It's true, the American system of government is very much designed in such a way that leads to only two parties in power, but it's rather ignorant of history to say that these are the only two choices we have. After all, the two parties we have today are not the two parties we started out with. Third parties can and do win national elections, and force out old parties that don't keep up with the times.

The Green Party, I think, will never be a factor. They are too idealistic and contrary to the majority view. The Libertarian Party, at least, is on the right side of history on a great many issues, such as marijuana and privacy rights. They struggle to put forth electable candidates (after all, what true Libertarian seeks power over others?), but under the right circumstances they might replace either major party we have today. They just need to get a cogent foreign policy platform because the world is getting too crowded and too interdependent to ignore. Isolationism, while desirable and ideologically pure, is just not possible, and frankly incompatible with their other free market ideals.

Unfortunately the two parties in power do rig the system, to keep it a duopoly. Resistance is growing, however, and there have been some victories lately for these movements. I think the current election, with its two awful candidates, is forcing a lot more people to think more carefully about how we got here, and what changes might need to be made to give us more options when the lesser of two evils is pretty fucking evil.