Yes. If Republicans won't consider cutting military spending, they're not serious about cutting the deficit. And if Democrats won't consider cuts to other entitlement programs, they're not serious about cutting the deficit. I lean right, especially on fiscal issues, and there just isn't a party of fiscal restraint right now. Clinton as President with Gingrich controlling Congress made some seriously great moves, including really difficult ones that some partisans resigned over; we've had nothing comparable since. You're right that at present, it's all tribalism.

I self-host an instance for my personal / family use. It's federated, so I can still engage with others; the UI keeps getting better and better; it supports voice and video calls as well as messaging (using Opus for audio, so the voice quality is good); and it's end-to-end encrypted.

Outside that ecosystem, I've used Signal as my default SMS app on Android since it was known as TextSecure. I've been surprised by how many people in my Contacts list have started using Signal since Parler was cancelled.