I'm all for 3rd parties, but here's the problem:

The President -- to truly be successful -- needs to work with the vast majority of Congress. How will that happen if s/he is the only one from his "party?" What would be their incentive to cooperate if there's still just a 2 party system at the Congress level that essentially guarantees victory for each of them in the next election?

In that scenario, the President better have incredibly high ratings amongst the voting populace... in essence Senate/House members would have to know that their constituents would vote them out if they didn't work with the President. So, I think we're back to the -electorate as a vast majority being willing to completely overhaul the system (i.e. voting out uncooperative Congress members) for a 3rd party President to get in and be effective in any sense of the word.

That's why I mentioned the Tom Clancy scenario. Don't know if you're a fan, but he wrote a book ("Debt of Honor") where most of Congress -- and the President -- are wiped out in a terrorist act. What's rebuilt is done so with outsiders who aren't beholden to special interests.

Knowing how slow social evolution tends to be, I have a feeling that for this sort of thing to happen before another generation will take something drastic. Hopefully not so misfortunate, but drastic nonetheless.

>If at the local level grassroots is possible... and for all pracitical purposes the very local level like city councils and mayors of non-metropolises are non-republicrat... then it seems all that is needed to reach the highest levels is a few rounds of elections where the 3rd parties step it up to some intermediate level.
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>That seems to be a problem with an easy solution.
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>Convince more people to vote heavily 3rd party.