I've been a registered Democrat for about five weeks my entire life: I had to register that way to vote in the 2016 primary in Oregon because the Democratic primary there is closed. I changed my affiliation back to "independent" as soon as the primary election was over and my vote (for Bernie Sanders) was cast.

The US' two-party lockout (in practice...) largely disenfranchises people like us, those who don't conform to large segments either of those parties' platforms. We have no opportunity to vote for candidates who do reflect our views and have any real chance of victory, at least for higher offices.