the Republican Party has housed people who despise gay people and non-WASPs, people who actively vote against women's rights, against gay rights, against measures to help the poor and every other marginalised group in society

...as has the Democratic party. There are multiple right-of-center Dems who do exactly all of this, and yet no one seems to hold the party at large responsible for this, even though I'd argue the party is different only from the Republicans in degree.

Frankly, I'm sick of the lot of them, but I continue to vote Democrat b/c I'd rather choose the lesser of two evils than vote for the third-party candidate who will definitely lose and in doing so my vote will not effectively count against the greater evil.