[Hostage]

I agree. So let’s get a plan to raise USD $100 million and organize a TEA PARTY CONVENTION.

I’m serious.

A Tea Party as a new political party can win. It will carry the republican base. It will carry 2/3’s of independents. It will carry swing voters.

I believe if the money’s there for organizing, that a Tea Party could take the Presidency by a landslide.

I have never seen in my more than 50 years the American people as fed up with BOTH parties as I have seen now.

[Kackikat]

Great, it will be like Ross Perot all over again...a democrat diversion to make sure the right loses, again.

[Publius]

You're correct about money. A proper presidential campaign is based on the high cost of media advertising, particularly TV. We're talking about raising a billion or more to get the message across.

This also means recruiting candidates for federal, state, county and local offices for the new party. There needs to be a full slate, not just a presidential candidate.

[jjotto]

We have the example of Republicans replacing Whigs as the main opposition to Democrats.

The new Republicans had the backing of ‘big media’ in Horace Greely, and had a number of already successful politicians willing to switch.

They also had the moral issue of slavery and the practical issue of opposition to crony capitalism. They also were in favor of protective tariffs.

‘Tea Party’ is a kind of state of mind. There’d have to be agreement on some basics, and politicians willing to run on the platform.

[BurningOak]

The GOP needs to completely collapse as an organization before a third party is viable. The GOP is ineffective and compromised, but the organization is nowhere near total collapse. As things stand, it would be far easier to have a conservative nominated in the Democrat primaries than it would be to create a viable third party challenge.