The current two-party arrangement in the U.S. starves the center. But it isn't so much because of the two parties. It is because of the 2-phase voting scheme.

The current two-party arrangement in the U.S. starves the center. But it isn't so much because of the two parties. It is because of the 2-phase voting scheme. In order for a candidate to win, they must win two elections. The first, or primary, election requires them to win a vote within their private club or party. Currently, that means that you have to be radical within that party. You have to take what would be an extreme position in the general population in order to appeal to enough people within the party. It guarantees that all candidates that emerge from the primary will overrepresent the fringe. So then you get to the general election where the only choices are polar. You see where even a pretty far right Liz Cheney fails the Trump test and isn't "Republican" enough to survive round one. Same thing happens with the Dems. A third party could lead to disaster. If you get all the conservatives that can't stomach Trump to split away, you hand elections to the likes of Sanders. And not just occassionally. The conservatives would never win another election ever because they would split the vote every time. If you get the liberals that can't stomach Biden to split away, you hand elections to the likes of Trump. Forever. I think you have to fix the process to solve the party problem. Tweak the process to push candidates back to the center instead of away from the center.