Commentary:

I guess I'm not alone in thinking this way...

I had not seen this article on MSNBC.com when I wrote my post below about disenchantment with the two major parties and not understanding why our cheap and easy communication had not fostered the formation of a new party.

We may well be witnessing the last major party conventions – but not for the reasons most pundits are talking about. For if neither of the two major parties wake up to the fact that people are sick of politics as usual, it will be the parties and not just the conventions that will be headed for the ash heap of history.

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The Internet is making the two parties, as they now stand, obsolete. The parties exist because they can provide organization in every region and locale in the nation. But the Internet is quickly giving individuals the power to build their own organizations around the candidate of their choice. It will only be a matter of time before this power outstrips that of the two parties if they fail to understand what is happening.

The parties exist as a means and a mechanism to raise needed millions to fund campaigns. But the Internet has proven that you no longer need a party structure of wealthy donors to compete – the Net empowers average citizens to participate and fund the candidate of their choice. And the Internet has proven that a candidate can achieve, or exceed, the funding prowess of the party’s big money donors.

It is only a matter of time until the right candidate attracts millions of Americans using the Internet to his or her cause and outdoes both parties in fundraising.

Maybe Glenn Reynolds should call for it, since he has more readers than anyone else.