The "differences" between the Republicans and Democrats in modern day are basically not a lot more than theatrics and vacuously worded mission statements.
I can agree with this. Especially on the extreme ends of it that a pretty hefty percentage of folks seem to enjoy resting on here in the states. It's actually kind of entertaining to listen to the banter between the two sides, and that essentially all of their insults towards each other are the exact same things anyway, simply replacing "right-wing" with "leftist" and "conservative" with "liberal".
What I really love, is that just out of interest, I've suggested a few topics to aqcuaintances from the party they oppose, without ever having revealed to them that I'm in one party or another. If I've agreed with them in the past on a few points, they have a tendency to more often then not be more for it than they might have last time I saw them ranting. This kind of leads me to wonder if anyone actually has any idea what they support or if it's turning into some sort of team pride. Is politics just a sport? Regardless it's interesting to see people unwittingly agree with a point from the other party that they refuse to accept could ever be right.
Now, I heavily doubt either party would 'die', at least in an absolute sense, and it's primarily due to the fact that there are plenty of folks who are dead adamant about being a Republican or Democrat. A bit of a reduction in their influence would be a great thing to test out though, since I really do think that it would allow more individual thinking to show it's face, rather than two opposing(?) viewpoints trying to kill each other center stage. I'm sure it's not possible to vouch that either way would necessarily turn out better, but it would at least be fun to observe.
I'll definitely agree with Krumplenump too on the lack of a true 'third way'. Regardless of if your beliefs may be a bit closer in actuality to one of the smaller parties that no one has heard of, either a Democrat or a Republican WILL take office. Giving you two choices.
I dunno. My two cents. Politics get me a bit annoyed in general though, and it's too early in my day to go much further in my personal thoughts.