i suspect a fast death for the democrats would in theory be preferable, so they stop existing as a crippled placeholder for leftish energy to coagulate around and dissipate while republicans entrench their power and dismantle protections. a new political party could then potentially arise without half of the dissipation mechanisms, ideally an actual progressive party with teeth. and without the establishment faux left party taking up space, passively political people opposed to republicans will vote for the new progressive party by default.

unfortunately we're probably doomed to a slow trudge into worse and worse gerontocracy and a slide rightwards.

but yeah regardless the best we can do within the bounds of electoralism is play on the representatives' material interests: as long as they feel their seat is secure, they have no reason to give up corporate money at the behest of workers. there has to be an actual threat that faux left politicians won't get elected if they don't follow through on progressive policies. lesser evilism in this context just lets them get away with being milquetoast and ineffectual

meanwhile we can organize outside of electoralism so that hopefully in a few years there's leftist power structures that can seize opportunities, be they electoral/political or economic.