What are the Republicans up to?

[Onlooker]

In the course of this campaign season, at different times Republicans have urged their members to vote for Clinton or Obama. By doing this, they are trying to play us. In this forum it's well known that Clinton supporters attack Obama for getting Republican support and Obama supporters attack Clinton for getting Republican support, so we are pretty easy to play.

I think the Republicans are trying to do two things:

The Republicans know they will have a hard time in November unless the Democrats are very divided. When Hillary was ahead, Republicans urged people to vote for Obama. Now that Obama is ahead, Republicans are doing the opposite. They are doing what they can to divide us and polarize us, and they are having some success. They need a contentious Democratic convention, and as the Convention approaches they will try to divide the young Obama activists and the Clinton feminists in the hopes of provoking a bitter if not violent Convention. Consider that the Republican Convention takes place a few days after the Democratic one, and imagine the dreadful PR of a contentious Democratic Convention. It could cost the Democrats the White House.

Also, I think what the Republicans are trying to do is find a better meme than just the one about Republicans changing parties, and it sounds better for them if they say that Republicans are voting for Clinton (or Obama) out of loyalty to the Republican Party. So far, this meme seems to be dominating, but it's absurd to think that there are tens of thousands of Republicans who would engage in political sabotage activities, and there's plenty of evidence that Obama and Clinton have some genuine support among Republicans.