You recall that I have a minor campaign to make sure RINO is correctly used, so if someone was NEVER a Democrat, or never a member of a minor party (NY Conservative party, American Independent, Independence, Communist, etc.) they can't ever have been anything other than a Republican.
At the same time they might well be Leftists, or Rightists.
We have more than enough words to cover Leftists. We are short on words to cover Rightists (and this is all in the European sense since we don't really have that sort of political variation in American politics). We do not now nor have we ever had a serious ROYALIST faction! ~ for example ~
Actually they can and we have them in Southern states as well as nationally. There are many that are either are un-principled or have socialist or democrat or just a tendency to spend, many of these don’t have the courage to run as what they are and they will run and many times get elected as Republicans but don’t vote as a Republican ( RINO ). Many of these congregate in some areas and basically control the party to the exclusion of Conservatives (ELITEST). English is a wonderful language, industry, admen scientist, and journalist can create new words overnight, individuals can use words in ways that they were not previously used or intended and still communicate. It was not my mistake to use the term “Rino Elitest”, it conveyed what I meant to say and I seriously doubt anyone misunderstood me including you. We have too much crap going on to spend any more time on this.