It seems for a 3rd party to emerge, we need a lightning rod.

3rd parties like Green and Lib have kind of floundered along, even with the worst candidates for the duopoly in history running.

Bernie could have been a lightning rod...but he has no courage. Schumer has the leash tight around his neck. To me the most pathetic thing to see this past election was Bernie squandering the huge amount of energy and momentum he created. He tried to push it into the black hole known as the Dem party.

Even now, his backed candidate lost (Ellison). What reason does he have to stick around? None. But that's the thing. He's a Dem who like to parade as an independent. He could change the course of American politics like that, but he won't.

Many who cling to the idea that the Democratic Party will ever again be a party of even a moderate left have been gas lighted for decades. "We're less evil than those nasties. If we lose to them, it's your fault." Remember how we fared over at the other place when we suggested that Clinton was a millstone around our necks? Yeah, she won the popular vote...and the dems lost over a thousand elected positions across the country, several governorships and state leges, AND congressional and senate seats. Some coat tails this strategy has!

Listening to Perez's speech today is a case in point. The establishment dems think that decrying Trump will be enough to win the day in two years--no new ideas, no effort to win over the masses of people who don't vote. The dems are a party with no reason to live. Assisted suicide may be the only answer.

to form. One that reflects America’s diversity. NZ has developed one that works pretty well. The country changed to MMP, from the two-party system, in 1996. It was decided by referendum. I don’t know how referendums achieve public voting status, but a referendum might be a good start.

From the NZ Electoral Commission website …

“Coalitions or agreements between political parties are usually needed before Governments can be formed.”

If you look at the two graphs in the link, you will see the increasing influence of the Green Party. In the last election (2014) the Greens added one more list seat.

From Wikipedia …

All New Zealand elections from 1914 to 1996 consistently used the British system of first-past-the-post (FPP) for parliamentary elections (bloc voting and runoff voting were also used in some elections before 1914). This system had consistently favoured the two largest parties. From 1936 on, these were the National and Labour parties.
The electoral reform debate began in earnest in New Zealand following two successive general elections in 1978 and 1981 in which the National Party won majority status with less than 40% of the vote, even though it won a lower share of the vote than the Labour Party. The Social Credit Party was also finding that the system worked against them, winning only one seat out of 92 in 1978 and two seats in 1981 as against 16.1% of the vote in 1978 and 20.7% of the vote in 1981. Governments had been previously formed despite the opposition winning the popular vote in both 1911 and 1931 as well.

Maybe a strong 3rd party would ultimately lead to the beginning of a different system, but I fear that until the amount of money and time spent on campaigning and advertising is limited, there’s little hope.