Maybe now is the time for a 3rd political party

When my wife and I went in for our first Florida driver's licenses, we were asked to register to vote. Of course, we agreed, but were surprised when we were asked "what party?" In Illinois, you could vote in whichever party's primary you wanted to by just asking for a ballot on election day. They kept a record, of course, but you could participate in whichever party's politics suited your fancy back home.

Both the missus and I answered "Independent", but the gal in the office explained that "Independent" was a party in Florida, but that often there were no candidates running for that party. So, we opted to register for one of the major parties. I don't like that, but we've been all over the lot in the general elections, voting for whomever we thought was the best candidate.

I like the Illinois system better, where you can get involved in whichever primary was important to produce the best (or the worst if you were really political, I suppose) match-up in the general election.