>>
>>578
>it clearly has
>The focus of the entire party changed in less than a decade because it was taken over from within
>They were expunged en-masse by people working within that party
Perhaps I should ammend my statment: it's never worked for any beneficial purpose. It only seems to work for people who want to shit things up. Although, no I haven't really looked it up; I only have my real-world experience to rely on--trying to work a bad system for a good purpose usually fails.
>Stop parroting their talking points and start physically doing something.
I'm happy you posted this, because it's true, and they've probably been here too. I am not one of them. It may not sound very original, but I don't think you'll find many people who share my point of view. I'm rather used to being the only person who ever says or thinks the things I say and think--been that way my whole life.
As for physically doing something, this is physically doing something. Just like those spambots attempt to sway public opinion with their spam, I'm trying to get a message out to an audience that might be receptive to it. Also, I vote.
As for making my ideal manifest; I often find myself thinking about the kinds of minor party coalitions you see in Europe--especially in Germany. There's no single third party in the United States with the financial resources or membership to compete against the two major parties. The most likely path to a real victory would be to have a "coalition primary" and pit the various third party candidates against each other as early as the major parties are having their primaries. The victor would become the coalition's candidate, with some agreement as to how that candidate will be able to represent the multifaceted values of the coalition in office (ie, as president they lead the nation according to the policies of their own party, but agree to give other--qualified--coalition candidates voices and roles in their administration).
The system itself is quite broken however, and stacked against the chances of any non-Republican or Democratic candidate from ever winning. Without proportional representation in most state's electoral colleges, the popular vote is nigh on meaningless. I could imagine a third-party candidate becoming popular enough to win a majority of the popular vote nationwide, and in a majority of states, but if they don't get the majority in a few specific states they still lose.