Voting third party is irredeemably hopeless.

[Art_from_Ark]

60. I'm not sure that a parliamentary system would be any better

Just imagine the teabaggers and the mainstream Republicans forming long-lasting coalitions, similar to the way that the right-wing Komeito has formed a perpetual coalition with the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Japan, which has allowed the latter to govern Japan for all but about 5 or 6 years since 1955. Also, it is typical for a Japanese prime minister to have an approval rating of less than 30% once the very short-lived honeymoon wears off, and there have been 50 Japanese prime ministers just since the present constitution was adopted in 1947. Italy as well has had dozens of prime ministers in the post-war era.

At the same time, the Iron Lady held the reigns of power for 11 years in the UK, with disastrous results. And in many parliamentary systems, elections can be held at the whim of the ruling party, that is, when it thinks it has sufficient support to remain in power.

I can just see an American parliamentary system where the teabaggers branch off to form a separate party but align themselves closely with the Republicans. At the same time, the Republicans might gain more support from the left side of their spectrum because the teabaggers would technically be a separate party.