Little Hawk,
I agree with most of what you said (in the post with the Thom Hartmann quote).   And I basically agree with Madison on the issue of political parties.

You said, " ... political parties, by their very nature, rapidly become a perversion of democracy, and they destroy democracy. And by golly, James Madison thought so too...at the inception of your nation!!! ...

Be that as it may, the USA is presently stuck with the 2 huge parties it has, I foresee no possibility of changing that, and I think Thom Hartmann's ideas for revitalizing the Democratic Party are good ones. (sigh) They're the only way to go if the present fascist neocon movement is to be stopped in its tracks.

But, GOD, I wish the world had never even heard of the concept called "a political party". We'd be far better off without it."

No argument from me.

Cindy Sheehan's 'strategy" for dealing with this problem, I fear, is unlikely to help bring about a 3-party (or other multi-party) system, much less a no-party system. Rather, it runs a big risk of helping to bring about what Karl Rove, Lee Atwater, and other neocon strategists have been working for all these years: government, indefintiely, by SINGLE-party rule.

Say what you like about the foibles and failures of the Demcorats (e.g., Clinton and Gore having supported NAFTA and GATT and the Telecommunications Act of 1996).   Try giving the 2007 version of the Republican party everything they want for the next 4 to 12 years. THEN tell me there was "not an iota of difference" between the Pelosi/Reid Democrats and the Alberto Gonzales/Dubya/Cheney/J Roberts / C Thomas / Alito / Scalia/ Karl Rove kind of Republican.