ESTABLISHMENT OF A THIRD PARTY BETWEEN THE EXISTING POLITICAL PARTIES
There have been parties that go further to the right or left than republicans or democrats, but are often absorbed into the existing parties that most resemble them. The development of a third political party is therefore very unlikely to occur due to psychological and structural barriers.
With the US system of first past the post winner, the electoral college has ossified the US into a 2-large party system with rules being changed to strengthen these parties and give them power making it very difficult to establish an in-between party. The most standing difficulty is the history of the Americans. History is an important part of every community and is greatly valued. Convincing the Americans to forget about this history to support a party that claims to be in the middle would involve compelling new ideas and a large investment in time and money which is almost impossible. Additionalities democrats and republican’s division if closely studied is mostly political propaganda with the focus being on the extreme ends of the party making them look like rivals. We have however seen politicians who have shifted party affiliation and the only possible argument is that that party allowed its extreme ends to overrun the party. It is also not new for democrats and republicans to come together against say a party candidate because they do not agree with them. It is thus only hypothetically right to conclude that the parties are not that much far apart rather in the middle and the middle ground for another party to stand on does not exist.
Reference
Hirano, S., & Snyder Jr, J. M. (2007). The decline of third-party voting in the United States. The Journal of Politics, 69(1), 1-16.
Holt, J., & Holt, L. J. (1967). Congressional Insurgents and the Party System, 1909-1916 (No. 60). Harvard University Press.