Those are definitely your opinions and yours to keep. Reality for the US is that no one has to be a Republican or Democrat. Nothing in the Constitution that speaks of political parties. Those are just offshoots that too many folks believe are required. Over history there have been many other groups that did help drive our country, but then they were replaced by other groups. As far as I consider it, I can vote, and have, from either party with no problems at all.
Years back our ballots had party boxes where you could vote for all in one party by marking that box. I believe it was in the 1950's that those boxes were removed from the ballots and now we must mark each and every item you want to choose. Pretty good as now you must know your party names if you really want to choose only them. A much more honest ballot this way as it forces us all to try to learn more about the party people and goals before the elections. Maybe they should also delete all the D's and R's and I's too. Which would mean we would all have to learn of the names we want before the ballots are asked for.