>>even if you are “independent”, you can either vote for red or blue, or you can waste your vote

That seems to be one of the issues - our 'first past the post' / largest number of votes (plurality) wins means that there can only be two, or possibly three parties. Ranked choice voting is an attempt to fix this, effectively have a number of runoffs without people having to vote multiple times. The issue with this is that with many parties we could end up with hyper-democracy, like Italy, or a tiny party having outsize influence like Israel. but let's try it and see. Alaska and Maine are both sticking their toes in the water...

The other major issue is the unlimited amount of money in elections - and corporations being treated as 'people'.

I'd also mention that the entire point of the electoral voting system has been so that in the South, a White majority can swamp a Black majority and so make those Black votes disappear. It's time to stop pretending it's all about States' Rights and go to a direct election.

[/soapbox]