A very sarcastic rat. I just can't get my head around your sudden conversion, Techie. Too far out of character for you, despite the sincerity piled so high it sounds like sarcasm.

If you'd provide some more details about your stats, maybe we could discuss the relative corruptibility of politicians. Please cite your sources.

It is true, despite your sarcasm, that rank-and-file Republicans are showing growing signs of discontent with their Party. It's sinking in that Party control is so strong that the politicians the rank-and-file elects don't represent them anymore, they just work for the Party, and a Party agenda that's often at odds with local agendas.

I've never advocated a third party, and I think it'd be a stupid idea. It's my view that the two political parties in America exist to organize the extremes of left and right to negotiate with the middle, and that's why it seems natural to have two political parties. Third parties are always a destabilizing influence that weakens one side or the other. The center's the natural power place in American politics, and the center doesn't need a political party; political parties come to the center asking for power granted through votes.

The idea I've toyed with is to organize in the center not a political party, but a standards-setting group, that extracts concessions on good behavior in exchange for a voting bloc endorsement. The idea is strictly bipartisan: Candidates from any party are judged on their support of clean campaign finances, respect for their constituency's rights over Party power, pledge to not consort with lobbyists, etc. Nothing about ideology or goals, only about the conduct of government.

It's been done before, for example the League of Women Voters. I think that new organizations like this need to come along from time to time, because the old organizations age and get complacent or irrelevant, or the Parties learn how to circumvent them, e.g. the declining power of the LWV to force Presidential candidates to debate. It's probably appropriate that it should work that way, since this shouldn't be a radical idea and should be considered reassertion of traditional American political values. Slapping politicians upside the head periodically is a grand American tradition, and I look forward to the spectacle of it.