It would be hard to find a time in the 168-year shared history of the Democratic and Republican parties when their ideologies, policies, and even values have been so far apart. Putting aside the question of whether we are a democratic republic or a republican democracy, the success of representative democracy is predicated on elected representatives seeking to build consensus and finding areas where compromises can be reached. Yet the parties share so little with the other in terms of points of view that there is little overlap between Democrats and Republicans on much of anything.