I disagree. Not about the party loyalty to republicans but to the idea that people drop leaders for some perceived purity test.
I think it is a useful myth that excuses the behavior without looking into it more.

People want leaders that support and help them the individual. We are focusing on social ideology instead of financial which is the primary driving factor for Republican voters too. They are just more communal and expect members of their perceived community to be helpful to them and are taught to leave it to a higher power to solve.

Anyways, the Democratic party is not picking policy that is big tent. They are picking stuff that is hyper specific sub groups based on cultural aspects and invites awareness of whether you are in or not. It makes it appear fractured cause we are rallied as sub cultures under a fiscal conservative umbrella. If the policies were pushed as supporting the financially underserved it would be easier to recognize yourself as belonging but it would impact the financial support of billionaires which the party actually courts.

It appears we can’t win cause we are trying to play the same policies the republicans do under a guise of social structures need to be fixed instead of financial ones. Push for policies that are big tent and makes it easy to the average person to see them belonging in (poor) and thr support will come but the policies will need to change to. So which comes first?
It needs to be politicians cause no one will trust to elect the other way around.