I can't comment on the substance of your post since I don't know how broadly the 'mask requirements' are/were applied in the US, but I do sympathise with the sentiment of it. Having only two parties to choose from is incredibly restrictive and makes politics even more polarising than it should be. I have 7 parties to choose from and it still feels too limited, there's none of them that I particularly like currently.
A two party system also seems to divide pretty much every issue in a 'left versus right' discussion, even when those issues have inherently little to do with that. For instance, your notion that being opposed to (excessive?) corona restrictions would make you seem 'right-wing' is very foreign to me. When everything is tied to the same two camps, it will naturally disencourage people from forming a unique set of opinions and instead they'll just stick to what their 'side' tells them to think.
