Actually - as I'm sure that you are aware - the government of the United States is a constitutional republic and not a democracy. A true democracy usually results in the rule of the minority by the majority. Our constitution limits the rights of the federal government and protects the rights of the states and the people. However, that's not happening very well because of unchecked abuses by Congress and the executive branch.

Single choice, winner-take-all plurality voting - otherwise known as first past the post - was implemented by the states because of its familiarity and simplicity. It is not required by our constitution. It has been documented that plurality voting rapidly evolves into two dominant parties with little or no competition from minor parties no matter what their platform. In my opinion, plurality voting promotes extremism to reduce or eliminate swing voters that could determine which member of the duopoly wins an election.

I maintain that no political third party will ever become relevant or competitive with either member of the duopoly without election reforms. The new Forward Party has realized this and is promoting three different methods of conducting elections: ranked-choice voting, approval voting, and STAR voting https://www.forwardparty.com/voting_reform

My preference is STAR voting but at this time, it has too many obstacles to surmount when compared to ranked-choice voting. Other parties (e.g. Alliance, Libertarian, Green, etc.) are beginning to realize the importance of election reforms. The emerging United States Equalitarian Party - like the Forward Party - has chosen to place ranked choice voting as a high priority: https://www.usep.net/