Yes, we as Americans owe almost all we have to the evil, malicious, conspiring, secretive death cult known as the Freemasons, but check out what we owe to the Anti-Masonic Party:

Anti-Masonic Party. A short lived minor party which came into existence in western New York in the early 1830's in opposition to the Masonic order, of which President Jackson and many Democratic leaders were members. It held the first national convention in 1831 in which William Wirt was nominated for the presidency. Its anti-Jackson program attacked Catholics, foreigners, and secret societies. The national convention method of nominating presidential and vice-presidential candidates was subsequently adopted by the major political parties and is today a permanent political institution. [Martin, Michael and Leonard Gelber, Dictionary of American History, Littlefield Adams, Maryland: 1978, Page 25]

I love third parties, and not just for the camp value. Third parties usually either originate the ideas that slowly become accepted and institutionalized, or act as a catalyst for change. In the same book, the next entry is for something called the Anti-Monopoly Party, organized in Chicago in 1884. They wanted a graduated income tax, a national Department of Labor, the direct election of Senators, actual payment of the national debt, assistance to farmers, federal regulation of monopolies in interstate commerce, and economy in government expenditures. They weren't too keen on tariff protectionism and the granting of land to corporations, either. All of these planks can be located among the platforms of current major parties. My favorite contemporary minor party is The Prohibition Party. It doesn't look like they've updated their site for a while, but it has some great stuff, like this article called "Alcohol and the Bible". It teaches us, among other things, about old Christ-o's turning of water into wine at the marriage feast and instructs that "...we can be sure that the beverage Jesus made was a refreshing, nonalcoholic grape drink." Phew. So the Bible really will allow me to be a bigoted teetotaller. I was worried there for a minute.