A very good article. But the action we can take can be expressed better. Our 18th century system is not working for us in the 21st century and it is deeply ingrained with the cause of your subject matter(s).
In our 'democracy' 40% walks away empty-handed. They did not pick the winner. Voters compete with voters for representation. That is not normal. In a democracy voters are simply represented by others; in the definition of democracy there is no talk about a game needing to be there to become represented.
Nations with proportional voting (and no president) (#5) have a much better wealth distribution than our system (#1) or the proportional voting with a president (#3). The mixed version (#4) does real well, too.
This nation plays the Hunger Games, with an elite that enjoys how the 12 tribes have to battle each other, sacrifice individuals. The elite is totally unaffected by the games. Our 'democracy' also has that top layer that is not part of our democracy. And there is also the bottom layer that cannot make itself heard.
The change is very easy, but particularly at the local level this is quite easy. We need non-Machine candidates that are willing to change the system. Red and Blue do not want us to have a 100% democracy; they want us to have their 60% democracy. They do not want to share with Yellow, Green or Orange.
* Locally, the game can get changed very easily into proportional representation, the superior form of democracy. The US Constitution actually likes that; nothing needs to be changed legally.
* At the state level, we can change the setup. A bit more complicated, but doable. A three-to-five-party system would be great.
* At the federal level we can hardly change anything. It is very difficult to change the setup of the federal level, but change can come into this level from the bottom up.
As long as we have the 18th century system, your advice to vote for the good guys will not bring us very far not very quickly. We need the USA 2.0 upgrade now.
So, allow me to improve on what you say we can do: Let's vote for local non-Machine candidates that promote voting reform and get proportional voting in our cities and counties. It's the place where we now find a one-party system throughout the nation. All council and board seats are now taken in by members from a single party. Either the seats are all-red or the seats are all-blue. Totally, not helpful in making this a better nation.
More here:
https://medium.com/the-national-discussion/and-the-winner-is-the-losing-party-c683c1d739e5
