Two Party system

This morning NPR was touting third party candidates for President.  Couple of guys whose names are new to me, couple of parties, Libertarian, Green.  Then they segued into a  pro third party pitch, and denounced various state laws making it hard for poor old third parties to get on the ballot.  Sounded dreadful.
   In real life, the two party system is a good thing that makes legislation possible.  In a two party system, if you have the votes, you can pass your legislation.  Once we let more parties into the game it becomes difficult to impossible to get anything done.  On any political issue there are always six of seven different courses of action.  If you have six or seven parties, each one of them will pick one of the possible courses of action, but none of the parties will have the votes to push it thru.  France, going all the way back to the Third Republic, worked like this.   The French had half a dozen parties, all going there own way, and they could never get anything done.  This pattern of French politics persists to this day.  It brought France invasion and defeat in 1940, Diem Bien Foo, the Algerian civil war, and overall weakness and confusion for nearly a century. 
   In a two party system, the six or seven courses of action get whittled down to two, one for each party, by internal party negotiations and log rolling.  Then the party with the votes gets it's program passed.  With only two partie, one of 'em will have the votes to pass its legislation.  If, like today, the country is evenly split on a lot of issues, nothing happens, neither party has the votes.   When the country is evenly split, it's probably best not to do anything. 
   And, consider this.  The last third party candidate to win the presidency was Abraham Lincoln and that was a long time ago.  To my way of thinking, casting your vote for a third party candidate is same as throwing it away, or not voting at all.