Thus people end up joining a party they do not agree with, simply because they agree with the other one even less.
I guess that strategy makes sense if you actually vote. Do people still do that? Who are these people, and why would you want to associate with them if they put Bush in power twice in a row?
Put simply, no matter who you vote for you're voting for wealth and incumbent power. Only they can afford to purchase the mind share required to woo millions of JoeThePlumbers at a time. I view this as a flaw in the purely democratic (and democratic republic) system: requiring too much specialized education from the layman.
The layman is fleeced every election, whether he votes or not, because the basic outcome (wealthy, well connected servant of incumbent power) represents every one of the only viable options.
The layman needs his voice represented. The problem is the voice of the layman is "taxes are too high" and "we need more school teachers" and "why are we dicking around in the middle east?" which cannot be expressed by voting elephant or donkey. Involving another handful of parties would not help to directly address this problem.
I think the ideal solution would be to build a governmental system which, instead of democratic-republic, is democratic-deferred. This is honestly an idea I got from another slashdot commenter, some years back. :D
Everyone gets to vote. On every issue. At every level of government they participate in. From municipal to state to federal to international, both NATO and treaty. That's the basis of Pure Democracy, and one of it's major failures is because no one but a professional politician (even then, a staff of professional politicians) can even hope to remain educated on literally every political decision in the world. That's where the "deferred" part comes in.
It's simple. You may cast your vote on an issue or a law directly, but very few people will almost ever. Instead, most people will "defer" each of their votes by proxy voting through any other voter. You can easily defer all of your votes through another (one would expect trusted and more well informed) person, or choose rafts of votes to defer in different directions. The person you defer to may in turn choose to defer again. You can set your votes on autopilot, "Just defer to my parents until I check in again". And that's it.
Doing this replaces an installed representative with a fluid field of experts who must work hard to maintain their trust with the electorate. People and organizations will work hard to achieve their political ends, and the easiest way to do so will be to win the deferrals of the common people to add clout to their aggregate votes. One wrong move will lose you supporters instantly. INSTANTLY. No waiting for another term, no impeachment hassle, just a "LOL FAIL" and the public moves on to someone more competent or more honest.
This puts Joe the Plumber in a position where he doesn't need to understand every issue, he just needs to identify someone more educated in politics than he is who shares his values. Official "political parties" would no longer be needed, though they may help people identify causes in an unofficial capacity.
Put me in that system or something comparable and I'll vote. I'm not wasting effort casting votes into an antiquated, broken system.