Engels said, in a letter to Marx, the US “[c]onstitution…which makes it appear as though every vote were lost that is cast for a candidate not put up by one of the two governing parties.” (Engels to Frederick Adolph Sorge, December 2, 1893, in Marx and Engels on the United States (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1979), p. 333.)
We need to work to change things, but this is not new, and you are not smart for thinking that you have moved past it. Sure, if everyone agreed to vote for a single third party, it could happen. That’s not going to happen though, at least for the president. Even people voting third party can’t really agree on which one, diluting votes even further. Third party may work for some local elections, but not the president. Not yet at least.