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My attitude has nothing to do with it. It is based in our constitution and the reality of elections.

To start with, the US president is not popularly elected. He is elected by the electoral college. Electors are not generally required to vote for a particular candidate, though they do so in practice, at least for the first vote they cast. If subsequent votes are needed, they become free agents. This means that it is far more likely for a non-ballot candidate to be elected by the college. It also means that the two dominant parties could agree to exclude a third party candidate if they wanted, as they could combine their vote against him, which they probably would.

President and Vice President are selected in two different ballots, so the college may also choose a non-intended ticket. (i.e. a Republican President and a Democrat Vice President.) If no candidate for VP has a majority of votes, the choice is made by the US Senate.

To make matters even less democratic, States are free to change how they want to select electors, until election day itself. Several States have “changed the rules in the middle of the game”, when filling seats of deceased congressmen, and there is little doubt they would hesitate to do so if a third party candidate showed prospect of winning in their State.

This current election, the States gleefully changed the primary rules as well, which could also strongly disadvantage a 3rd party, for example opening it up to non-party voters.

John Murtha ran unopposed by having two Democrats stand in the open Republican primary, then telling Democrats to vote for them instead of voting for him or the single real Republican. Once one of the Democrats was chosen as the Republican candidate, he dropped out of the race. So Murtha ran in the general election unopposed. The Republican tried a write-in ballot campaign as an independent, but those rarely if ever work.

Add it all up, and the two major parties will not allow a 3rd party candidate to be elected President.

However, this does not mean that a 3rd party is a fruitless idea. In fact, were a 3rd party to use a different approach, it could dominate the congress of the United States with a small bloc, and be as powerful as if they had won the Presidency.

And this is what I recommended. To explain:

Instead of fruitlessly trying to get a president elected first, third parties should concentrate on running strong candidates in congressional districts with small populations, where the two main parties are weak. This maximizes their effort, because they can focus their resources where they will do the most good and overwhelm both the major party candidates.

With just 10 congressmen and three senators, a 3rd party has “marginal” control over both houses of congress, as long as the two major parties are about evenly balanced.

This is because most important issues are party line votes, and the 3rd party can haggle support for *its* platform from both the major parties, in exchange for its deciding vote. This is very real, and happens all the time in parliaments around the world. Right now, this marginal position is occupied by centrist Democrats and RINOs, who force concessions from their own and other partiy for their votes. A 3rd party could displace them and have tremendous control.

And what is more important for a 3rd party? Electing a person, or getting their platform turned into law? If the Libertarians wanted marijuana legalized, this would be the way to do it.

This exact thing most recently happened in Israel, when a small religious party held marginal control between Labor and Likud. Whoever ruled had to give the religious party far more control and money than it deserved, and did so for many years.

And nothing would prevent the Constitutional or Libertarian parties from doing exactly the same thing in the US today.

From there, with real power and money, either 3rd party would grow in size and strength overnight. In turn, they could expand their marginal bloc, taking seats from both the Republicans and Democrats. And *that* is how they finally become powerful enough to win the Presidency, and to thwart all the tricks the other two parties would use to stop them.