You may be right that Laughlin was the only 1994-1995 switcher to go on to lose the primary, but after Michael Forbes of the NY-01 switched from the GOP to the RATs in 1999 he went on to lose the 2000 Democrat primary to a librarian or some such named Regina Selzer who benefited from RNC or NRCC billboards thanking Forbes for his votes for the Contract with America, etc. (and Republican Felix Grucci easily defeated Selzer in the general, with Forbes getting like 2% as the nominee of the now-defunct Liberal Party).
I meant D to R congressional switcher.
I know all about Forbes. That was masterful how the GOP helped the old lady beat him. Too bad Grucci later pissed the seat away.
The only other GOP switcher that failed that comes to my mind is a Governor, Buddy Roemer of LA who came in third in the 1991 jungle primary and left LA voters with the worst choice ever in the runoff. (I’d have cast a blank ballot smeared with dog doo before)
As to the Lincoln slavery thing. Yes. Anti-slavery dems left the party. Though I would’ve wanted to avoid the war which I guess was impossible without guaranteeing that slavery could stay and expand to the west so.......
However as I think about it I most likely would have been a Whig and then a Republican at that time despite not being a protectionist (would that have made me a WINO? ;D) so I’d probably gone with my party’s candidate.
To respond to you LS by conservative I did not mean pro-war but rather meant fiscally conservative and small government. AFAIK that was the norm for New England Republicans (save for the tariff issue) in the early 20th century.
As to the draft, it’s the same thing as slavery in my eyes (cept you get paid some and it’s temporary (if you survive the war) ) so I couldn’t support one not even for WW2. The 13th amendment makes it unconstitutional in my textualist view.