I have long said that the two parties don't care about anything but their own power, prestige, and pocketbooks and to that end they have rigged the system against third parties. The Republicans forgetting that they started life as a third party. Since the first Republican presidential campaign in 1856 third parties have only gotten more than 5% of the vote nine times. The strongest showing was the 1856 election where the upstart Republicans took 33% of the popular vote to the Whig's 21.5%, and the Democrats won with 45.29%. 1860 was kind of an anomaly because the country was on the verge of civil war and the election was actually the straw that broke the camel's back. Republicans took 39.65%, Democrats 29.52%, Southern Democrats 18.2%, and Constitutional Union 12.62%. In 1892 the Populist party had 8.51%, 1912 the Progressives (Bull Moose under Roosevelt) took 27.39 (actually came in second in that election leaving the Republicans in 3rd place). It was the Progressives again in 1924 with 16.62%, then the American Independent Party (George Wallace was the candidate and was later shot in an assassination attempt) got 13.53%. 1980 John Anderson led the Independents to get 6.61%. Then Ross Perot, first as an Independent in 1992 then under the Reform Party in 1996 got 18.91% and 8.40% respectively. Other than in local elections and primaries, I haven't voted for a Republican or Democrat since 2012.
