It’s hard to understate how truly crazy this year’s election was.

Do you remember when?

• The Republican frontrunner refused to participate in any debates
• The incumbent president, after strongly hinting he would not run for reelection, changed his mind, despite having underwater approval ratings
• The Democratic Party refused to hold a competitive primary, even freezing a sitting Representative out of the Party when he tried to run

• Independent and non-legacy party options gained more momentum than we’ve seen in decades (RFK, Jr.; No Labels)
• A large number of Republican voters voted for a primary challenger even after she dropped out of the race
• There were legal battles over whether the Republican candidate was eligible for office based on post-Civil War constitutional amendments
• The Republican candidate faced multiple assassination attempts that quickly faded into the background of the news cycles
• The Democratic presumptive nominee dropped out after a disastrous debate performance, and his Vice President was slotted in to take his place
• After all of this, Donald Trump ended up winning reelection, joining Grover Cleveland as the only president to retake the White House after losing it.

While Democrats and many Republicans lament this series of events, the truth is that they built the very system that has pushed our nation in this direction. We have entrusted the two legacy parties with our country, and they have delivered to us a country that is struggling. They have led a government that has fundamentally failed to address the pain that people are feeling every day, as they send their kids to school, or go to the grocery store, or look to buy a new house or start a new job.

We must do better, but to do better, we must understand where the two legacy parties have failed.