When will a neither democrat nor republican be elected POTUS?

[Alben Barkley]

For this to happen, either one or both of the parties would have to implode or there would have to be serious reforms to our electoral system to make other parties viable.

The first isn’t unprecedented, and history suggests if one was going to implode, it would be the Republicans. They were born out of the ashes of the Whigs, who were born out of the ashes of the Anti-Jacksonians/National Republicans, who were born out of the ashes of the Federalists. Democrats meanwhile have been around in one form or another since about 1828, and the party was a direct continuation of Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans from 1796. It’s the world’s oldest political party.

I wouldn’t bank on any of this happening any time soon though. The parties, as they have in the past, will likely change and adapt to survive. Even if coalitions and ideologies shift, the names will probably remain for a long time to come.