In her column “Democrats are falling apart’’ (Opinion, May 26), Renée Graham raises a number of interesting points. However, by stating, “It’s worth remembering that [Bernie Sanders is] an Independent running as a Democrat only because his campaign would have been stillborn as a third-party candidate,’’ she misses perhaps the biggest point. The Democrats and Republicans have made the rules so convoluted, complex, difficult, and arcane for any third party to gain even a foothold that it leaves people such as Donald Trump and Sanders no choice but to run as a member of one of the two so-called favored parties. In this sense the chickens have come home to roost for both parties.

It is almost beyond comprehension that almost 250 years after independence Americans basically have the choice to fill in a box marked either “Republican’’ or “Democrat.’’

Bernard Friedland

Newton