Like the pesky kid brother who wants to tag-along, the 200-year bipartisanship of the Democratic and Republican Parties gave little thought to third party politics. Originating in 1996 as the Association of State Green Parties, the ASGP, which gained big three status within the Third Party based on the voting performance of the preceding two election cycles and ballot access, wasn't afraid to take on the two goliaths of politics. With the gain of party recognition thanks to Ralph Nadar's Green presidential run in 1996, the ASGP offered an alternative to bipartisan politics. Commanding 2.7% of the vote across 44 states in 2000, Nadar earned a little over half of the 5% needed to land Federal matching funds. Nadar, who was not an official Green member, and the ASGP made a mark on the political map suggesting that there was a desire for something other than fraternal politics where only the  packaging differed and not the message. While it would be unlikely to find Ralph Nadar taking the oath of office, the group pushed to reclassify itself as a real contender in the political landscape by its attempt to capture Federal funding and a growing base of supporters.

Since then, the ASGP tried to continue its momentum first by reinventing itself into The Green Party of the United States in 2001. Then in acquiring numerous local, state and federal government seats across the USA, the group identified itself as grassroots activists, supporters of nonviolence, advocates for social justice and environmentalists. When Ralph Nadar moved on to run under the Independent platform, the Green Party found another spokesperson in their General Counsel and 2004 presidential nominee David Cobb. Unlike Nadar, Cobb attempted to gain political ground for the Green Party without causing threat to the democratic campaign; something Democrats accused Nadar of doing in his last Green campaign. As a result, Cobb earned just 0.1% of the vote or 120,000 votes across 29 states, losing ground from Nadar's 2000 campaign that launched the Green Party out of obscurity.

The Greens displayed its willingness to stand on stilts and wave a stick at the giant with the presidential nomination of the controversial African American former Georgia politician Cynthia McKinney and her Black Puerto Rican hip-hop scholar and running mate, Rosa Clemente. With plans of returning to what worked and adding a little ethnic nitro, the campaign of 2008 Green Presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney is a bipartisan threat by design. A notorious Bush critic and a former Democratic Congresswoman known for her abrasive honesty and pervasive views on race and gender in every context, McKinney symbolizes the Green Party's intent not just on swinging the stick but to make contact. Nadar's strong offense earned the first two and half percentage points toward political legitimacy, which contributed to filling 231 political seats by Green Party members across America, including California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Maine, Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Now, the Green Party hopes McKinney's brash questioning of the political spin-engine, her political survivor persona and Clemente's intellectual hip-hop appeal will not only regain the ground lost by Cobb but will reserve a place card for the Green Party at the major political roundtable.