The last third party to take off is now called the Republican Party. Both parties steal issues from third parties and change over time. Until the 1930s the Republicans were usually more liberal and isolationist and tended to be the party of the middle class, small business, well-off farmers, and blacks. The Democrats had a split personality between segregationist Southerners and labor union Northerners, everything from the KKK of Robert Byrd to socialism. The parties have changed substantially over the last forty years, mainly because of grassroots activists. If you want to change what the parties stand for just choose the one closest to your beliefs and then get involved. If you choose not to get involved it is still your God-given right to bellyache, but don’t expect to accomplish much.

We all like to think of ourselves as rugged individualists. But when push comes to shove most of us are sheep who do what we are told. Worst of all, a lot of us become unpaid agents of whoever is controlling the agenda by enforcing the current dogma on the few rugged individualists who actually exist.