Don't be silly. We've had lots of independent candidates through the years. Just none of 'em ever got elected to the White House (they've been elected to the House of Representatives and the Senate).
Any time you feel like taking a crack at our electoral system, taxslave, just whisper to yourself "Justin Trudeau." Then shut your mouth.
Abe Lincoln was technically a 3rd party candidate as the GOP did not exist before him.
I couldn't agree more. I got a radical solution: remove all donation limits. Ban all donations from non-natural persons. Ban all donations from natural persons who are not citizens or legal residents of the United States. Impose draconian penalties, i.e., if a forbidden donation is proven against the victor in an election, then she is automatically out and the second-place finisher is automatically in.
That'd get the machines to police their donations carefully. Unfortunately, it would increase the amount of harassing litigation, but hey, I'm a lawyer, so it's hard for me to argue against harassing litigation.
I couldn't agree more with those measure but I would also add that you can only donate to candidates running within the riding in which you live.
Then impose a law that all candidates run as independents. Make political parties illegal. That should force all candidates to concern themselves with the wishes and the will of their constituents as they are supposed to.