"If even number 2 above is preferable to you than working with major parties, how can you claim you are "choosing a more beautiful, uplifting, hopeful kind of future?"

I avoid a lot of assholes, am for the most part, around a lot of really fantastic people, and live a pretty simple, but rich life. What's not beautiful about that, Nerd?

OTOH, the people I know who are political party activists, and I actually have known quite a few of them down through the years, haven't been very well adjusted people. They were, to engage in a few gross generalizations based purely upon my own personal experiences, insecure no matter how much they had, alienated a lot of people, not the least of whom were usually their partners, kids, and friends, and seemed to be edgily functioning in their lives as if they were struggling with an addiction--which work is for a lot of people--rather than involved in meaningful work they truly enjoyed.