The Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)

Call it what you like, but as a recovering Libertarian (and before that, as an actual Libertarian) I've been paying at least some attention to third parties over the last 30 years or so, and I see no reason to believe that there is any party out there that has the political chops or the broad appeal to make a viable third party. Even efforts with massive financial backing and superficial populist appeal like the the Tea Baggers or Ross Perot's Reform Party haven't gotten enough momentum or credibility to make any kind of lasting impression. They mostly wind up peeling off the nuttier components of the Republicans for a while and acting as spoilers. For that matter, given that the US doesn't have a parliamentary system anyway, and no mechanisms for coalition governance, it's not clear to me that the dominance of the two parties is the core of our political problems, or that a viable third party would solve any.