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Originally Posted by djchameleon
Aka they need more money thrown at them or get better at fund raising.
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It's not just that. There are actually a bunch of legal and social barriers set up to make it difficult for parties other than Republicans and Democrats to run viable campaigns for major offices.
Back in the late 80s and through part of the 90s, I was actively involved with the Libertarian party, including involvement with both gubernatorial and a couple presidential campaigns, and the legal folks were constantly railing about all of the obstacles set up (unfortunately I can't recall the legal details very well; that's not my field) to make it difficult to even get ballot access for example. Maybe things have changed a bit since then--I haven't been actively involved politically for over 15 years now, but when they explained it to me at the time, it seemed ridiculous. Republicans and Democrats had basically stacked the deck to make it very difficult for anyone outside of those parties to have a chance. It wasn't just a matter of money.
I no longer consider myself "just a libertarian" any longer, by the way. I call myself a "libertarian socialist" now, but my views are very idiosyncratic.