I agree that we should have a more multi-party system. Period. Good idea - lets do it. But we don't have one.

Solid. I assumed we were on the same page - but was struggling to figure out where things were misaligning.

So how do you effect change? Pitch a fit and claim the system is unfair and scream into the void? Or find a way within the existing system to change it? The latter is what I mean by "playing the game".

I feel, personally, that it needs to be a bit of both. If people don't speak up it's difficult for others to find they may not be so alone in their views. Discontent needs to be visible and heard to start a movement. Sadly (as shown in the video referenced - and in recent elections) simply "playing the game" has resulted in this death spiral we appear to be in. What is to be done? Disproportionately congress is still occupied by boomers who refuse to pass the torch and tragically are out of touch with reality. Gen X and Millennials make up very few seats thanks to the death grip held on many of these seats. They're old so you need to speak up ;) Jokes aside - to gain any traction on subjects such as these we need to be vocal.

Hard-line ~~racists~~ conservatives have been similarly disillusioned as liberals about the two party system, both feeling unrepresented. The conservatives worked within the system to elect Trump who is effectively a 3rd party candidate within a 2 party system by co-opting one of the parties.

I disagree somewhat here. I believe both parties put a fairly significant effort into their particular candidate.

I firmly believe that Biden had 0 interest in running again but was talked into it. As I suggested earlier the majority of votes were lost to the candidate change at the 11th hour. Additionally the vote of the disillusioned groups you are (in part) referring to was due to swing to the Republican side this election, and did. Lastly, what I view as the final nail in the coffin was the efforts of "outside" influences resulting in the fragmentation and alienation of a number of social groups typically more aligned in their stance. Combine these factors and you get the overwhelming outcome we saw.

I will give you the "third party" dash of spice present on the grifter which clearly did draw some additional votes - but I'd attribute most of the vote disparity to the above.