I’ll agree that Dems have given up way too easily, mostly based on naive “for the good of the country” white knighting.
It probably didn’t start with Al Gore and the hanging chads, but that would have been a good time to realize that sometimes these fights are existential
Doesn’t change the fact that Stein is currently a russian-funded spoiler and she’s a drag on the Greens and does great disservice to all of the non-major parties.
I hope No Labels and other serious ‘third paries’ spend time focusing on voting reform like RCV or similar. Of course, many nerds will (probably correctly) claim that RCV is flawed in whatever way and we should try to move to some other even more complicated system. And then nothing will happen and we will continue to be stuck in a bi-party system with smaller factions only ever having the opportunity to act as spoilers in national or even state-wide races.
Your story is very sad, and I am sorry you had do go through all of that. It sounds pretty horrific and over an extended period.
I hope you find some peace, through talking or posting or maybe eventually some therapy.
I think you will find that more people are supportive than not, though every crowd will have some assholes. Be selective with irl folks that you talk with, but finding a support group could be very helpful.