What SamIam said!

Also, it is my considered opinion that we as a nation have made a total hash of two parties. We are not mature enough to handle three. Ask again in a few more decades.

Alas, corporate tax dodging is not an illegal "refusal to pay". It is exploiting existing legal loopholes to minimise the bill they get. And lobbying congress to make sure those loopholes do not get closed off. Grr.

I'm not sure if this goes here or in the"Occupy" thread. For what its worth:

Occupy has started a fledgling third party. Interesting…

Romney proposed we should have executed GM. Maybe they are people.

A little bit of quick research into the percentage of the population that votes shows that since 1960 there have been only 13 years that voter turn out has been over 50 percent and only 3 years since 1960 has that average edged up over 60 percent. Which means that less then 30 percent of the U.S. population, probably closer to less then 25 percent of the U.S. population elects any given Government official.

If 84 percent of Americans are not happy with the officials in office then some one is being a bit of a hypocrite. I say the system is working just fine. If they don't want to vote, but want to bitch about what the guys in office do with their time in office....fuck em.

The biggest reason that third party will not currently work is because of this low voter turn out.

I've avoided this thread for too long.

Yes, I think the US should have a third party despite the inevitable hangover.

You don't think there's a possibility you have your cause and effect mixed up there?

That just sounds like a vicious circle.

You are making the assumption that these people can elect someone they will be happy with.

I'm only making the assumption that 90-100 percent of a voting population can impact the vote greater then 50-60 percent.

IN MY OPINION
 

If you wanna improve the 'system' (aside from just plain scrapping it): ban all political parties (when someone is elected, 'he' or 'she' is elected, not the bandwagon he or she climbed on to), and, implement a *real 'none of the above' option in every election from the federal level all the way down to the municipal.









*'Real' in that if NotA gets the majority vote, then all the losers go home and cannot participate in that particular election again in that particular cycle. This might mean a post would remain un-filled for quite a while...it might also mean the machine of governance will be stymied from time to time, for goodly chunks of time: fine by me.

Especially if that additional 40-50% all cast their votes for a third party.

Here ya go Sam ...

The Bull Moose Party Progressives

Bully! Go, Teddy, go! He was a great character and a great American Progressive. But even Teddy Roosevelt couldn't get elected running as a third party candidate. (sigh) The resurrection of the Bull Moose Party does have a certain quaint charm, though.

;)