In the decades since the 1850s, third parties — parties other than the Democrats and Republicans — don't have a great record of success in U.S. elections. Who remembers the Free Soil Party, the Know Nothings, the Populist Party, the Bull Moose Party, the Dixiecrats or the American Independent Party?

And yet, I wonder whether things might be different in the coming decade.

The Gallup Poll shows the largest political party in the country is no party at all. Forty-five percent of voters consider themselves independents with the Republicans and Democrats tied at 27% each. The long-term trend doesn't favor either of the traditional parties either. In the recent Harvard Youth Poll of 18-29 year-olds, only 13% say the U.S. is headed in the right direction. Approval among them is at rock bottom for President Donald Trump (25%) and for both parties in Congress (26% Democrats, 25% Republicans).

The Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower stood for racial justice, protection of the environment, the free enterprise system and defending democracy overseas. Moreover, there was no greater supporter of the value of immigrants to America than Republican President Ronald Reagan.

This is not our parents' Republican Party. Or our grandparents' either, for that matter.

When Trump looks to "make America great again," he is not looking to these principles of yore, but to a time of less fairness, less justice, less democracy and more pollution. His administration is fighting unauthorized wars, erecting barriers even to legal immigration, threatening to leave NATO, removing restrictions on dirtying the air and water and seeking to erect barriers to voting.

And yet the Democrats, too, are drifting away from the political center and toward socialism and extremism. Only 40% of college youth, a group that tends to be heavily Democratic, view free enterprise favorably or even neutrally. The shining new face of the Democratic Party's left wing, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, proudly calls himself a democratic socialist. He's named the early 20th century socialist Eugene Debs, who believed industry "ought to be the common property of all," as a hero. While Mamdani invokes Debs, the average voter in a swing state hears a rejection of the very free enterprise system they trust Trump to manage despite his plentiful flaws. The same is true for immigration: Voters believe more in the Republican Party's ability to handle that hot issue than Democrats.

Leaders of both parties seem to be following the words attributed to 19th century French politician Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin: "There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them." That cynical brand of leadership — finding where the mob is going and running to the front — has found its modern disciples in Republicans JD Vance and Marco Rubio.

In a 2016 private message, Vance wrote that Trump was "America's Hitler." It didn't take long for him to see which way the wind was blowing, denounce his own rhetoric, obtain Trump's endorsement for a Senate seat and then become Trump's choice for vice president in 2024. Same story with Rubio, who in 2016 called Trump "a con artist" who "has spent his entire career sticking it to the little guy." Today a dedicated supporter of Trump, Rubio now serves in his administration as secretary of state and national security adviser.

To win a majority in the Senate, Democrats such as Chuck Schumer are supporting Graham Platner for the Senate race in Maine. Platner had a skull and crossbones tattooed on his chest resembling the symbol of the SS unit that managed extermination camps in World War II. At the same time, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, whose vote, like Platner's, is crucial to a Democratic Senate majority in 2027, is called a "traitor" by state party leaders for supporting Trump administration policies at the border.

Republicans and Democrats alike have forgotten the words of Edmund Burke, the great British 18th century political thinker: "Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion."

So tainted is the Democratic brand in Nebraska that the main opposition to the Republican incumbent is coming from independent Dan Osborn, not a Democratic candidate. Osborn supports immigration reform, affordable housing and middle-class jobs. He says both parties are too tied to wealthy donors, corporations and career politicians. In his eyes, the current system is a "two-party doom loop."

Osborn is on to something. The majority of Americans, the ones in the center, are looking for a party that champions free enterprise while guaranteeing health care, demands border security while welcoming legal immigrants who buy into the American Dream, tasks billionaires to pay their share without demonizing the pursuit of wealth, rejects bigotry and defends democracy at home and abroad.

This is a winning platform that would carry the day. If neither the Democrats nor Republicans embrace it, perhaps another party will.

A renaissance man, Keith Raffel has served as the senior counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, started a successful internet software company, and had six books published including five novels and a collection of his columns. He currently spends the academic year as a resident scholar at Harvard. You can learn more about him at keithraffel.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at creators.com.

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