The political parties, at the state level, sabotaged any reasonable intention in the Electoral College. Most states have laws, some with heavy penalties, requir

The political parties, at the state level, sabotaged any reasonable intention in the Electoral College. Most states have laws, some with heavy penalties, requiring that the Electors are made up of party loyalists. These are not deliberative people, and the founding idea of the College in Federalist 68, is that the this body should be deliberative. I argue those state laws make it essentially impossible for a national 3rd party to emerge. Another factor, ironically, is more democracy and less process, in the party primary system, while at the same time not having mandatory voter participation, has allowed an even lower signal to noise ratio in the eventual two choices the parties select. A tiny number of people participate in the primaries, and making it easier for highly emotionally motivated yet ignorant people to participate gets us increasingly partisan politics. That's what's edged out the moderates from both parties, and by moderates I mean, having the capacity to compromise.