WASHINGTON, D.C. Nov. 1 (DPI Op-Ed) – This presidential election – historic for countless reasons – is likely to hasten changes that include the rise of a new and reform-minded political party, many experts are saying.

Now that ultra-partisans control both the Republican and Democratic parties, and prospects for effective governing post-election are slim at best, a third political party geared to both parties’ “moderate refugees” will likely appear.

Commentators have been fixating on this election’s fallout for months.  Election day is next Tuesday.

While Hillary Rodham Clinton seems assured to win next week’s election – partisans have long since settled behind their candidate, no new information seems to sway them, and Clinton’s base is far wider and deeper than Trump’s – the tumultuous campaign of 2016 has exposed a political class in desperate need of shaking up.

True, Donald Trump is the insurgent candidate who won the GOP nomination. But his failings – as a candidate, as a businessman and as a person – impeded any chance of success in a general election. His antics and repeated revelations about his past have served as a handy sideshow that’s distracted the electorate from a serious discussion on major political reform.

What kind of reform? For starters, any reform that may forge new consensus – reform such as tax simplification, as well as a major deregulation of health care.  Moreover, there are widespread calls for simplifying the congressional districting process, as well as lengthening congressional terms in order to reduce the role of money in too-frequent and too-long election cycles.

Political consultants James Carville and Karl Rove spoke in May at SMU on the matter of political fallout from the 2016 election.