The fringies do tend to show up in the "third party" scene all right.
I read a proposal years ago that sounded interesting. Each state would have one senator and 50 other senators would be elected at large. IOW, everybody could vote on one "at large" senator, so that groups with only 5 to 10% of voter clout nation wide could have a senator or two in DC.
Look for it shortly after pigs fly.
