Time for a third party in America? Perhaps, says poll

With Donald Trump's runaway mouth and Hillary Clinton's character questions, the future isn't looking good for America's two-party system, let alone the country's fate in general.

A new GenForward Poll at the University of Chicago is bad news for both parties, regardless of demographics.

That's not surprising, given Bernie Sander's support by young people who were then asked to support Hillary Clinton.

The GenForward poll, a Black Youth Project conducted with the Associated Press-NORC center for Public Affairs Research, found that 43 percent of all youth say Clinton intentionally broke the law in her use of a private email address on a personal server while secretary of state, and the rest think she did so unintentionally or carelessly.

Only 38 percent of all young adults overall say they have a favorable view of Hillary Clinton, but even fewer, 21 percent, hold Trump in high regard.

Conducted before the conventions, the poll found that less than half of Sanders' supporters said they'd support Clinton over Trump in the fall. Few said they'd support Trump, however, and the rest were undecided or said they'd vote for a third party candidate or not at all.

Discontent among young voters won't automatically translate into third-party votes, however, with neither Libertarian Gary Johnson nor Jill Stein of the Green Party well known enough to offer a serious threat to the major party nominees.

Among thoughtful voters, neither Johnson nor Stein are likely to pull enough from the center to serve as other than spoilers.

Despite the allure of a third choice, America seems destined to always revert to a binary political system.

From the Federalist Party of Alexander Hamilton to Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party, we went to brief nonpartisan period which would make George W. Norris proud.

Then the Democratic-Republican Party split into the Jacksonian Democrats (which morphed into the modern Democratic Party), who were opposed by the Whig Party of Henry Clay.

The Whigs were unsuccessful in dealing with the slavery issue, however, which led to the rise of Abraham Lincoln's anti-slavery Republican Party, supported by businessmen, shop owners, skilled craftsmen, clerks and professionals as well as African American Feedmen.

The two-party system has endured numerous iterations since then with various flavors provided by the Progressives, New Deal, American Liberalism, Moral Majority, Reagan coalition, Republican Revolution of the 1990s and today's system, however that may be judged by history.

Judging by the dissatisfaction within both parties going into the November election, it's clear time is ripe for a new political movement to emerge, regardless of what it's called.

The complete GenForward report is available here.