Quote:
Originally Posted by Derwood
which won't happen, because the third party candidates feel like they need to go SO extremely far away from the two major parties that they alienate 95% of the people out there.
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Ross Perot did it in 1992 with nearly 20% of the national vote for his Reform Party.
The problem was what followed...the mad scramble to control that party to get access to the federal funds for 1996. The Pat Buchanan forces eventually made a power grab and that was the end of the Reform Party.
A more sober (than Perot) and less caustic (than Buchanan) candidate could have built on that base.
The biggest problem third party supporters face is that they are all over the map and not interested in consolidating around one candidate. (can you imagine the Greens and Libertarians coming together?)
I think a "perot type movement" can happen again but third party supporters will have to accept that if will be a generational change, taking more than one-two election cycles, if it is to happen.