Am I wrong?

[Juan_Bottom]

I agree with DM.

The sheer amount of power and money that the two parties weild means that no third party (even if it represented the same narrow-banded centrist policies that the Reps and Dems advocate) could ever be succesful.

I was pretty stoked on (my state) Senator Dick Durbin when he finally got a "private funds" law passed in my home state of Illinois. If a third party candidate can get enough signatures, then the state will give them money to run. If they run for Congress for example, they get $75,000 in tax dollars. Anything that is not used is returned to the state.
Then I came across some new info that upset me. Dike Durbin (running virtually unopposed) spent over a million dollars in his last campaign.

How is 75K going to compete with that kind of money? And that was UNOPPOSED money!

[Dancing Mustard]

Also, apologies for such a badly worded post. It was a stream of conciousness and it's still pretty early here. I'll return and edit later to today.

[mpjh]

Well, Kurt Vonnegut you are not.

[Juan_Bottom]

Who cares? It was understandable, and we all know you.

[jonesthecurl]

Ban political parties. We should be able to vote for the representative that would best suit our region without worrying about who is head of their organiation.
I have in the past voted locally for someone I neither liked not admired, over someone I did, because of the national picture.
This is silly.

[Dancing Mustard]

We should be able to vote for the representative that would best suit our region without worrying about who is head of their organiation.

Exactly.

Also, should you choose to vote for somebody based on that reason it ought not mean that your views and vote disappear into nothingness because everybody else is voting red/blue rather than on the merits of individual candidates.