No 3rd party candidate is going to get elected operating the way the Greens do. They just show up as spoilers every 4 years. A party serious about becoming contenders would be building from the ground up & not try for president before they had at least a senator elected.

They're not serious about being contenders. They're a Republican op to peel off naive voters from the left.

But that’s hard work and takes so much more of their time than just grifting off gullible voters who believe that *this* time parachuting someone into the top job out of nowhere will totally work

And not take right wing money to help spoil elections.

Senator?! Hell, try municipal council or school board. There’s an audience & appetite for 3rd party alternatives out here in the hinterlands, but the current batch all have zero local presence.

The US electoral system (first past the post) is fundamentally opposed to the existence of third parties, in a game theory way. A third party MUST start as a faction within the big two that pushes for electoral reform like ranked choice voting. Third parties are all grifters at the federal level.

They aren't even pretending not to be in it for the spoiler.