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Yes

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I would say yes - but no time soon.

There have been a number of strong candidates in recent years that have proven how difficult it is to be elected.

In 1980 there was John Anderson - A Republican that decided to leave his party to run on his own. He pulled about 5.7 million votes (about 6.6% of those that voted), but didn't pull a single electoral vote.

In 1992 H. Ross Perot created his own party, The Reform Party in an effort to try and run against the "Big Two" Parties. He pulled in over 19 million votes (almost 1 in 5 of each voter!), but again failed to get any electoral votes. He tried again in '96, but barely got 8% of those that went to the polls.

In 2000 Green Party candidate, Ralph Nader threw his hat in the ring but only got 2.8% of the voters. There are those that say that he "stole" votes that might have helped Al Gore win a couple of the states to allow him to take the Presidency - but, people always say that about third party candidates.

The biggest road block third party candidates will have is the electoral college. It's blatantly skewed toward the Republicans and Democrats. Ross Perot was able to garner almost 20% of the popular vote in '92, but because the Electoral College systems is designed to give ALL votes of a state to the candidate with the majority he never stood a chance.

Another problem is that the two major parties are heavily funded by their respective parties. The Republicans and Democrats have massive "war chests" that they use strictly for maintaining their power bases. These war chests are heavily funded by special interests that enjoy having their interest supported.

The final obstacle is the myth that voting for a third party is a "wasted" vote. The American people are pretty much brainwashed into thinking that they can only have a Democrat or Republican in the White House.

Still, the two parties can only fool people for so long and eventually their power base will fall apart and some upstart candidate will come in and push them out.

So, it is possible...but, probably not in our lifetime.

Perpetuate Your Own Truth

Learn more about this author, David Furritus.
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