About third parties, the last election was really a turning point for me. I’ve been hoping that we’d see a more moderate fiscally conservative party emerge. I was following the Libertarian news over the last election and it was just really discouraging to see how difficult it is to get on the ballots, and get into the debates.
You can read about it on my old Talking Libertarianism Thread here. There’s been a court battle that’s very hopeful. Links on that thread.
The two dominant parties are really interested in maintaining the current system.
You run into a lot of shenanigans like this where the Washington Sec of State actually changed the rules or mod of operation after the Nov 2016 election to keep a third party out. Libertarians are suing.
Washington Secretary of State Won’t Recognize Libertarian Party After All
“On November 30, the Washington Secretary of State said the Libertarian Party is not a ballot-qualified party, even though 5% for president gains that status and even though her web page says Gary Johnson got 5.01%. Even though the Washington Secretary of State has not reported any presidential write-ins since 1992, or even acknowledged the existence of any presidential write-ins since 1992, now she says the write-ins (the number of which she has not revealed) will pull Johnson’s percentage below 5%.” - Ballot Access News