So are we talking politicians or are we talking regular citizens? Because there’s a big difference.

No, there isn't. Regular citizens demonstrate their leanings in who they vote for. If you knowingly vote for a progressive/fascist/communist/theocrat/whatever, then that makes you a progressive/fascist/communist/theocrat/whatever.

I read somewhere that over 80% of Americans were against the total abortion ban, for example.

Then why did they vote for candidates from a party that's spent the last several decades promising to ban abortion?

Over 80% of Americans may not be willing to directly admit that they want a total abortion ban, but significantly fewer than 80% of Americans are actually opposed to it. That was firmly proven when they voted for the Republicans who passed said ban, and unless there is a blue wave next year, it will be proven once again.

I hear people all the time, whether they voted Democrat or Republican, say aiming along the lines of “I don’t agree with a lot of things about (who they voted for) , but it’s better than the alternative!”

The Republicans want to institute a dystopia of slavery and christofascism, and that's somehow better than the alternative? No. No, it is not. That's absurd.

And that, in a nutshell, is why career politicians are killing the US.

What's killing the US is the extreme cruelty of a significant and growing fraction of its populace. Career politicians are merely doing what the populace wants.