Dude, party loyalty is one hell of a drug, there's just always going to be people who will vote for the same party over and over again. But it also does seem a not so insignificant number of dems vote dems because they see Republicans as the literal devil and see the democratic party as a lesser evil, and you could also say there's a crowd on the exact opposite end with a similar line of thinking.
Also no, this is America, land of the free and burgers, not Iran land of the goat fucking and ever collapsing government. I know shit is tough in these times, but I have faith things will get better, we've been through darker days before after all.
Though I also understand Cali has a massive problem which I believe is due to the dems being an effective
dominant party over there, which kills the motivation for the government on doing anything. "Why bother implementing high speed rail that will help commuters that need to drive 2 hours, our majority is so solid they'll vote us in next term regardless." It's horrid and part of the cancer causing everyone to flee California. I don't see things getting better in that state anytime soon, but also believe things inevitably will, though in the meantime, America is a huge place.