Doug Powers has posted a very telling piece on third parties and how they can actually bring themselves to the point of having real influence in America instead of just squealing around on the fringe as they have.

I largely agree with Doug on this, as he says the very things I have been saying all along:

What do third parties need to do in order to offer a serious challenge to the established two-party system?

Join one ... temporarily.

Heck, I'd even say that if you could influence the party you've joined to the point where they have basically accepted and espoused your agenda, join them permanently.

Doug doesn't say anything about the Reagaites in the Republican Party (we call ourselves "New Federalists") who have done just that. We, frustrated with the direction the Republicans are going, but knowing the Democrats offer only that with which we strongly disagree, have sought change from within the party, working to return America to her rightful place as a Constitutional republic by reinstating constitutional limitations on the federal government.

He is right to assert that the Democrats have already been infiltrated in this way by "socialists and others to the left". Thank God there aren't enough of them to make enough of a difference to unseat the conservative cause.

But the Republicans have been moving to the left as well, and the party could use some reinforcements from the more conservative factions in America to help bring about changes more favorable to the Constitution. This would force the Republican Party to face the fact that freedom-loving Americans don't want to continue under the phony premise that socialism has a chance to cure the ailments it has itself caused. With the Federalists already in the party, the Constitutionites and Libertarians could really influence the kind of change America so desperately needs.

Once the final punchline of the joke that is the Democratic Party has finally been delivered, the conservative factions in America can get together and make decisions as to what each of the two new major parties can stand for. Putting the socialists out of the picture for good and reinstating the Constitution once and for all must take priority over all other differences we conservatives may have.

There's only so much time.

RWR

h/t - Mr. Minority

Note: EO 12612 - President Reagan's Executive Order on Federalism