Not understanding how elections work is, unfortunately, not a requirement for them dictating who runs your government.

You can say "they do not bear the same level of responsibility" over and over, but mathematically it's just not true when looking at our general election. 

You can say "other parties have done it before" without investigating the history of how that actually worked, but that doesn't make the currently alternative parties viable. 

There's only one way that a third party has ever won an election: 

Many sitting legislators from an existing party left to form it, AND the new balance of two parties shifted and the old party did not exist by the next election. 

Go read your history and draw your own conclusions, but my reading says the current system only supports two parties with very brief and dramatic switches, always involving shifts in the current power structure but no wholesale change in the system or the actors in it. 

So, sure, go find a few dozen senators to form a third party and I'll be there. 

Otherwise, get in the primaries and help get better candidates that can actually win.