Is the Democrat Party financiing this? They will siphon votes away from Republicans, who are far from perfect but opposed to the radical-liberalism of the DemocRATS.
A lot of good reasons can be cited for not supporting the Constitution Party, even though most of their platform makes a lot of sense. However, while the Democratic Party and left-wing liberals might be very glad to see the Constitution Party take off for the same reasons Republicans were glad to see Ralph Nader and the Green Party siphon off Democratic Party votes, I am very sure the Democratic Party and its liberal supporters have virtually no role in promoting the Constitution Party.
Like many third-party movements, the Constitution Party has attracted a fair number of radicals and cranks and people have many different reasons for joining. The movement predates the current party and some elements are much older than the 1990s, but I believe it's fair to say the movement that first took form as the US Taxpayers Party began in the 1990s based on three separate but related issues:
First, dissatisfaction with a perceived lack of consistent conservative thinking out of the Republican Party following Reagan that began under the first President Bush,
Second, a belief based on Perot's third-party run that an ideologically based third-party was a realistic option, and
Third, a strong Christian conservative objection to a lack of consistency in the Republican Party on core issues where Christian conservatives are sometimes at odds with economic and national defense conservatives, combined with a theological focus from people influenced by theonomy and Christian Reconstruction coming out of the Calvinist wing of American conservative church life. Spend some time looking at the connections between the Constitution Party and Vision Forum's leaders and you'll get an idea what I'm talking about.
The nomination of George W. Bush considerably reduced the level of support for the movement, but a nomination of Romney will likely bring back the calls for a third-party movement with a vengeance.
Of all the people who post regularly on Free Republic supporting Santorum, I may be one of the people who most logically should be promoting the Constitution Party. I am not doing that for a number of reasons, of which the most important is that I believe political parties are supposed to be in the business of winning elections, and the Constitution Party to date has shown virtually no success in doing so.
At the point that the Constitution Party starts winning a significant number of local, state and federal races, my view could change a great deal. Until then, we're stuck with the Republicans, warts and all, because there's no other viable option out there.