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I don't see eye-to-eye with Pat Buchanan on much of anything, but he did get this one right:

"Today, candor compels us to admit that our vaunted two-party system is a snare and a delusion, a fraud upon the nation. Our two parties have become nothing but two wings of the same bird of prey."
Pat Buchanan - A SPEECH FOR THE AGES: Pat Buchanan Calls For a New Patriotism

On this, at least, we agree.

Deeds, not words. Laws, not the whim of men.

And then there's this:

On August 9, 1932, the government decreed the death penalty for those convicted of ‘political’ murder. The next night a band of Nazis invaded the home of a Communist worker in the Silesian village of Potempa and stomped him to death, kicking his larynx to pieces. When the killer s were arrested, tried, and sentenced in accordance with the new law, Hitler responded with threats and demonstrations. On Sept. 2, the government gave its answer: the death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. The killers were freed by Hitler next year.
The civilized men in the country did not know what to do. In the words of one historian, the moderates voiced desperate "appeals to reason… [But] their techniques were distinctly out of tune with the wild emotionalism that seemed to have gripped a large part of the nation" The civility cherished by the civilized men had finally been defeated by their ideas, although they did not know that this was the cause.
After years of preaching contradictions and of evading principles with an anti-ideological shrug, these men were astonished to see the nation conclude that man cannot live by principles, that reason is no guide to action, and that anything goes.
After years of institutionalizing interest-group warfare, which they had justified as sacrifice or collective service, these men were astonished to see hostile gangs take to the streets and demand one another’s sacrifice.
After years of undercutting the mind by preaching the primacy of gentle feeling (whether ‘progressive’, religious, or skeptical), these men were astonished to find that they had nothing more to say, and that there was no one left to listen
The moderates were helpless. The authorities were helpless. The killers were taking over.
On January 30, 1933, after due attention to every requirement of German law and of the Weimar Constitution, Nazi rule was made official… It took six months for the Chancellor to transform the country into a totalitarian state."
Leonard Peikoff - The Ominous Parallels

How long will it take here, do you suppose?

I disagree as to what causes low voter turnout. The highest turnout, EVER, was in the period 1800-1820, where there were tight restrictions (property) on who voted. Turnouts were 65-90% (although the accuracy of the 90% numbers are questioned by some). After that, voter turnout was ONLY high when there were very "hot button" issues in the election. Even third party candidates don't necessarily cause increased turnout, although turnout was SLIGHTLY higher with Perot in 1992.

As to the parties, I think people would be stunned if the Libertarian Party suddenly abandoned its pro-abort and pro-drug positions, and kept EVERYTHING ELSE the same, how overnight it would attract perhaps a majority of current Republicans. But I know that I can never in good conscience vote Libertarian on those two positions alone---they are that significant. And I think it is that barrier that keeps the LP a 1% of the vote party.