If politics isn't a party, then what good is it? What about people getting together, and having fun, pursuing life, liberty and happiness, and figuring out how to make this a better, more fun world to live in? After all, the Declaration of Independence says that we are endowed "by [our] Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed— That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." Except for all this stuff about "Men" instituting it, the Founding documents got a lot of it right.
Check it out here

Re: the spoiler effect of third party candidates. Had there been a fusion system in place, Bush would not have been selected by the Supreme Court as POTUS. He was not selected by the popular vote. If in doubt, check out my film Electile Dysfunction

Instead of Party affiliations, perhaps we need more Parties! And coalition building on issues. Like I heard Noam Chomsky once called himself a Libertarian Socialist. How does that work?