10-13-2012, 08:02 PM
Pops wrote:
It's not 150 million + 1 that matters, as we know from Tilden and Gore. If we ever get a SERIOUS 3rd party candidate with the opportunity to affect the electoral process, it could get interesting. I'm not holding my breath. I've lived through George Wallace and Ross Perot attempts; the others, like Anderson, were truly inconsequential in any electoral sense.
I can see it happening one day. There'd have to be a very decisive issue with three compelling alternative solutions with roughly 25-30% of the population in strong support.
Or a faction spins off of one of the parties - like the tea party splitting from the repubs.
Or a current third party champions an issue that the other two refuse to back - then some big news event happens that proves the 3rd party was right just in time to gather steam for the upcoming election.
Our two party system is still quite young, but the future goes on forever...