A crisis at the border, a health care system in shambles and endless wars: Democrats and Republicans struggle to find solutions to these pressing problems.

Maybe it’s time to consider a third party that could break the stranglehold that our two dominant parties have.

This is what the Movement for a People’s Party is trying to do, started in 2018 by former supporters of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.

Historically, third parties have been quite successful.

George Washington didn’t belong to a party at all. It was only after his time in office that a partisan divide emerged between the Democratic Republicans and the Federalists.

Then, it was the Whigs that emerged from among the disaffected elements of the major political forces in the 1830s.

Abraham Lincoln’s successful presidential bid in 1860, as well, was part of a third-party effort: that of the Republicans.

U.S. history is filled with other examples of successful third parties, such as the Populist Party, which came into being toward the end of the 20th century, spearheaded by farmers. That party’s platform, stamping out corruption in politics and reigning in corporate power, matches what many people see now as critical issues in U.S. politics.

In Minnesota, the Farmer-Labor Party sprung into being in 1918 and eventually merged with the state’s Democrats. To this day, the full name of the Democratic Party in Minnesota is the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

We have plenty of evidence of the failings of the two-party system. President Donald Trump stood by as COVID-19 raged out of control and his trade wars were a bust. On immigration, Trump left a partially built wall that human traffickers now throw children over, as millions wait on the other side for an answer concerning their legal status.

Now, Joe Biden’s agenda is running into bipartisan gridlock. Democrats and Republicans, in the latest COVID-19 stimulus package, bickered over the size of the payments instead of taking on the corporate control of our economy.

A third party, as history shows, could break this gridlock by introducing new ideas, candidates and policies. Now is the time to build that party. If we keep playing with the two options we already have, we can only lose.

Anthony Pahnke is vice president of Family Farm Defenders and an assistant professor of international relations at San Francisco State University in San Francisco.