Since When Is There A Party In Politics?

Third Party politics have always played a small role in this country. I don't think the problem is with the parties, I just think it's with primary voters. There were around 9 candidates for president for the GOP, and voters chose John McCain over some of the other, better choices.

As a recent convert from the GOP, I can say from years of voting experience, that people (myself included until recently) tend to feel they have no voice, that their vote won't count if they vote third party. The major parties are all too willing to foster this attitude.
To be clear...that mindset couldn't be more false or misguided.

That the dems/reps seem to almost always be seperated by a few percentage points in any given election should be all the evidence one needs to come to the conclusion that even a minor percentage of votes for a third party candidate can significantly influence any election.
That being the case, it is entirely possible that in future elections, the most influential voters could become the ones who vote outside of the two major parties.

As for the primaries...watching the media at work, it's not hard to see that the voting public becomes fixated on picking a candidate that could win, not the better candidate for the country...otherwise Ron Paul would be so far ahead in the polls as the Republican candidate Nov 4th would be little more than a formality.