I don't think the parties are equal by any means, the Republican Party is clearly FAR worse currently. However I also don't think we should just forget all the problems the Democratic Party has had and continues to have and cling to their leadership blindly as our salvation...
The Nixon-era "Southern Strategy" began a long war to steal the racist vote from the Democratic party, and both parties fought that war hard all the way through the end of the millenium... Even Clinton (and Biden) in the 90's were still blowing hard on their "tough on crime" and "war on drugs" dog whistles trying to scrape back some of that support...
The big change is, somewhere between 2000-2008...The Republicans finally won that war - and they got virtually *all* of that scum unanimously on their side... Leaving the Democratic party free of it.
Over the years, people noticed the trend of scum moving rightward - and they've jumped ship to the left. The more sensible ones presumably jumped ship first - but as time has gone on more and more have finally realized the sort of people that have been taking over more and more of the party...and even the more stubborn/uninformed people who aren't outright racists have left the party.
Now we are reaching the tipping point where Trump (being the moron he is) doesn't even try to hide it anymore, and openly embraces that base of support... And even some of the most deluded Republicans who have had their heads in the sand are starting to wake up - though not all of them have even now, since social media echo chambers can be remarkably effective at keeping those heads buried...
The Republican party won that war, and they got the worst of the worst - and they almost certainly can't recover. I hope the party officially ceases to exist.
However the Democratic party still has the same leadership they've had for most of that time. They may have been smart enough to either come to their senses and give up racism...or at least to pretend to for the cameras/votes... But I don't think we should forget how happy they were to fight for those very same scum when they thought they had a chance at winning their support.
We need a *new* party (preferably 2, but only 1 party is on the brink of actual failure) - formed from people who are fed up with the established leadership of *both* current parties and want to see actual change in this country.
It doesn't do us any good if we finally get rid of the Republican party and either install an unchallenged Democratic Party Oligarchy - or let the racist nutjobs form the literal "Na(tional) s(cumbag) i(nc)" party as their only opposition...
It is a long shot - but what this country needs is a return to honestly held convictions and good-faith discussions to sincerely come to actual majority agreement on how to try to un-fuck ourselves. And to get that - we need to hold them all accountable and force some level of change - not just embrace them because they pass the insanely low bar of "better than Trump".
Ranked choice voting would be a solid first step, since it would remove much of the power the parties wield in general. However that very removal of power is why the Democratic party will *never* allow it, any more than the Republicans will. So...I still think we need a new major 2nd party, at least long enough to force it through.