You hit it exactly right. Maybe the patriot party doesn't even run a presidential candidate at first. All the funding goes to house seats. They would caucus with the GOP anyway and form as big of a block as always on key issues. The rub is, you slowly start to turn a majority of republican house seats into Patriot party seats over time by primarying rhinos and ineffective gop house members. This will put the fear of the base into the GOP. They either play ball, or get replaced. It isnt a zero sum game. People forget, we have had many parties in this country before. Only in the last century or so have we solidified into what we think of as the hard two-party government as it exists now.