Stephen Bannon made an appearance on “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday. In his discussion with Maher, Bannon made the prediction that the 2020 presidential race could feature three legitimate candidates. According to Bannon, it would be feature Donald Trump on the right, someone like a Kamala Harris on the left, leaving plenty of room for a more moderate candidate in the center.

“You’re gonna have Trump on the right, a politician – maybe a Kamala Harris or somebody on the left – and I think you’ll have a Bloomberg or a Romney or somebody in the center,” Bannon suggested to Maher. “I think it will be a three-way race.”

Bannon even took the time to mention the potential campaign of Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti. “He’s got a fearlessness and he’s a fighter. I think he’ll go through a lot this field if he decides to stick with it.”

It may be difficult for many Americans to see a legitimate center right or center left candidate emerging in this political climate. Such a candidate would knowingly be stripping their further left or right counterpart of potential votes, in a time where party allegiance is crucial. The two parties have a growing distaste for the other than festers with each new political event that unravels. Once civil competition is gradually transforming into political warfare. With the stakes so high, a center candidate would not be seen as friendly competitor. Instead, this candidate would likely be deemed a traitor of the greater party towards which they lean. Stripping away votes from the potential democrat or republican candidate is a bold move in so hostile of times.

Nevertheless, Bannon is onto something with his proposal. Whether or not a legitimate third candidate will emerge is debatable. However, the country is fracturing as Bannon seems to be suggesting. The two parties are stretching further and further apart, leaving voters only two options that are radically different. There surely exists a substantial faction of voters in each party base that are all aboard the direction that their party is going in. However, there is likely also centrist voters in both camps that feel as if the two parties are stretching in ways that make them uncomfortable.

A substantial quantity of voters are likely out there that are voting based off of what party sounds least crazy to them. This portion of the populous is not represented by a party, but is deserving of their own political classification. The two major parties are too far apart today to organically include the centrist voters.

America is stretching, and it has pulled the Overton window so wide that a third camp has emerged. There is now the party of Trump, the progressive left, and all those centrists that lie somewhere in between.