It might help at this point to consider possible alternatives to both the Democrats and the Republicans. Consider the American Primate Party. Chongo has been articulating his continually evolving platform for change in anticipation of the 2012 election:

He is running for president again in 2012, but his platform is a little hard to categorize as either Right, Left, or Center. For instance: he's very pro-gun, but he's very anti-war. He would lobby for increased gun ownership amongst the general public and promote opening more firing ranges in communities across the nation to train proper handling of firearms, but he would very rapidly pull the USA out of both Iraq and Afghanistan, and he would shut down Guantanamo...no ifs, ands, or buts about that. He would give the place back to Cuba. He would also give the Panama Canal Zone back to Panama. And he would make sure that people can continue to smoke in American bars if they so desire. He would legalize home cultivation of marijuana for personal use only, but would not allow it to be sold commercially by anyone. He would raise the minimum wage significantly and institute universal health care as has been done long ago in Europe and Canada. He would resume much expanded space exploration and work to put a chimp (or a man) on Mars by 2016. He would put major funding into reforestation efforts in both the USA and abroad, and greatly curtail defence spending. ("We need more trees, not more missiles.") He would act to ban the sale of inflatable dolls of Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton, because "It's disrespectful to women and just downright tacky." He would remove the import tax on bananas.