Work within the system

Ruth Anne says:

A little reminder: Prior to Barry Goldwater's revolution within the party, the party had a different flavor. Reagan continued that trend and some Reagan democrats stayed.

Steve Forbes ran on tax reform and helped make that an issue in the party.

Tom Tancredo was a one-issue guy: and he beamed at one of the debates that "they're all trying to out-Tancredo Tancredo" in reference to the border-tightening one upmanship.

Also this season, Ron Paul, within the context of the existing party, got several chances to advance fiscal conservatism, making government smaller and less intrusive in citizen's lives and a humble foreign policy. He advanced the libertarian wing of the party a good deal.

Pat Buchanan, on the other hand, left the party and went off into irrelevance and a dismal showing in the--what was it?--Constitution Party.

You advance your ideas by working within your party for change. You convince enough people [and it's mathematically easier to win primaries in a party than as a third party] because of the soundness of your ideas and selling it to the voters who show up.

I'm not sure that Forbes made tax reform an issue beyond his own view of how it should be done (it goes back at least to Goldwater and probably beyond) but beyond that, it can't be repeated often enough. Third parties don't work in America unless they aim to (and do) quickly and permanently displace the second party.