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It is better to use the system to your advantage, than to feel helpless against it. A 3rd party will not grow in a political vacuum, as voters are a zero sum game. Therefore, it is important, as I suggested before, to find those platform elements that are most popular, and run with them.

It is not hypocritical to back burner your less popular ideas. It does not mean that you have given up on them. It just means that you are not advertising them as much as your popular ideas. And you do have to sell your ideas to the voter to bring them to your side.

The Contract With America was brilliant in this regard, though bitterly opposed by the multi-term old guard. They did not *want* to be clear in their platform, precisely because they were hypocrites, and prone to taking both sides of an argument to avoid responsibility. The young Republicans, however, signed on to this brilliant, simple, clear list of ideas, and were rewarded handsomely for it by a public that loved the clarity for a change.

But the old guard put its foot down and said “never again”, *despite* its being a huge success. But not ironically, the idea could have been used again, to similar success.

As it could be used by a third party. And remember, that while the President can to some extent influence new law, he does not create new law. And it is in new law that a 3rd party gets what it really wants and grows in strength at the same time.

At the expense of the other two parties. And this goes back to my original point. With both congressmen and senators, the electoral college is no longer the enemy of the 3rd party, it becomes its friend. And at the same time, it becomes much less friendly to one of the two old parties.

And from that point, the Presidency is a very real and attainable goal.