Brief History of Political Parties

From wikipedia:

History

The United States Constitution has never formally addressed the issue of political parties. The Founding Fathers did not originally intend for American politics to be partisan. In Federalist Papers No. 9 and No. 10, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, respectively, wrote specifically about the dangers of domestic political factions. In addition, the first President of the United States,George Washington, was not a member of any political party at the time of his election or throughout his tenure as president. Furthermore, he hoped that political parties would not be formed, fearing conflict and stagnation.^[1] Nevertheless, the beginnings of the American two-party system emerged from his immediate circle of advisers, including Hamilton and Madison.

Stagnation is what we've been experiencing. The Wikipedia entry goes on to state that people who

are not on the ballot can be written in as a protest vote for the write-in candidate. I'd rather work

within the structured political system we have now as either firstly a Democrat or defyingly as a

Republican. I can't believe how radical republican candidate Ron Paul sounds when he says that

the troops in South Korea and Japan should be taken home and the war in the middle east ended.

He is obviously the lesser-of-all-evil candidates.