats are going to be persecuted, let’s everyone become a Democrat. :-)
Still, that kind of opposition takes decades to produce positive results, maybe generations to undermine the system (e.g., the USSR). Even with our system that previously allowed dissent, much of the opposition to it was covert, and not open in revealing its aims. It took decades to be undermined, and to produce the negative results that are threatening us now.
I’m writing about the Republican party imploding immediately after an election in which it won most of the races. Still, it lost power at the federal level — very important with the Democrats intent on ruling from there — and if it turns against Trump supporters, I think its prospects are dim. Subtract the Trump supporters, and how many races would it have won?