AHC : Reform Party becomes a major third party

So how does one manage to build upon the success the Reform party had in the 1992 USA election and manage to have them become the American equivalent of the Liberal democrats insted of how they imploded in OTL .
 
The US having just two relevant parties -and its the only polity in the world with this feature, though there have been dictatorships that have tried to duplicate the US system- is sort of over-determined. It would take a long essay to go into why. But one eccentric billionaire isn't going to get it done. It would take at least half a dozen eccentric billionaires, working together, and with that as the goal.
 
Btw, the long term problem is that, unlike in other countries, American elections are not managed by an independent agency. The whole system is run by officials appointed by the parties themselves.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Have it come from actual grassroots, have the focus and funding not go to the presidency but instead on lower levels of Government, have Perot actually put an ideology behind it that the other parties weren't offering at the time instead of letting it become a grab bag of Democratic and Republican rejects, and crucially have it not be Perot's vanity project. Maybe then it could maybe sustain itself as a relevant third party for more than one election, but at that point it's not Reform anymore- and even then, you simply won't get a 'American equivalent of the Liberal Democrats', because unless they can displace the Republicans they'll go the way of the Populists.
 
Top