I get the feeling you folks are going to continue to get moderate Presidents as long as you have only the two parties you've got right now. And I have no idea how a third party would form right now, except possibly (slim, outside chance) by calving the Tea Party off of the Republicans. If either of your current parties disintegrated, there would be incentive to get any number of new parties going past the "wouldn't it be nice if somebody voted for us" stage... but I don't see that happening any time soon.
(In Canada, we have the opposite problem - too many parties on one side of the spectrum, which splits the vote on that side and allows the single party on the other side to take the plurality. It used to be balanced when both sides had multiple parties, but not any more.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
(In Canada, we have the opposite problem - too many parties on one side of the spectrum, which splits the vote on that side and allows the single party on the other side to take the plurality. It used to be balanced when both sides had multiple parties, but not any more.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012