We can’t drop them till there as bad or worse than Republicans. But we need to actually show some solidarity and engagement to get them to work to be better than Republicans and better than they are. Which most leftists are loathe to do. If we’re going to have a path to rank choice voting, multi-party systems, and more small d democratic representation. The path to that is through Democrats.
It’s ideology versus reality. Here on Lemmy I’m sure you’ve seen plenty alienating potential allies over ideological purity. The problem with ideologies is that they are ideal but not real. Clinging to them dogmatically might give you a sense of superiority and insulation from blame in your own mind. But to everyone else you are still a big part of the problem. What is the value of an ideology if it cannot accomplish anything good? What good is ideological purity? Is useless. And yet many people still use it as a substitute for a personality.