Yes, that is a good point, and thank you for all of this good thought and consideration.

I struggle with that notion because I feel more like I'd simply be empowering the Democratic party rather than altering it. I also feel as if I'd be giving my consent to be governed by a system which has already decided to operate without my consent. No matter how many candidates I may vote for, that may possibly run, none of them are able to express views outside of a very narrow range of political thought. Furthermore I'd become complicit in the crimes of the party. Say I had voted for Barack Obama, based on some impression that he was more Socialist than the next candidate, though, he certainly is not. At this point I'd have the innocent blood of Yemen on my polling hand because of the drone strike program. I'd be complicit in the imprisonment of Abdulelah Haider Shaye, who merely did his job as a journalist but spent years in prison at Barack Obama's urging. In dreams I'd feel the crimsoned sands of Syria beneath my feet, because we essentially fund both sides of that proxy war.

As someone who didn't vote, I don't feel any of that. I'm not complicit in those crimes because I refused to give my affirmation to the system which created that administration.

Now, maybe, if enough people liked me joined a major party and shifted the rhetoric in the way you're suggesting, and maybe did get someone like Bernie Sanders on the Democratic ticket, a laughable notion, I'd find that preferable, perhaps. However, I don't know if I could even vote for someone like Bernie Sanders, because he would be required, by assuming that high office, to perform the crimes that the office requires. The Office of the President is an intrinsically nefarious mantle that cannot be worn by white shoulders. The same is true of most elected offices. You cannot be the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and use them well, the American military is one of the chief causes of suffering and dismay in the world and it is so by design.

But maybe you're right, I just don't know. My feeling is that unless I'm a total outsider to the electoral system then I am ignoring the crimes of my nation. However, perhaps you're correct that participation could affect something. I just don't know.