Ah, so if a candidate is put forward that isn't Democratic or Republican they're pretend?
...hm, I wonder if the Democratic-Republican party and Whig party said the same thing.
The Republican party is so underwhelming in pursuing its stated platform planks that I'm surprised they're at all in any power.
Abortion -- aside from banning partial-birth abortions, where the child is murdered literally as it's being born, what strides towards ending abortion has the Republican-party made?
Fiscal responsibility -- what have they done to encourage this? Especially since congress is required by law (Congressional Budget Act) to pass a budget.
Government Accountability -- How long has it taken to get anything, anything done with respect to Fast & Furious? Ah, well, I mean F&F wasn't that big a deal, only: 1. violating domestic laws; 2. violating treaties; 3. an unauthorized act of war; 4. state sponsored terrorism; 5. treason*.
(* All that would be needed to convict the F&F players of treason is to show that the drug cartels are enemies of the several states; F&F was providing both arms [aid] and legal protections [comfort] to the cartels.)
Smaller government -- When was the last time a government agency was cut? (This does not include simply rolling the employees up into another agency.)
Yeah; unless the GOP starts to actually do what it says then I see no reason to aid its existence by voting for its candidates.
The Democratic-Republican Party(Jefferson, Madison, Monroe) and the Whig Party (Clay, Harrison, Webster) were one of the two major parties of their time. D-R party was paired with the Federalists, and for a time was the only party during Monroe and JQ Adams. The Whigs were the opposition to the Jacksonian Democrats. Your examples were not third parties, they were the major ones. A better example you should have chosen was the Know Nothing Party. Even they had way more support then today’s fringe third parties.