Fundamentals of the electoral system make this almost impossible. See spoiler effects where your campaign and your next closest competitor are split, and your polar opposite claims the win. The majority wanted one of the two more popular options, but the person with only a fraction of overall support gets the win. There are plenty of better voting systems but entrenched powers and "American Exceptionalism" means nothing will ever change.

I'd love to abandon the Democratic party. They have proven themselves to be useless in all the decades of my voting life. But they aren't blatantly evil and corrupt like Republicans. Democrats are at best a feeble foil to Republican bullshit, but they are literally the only foil that exists to choose from.

Exactly. A third party would only be possible by altering the system, ideally by introduction of preferential voting.