The end of the two party system?

            Will the last Republican leaving the party please turn out the lights?  Are we seeing the end of the American two party system?  If so, is it past due?  Several elections ago the Tea Party achieved considerable success by offering a conservative alternative to the mainstream Republican party that many long standing republicans simply didn't feel represented their interests.  And yet, the party central committees just don't seem to see the handwriting on the wall.  The party "leadership" fought Donald Trump right down to the wire even though he was the landslide leader with the public. 

            With clear evidence that the public is fed up with politics as usual look at what the Democrats came up with.  The ultimate party insider was their only candidate from the outset.  In order to get maximum press coverage they had to have a straw dog for the debates and they couldn't produce a single Democrat willing to be the designated loser.  So they came up with an avowed socialist to have a sparring partner and he got a phenomenal amount of votes!  In fact he got about 12 million votes to her 15.5 million.  Think about it.  Among Blacks, she won 75.9% to 23.1%!  Among Whites she actually lost 48.9% to 49.1%.  Keep in mind that Blacks make up about 11% of the population and whites about 80%.

            So what does that all add up to?  Well, the Democrats appear to be oblivious (or uncaring) to what the public wants.  I suppose they may change their approach between now and the election, but I don't see how they can sell Hillary Clinton to the public as anything but more of the same.  I think it's too late to come up with another candidate at this point.  The Republicans are in a somewhat different situation.  They have a highly controversial candidate that is as far as possible from mainstream politics.  But--- they have taken too long to get behind an outsider.  It appears to me that voters who like Donald Trump don't like the Republican party leadership and the party leadership doesn't like Donald Trump.

             I don't see either party surviving this general election in a recognizable format.  The Republicans don't appear able to get their house in order so I foresee a major split into two parties - probably Tea Party and mainstream republicans.  The Democrats I see as just growing into a smaller party.  The Blue Dog Dems could easily join with the Tea Party to form a third conservative party.  If that actually happened we could easily wind up with a three party system and that might be exactly what we need. 

            That's how I see it.