Yes they do. The EU has a wide range of formidable Left parties. They're not perfect, but they've resisted the Maastricht wrecking ball, they've constructed powerful welfare states, they've fomented mighty labor movements, and they routinely draw enormous numbers of people into politics.
> ideas of the ruling class of the epoch. Systems which make it easier to
> organize n-th (third, fourth, ...) parties basically benefit people who
> find it enjoyable and rewarding to spend their time organizing parties,
Quite the reverse: it's much easier to build a party and then maintain it in proportional systems, because you can get parliamentary seats and use that as a platform to grow and build. The first-past-the-post system has effectively frozen US politics in the 18th century.
> (2) The electoral college will probably never be abolished
Demand the impossible!
-- DRR