Becoming a bonafide Political Party would be the death knell for this movement. I don’t think that people who live in “easy” ballot access states realize how hard it is to get folks on ballots in other states if you’re not a Dem or a Rep. — especially for a NATIONAL race.
I worked with a third-party (LP) for several years, and even though we enjoyed great success in our state for several years, on the National Level the roadblocks are WAY too great. The Republican Party (if it lived what it preached) is a closer match for me than ANYTHING on the “left” - hence why I’m an independent, but would rather work within the GOP to bring them “back to basics”.
Maybe I’m just a pessimist when it comes to 3rd parties (and it has nothing to do with “stolen votes” - as far as I’m concerned the votes don’t “belong” to one candidate or another, and votes aren’t “stolen” they are LOST for various reasons when it comes to those voting for a 3rd party candidate). What my pessimism stands for is the incredible bias in the media that prevents 3rd party candidates from at times even being included in published media polls, etc... (even if internal polls that include the candidate take equally from both sides). Forget being invited to the Candidate Forums with the LWV and such... You have to fight tooth-and-nail to be considered seriously even when you have a HUGELY strong candidate.