The thing that I have found shuts the "you only have 2 choices!" and "BuT tRuMp!!!" people up is to remind them that as of March 2023, 49% of Americans are registered Independent.
Democrats and Republicans have 25% of the country each.
Since the liberal party went "progressive", dove head first into fascism, censorship, domestic spying, etc, that 49% has all but assuredly risen, and the number for Democrats has lowered.
"A third party candidate isnt viable!" is absolute unfettered horse shit.
The American people are making their will decisively known using the election system, we are just allowing them to smother out any non-Party movement.
I dont think Bernie could win it anymore though. A) He has just gotten too old. B) He had 2 shots, and the DNC murdered any reputation he had that he could win. C) He clearly simply just doesn't want it anymore.
We need Citizens United overturned to get money back out of politics so a candidate from the overwhelmingly majority political group, Independents, can have a candidate with their political affiliation printed on the ballot.
We are never going to get them to give up that power though.
As far as I can tell, America is just fucked and all we can do is brace for when the fascism is literally at our front door and the majority of America becomes the "rebel insurgent" according to the fascist DC agenda (which really already started with Occupy Wallstreet when 'peaceful protesters' were added to the list of DHS domestic terrorist organizations).
Edit: Every time I google the "how many Americans are registered independent", the set of links I saw last time have been delisted and there is a new set of figures. The range I have been reliably seeing is 42-49% independent. Including my link this time.