Is possible in your scheme for there to be centrist populists? It seems to me that's where Arianna and Ventura belong. And for better or worse, that's why people who lust after third parties support them -- because iff third parties have a value in themselves, as a means to break the duopoly, then this is the creed that would have the best chance of taking sizeable votes from both existing parties, if people voted purely based on whether they agreed with sentiments. Since (again, for better or worse) it's probably closer to majority common sense that the variant peddled by either of the parties.
Of course this is still a mug's game, not only because people don't vote that way, but because these guys just hate the elites because they want to replace them with themselves, exactly the same reason Dem and Repug elites hate each other. But them seem distinguishable to me from right-wing populists. I thought you were saying they -- or at least Arianna -- were not.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com