That is for sure. ;-) I've been playing a lot of music lately, and enjoying it to the utmost.

The stated ideologies of the 2 parties, as GfS says, are quite different, and that's why people will tend to favour either one or the other of those 2 parties. Perfectly understandable. That's why I like the Democrats the better of the two. You see, the stated ideologies of the 2 parties HAVE to be different in order to create the sort of divisive drama that election campaigns are built upon. And besides, those ideologies are meant to appeal to separate constituencies, and they go back to long-established traditions and theories about how best to organize a society. Hell, I think you could trace it all the way back to Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, if you wanted to, Burr being the classic "Republican" type (although the party itself didn't exist at that time) and Hamilton being the classic "Democratic" type. Burr eventually shot Hamilton dead in a duel.

This difference in stated ideologies would be fine, and would result in placing a really viable choice before the public, if those parties were acting honestly, but they're not. They're being deeply compromised by the power of money and lobbying. Therein lies the problem.

In regards to Aaron Burr, the following biographical material is interesting:

Burr's character put him at odds with the rest of the "founding fathers," especially Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton, leading to his personal and political defeats and, ultimately, to his place outside the golden circle of revered revolutionary figures. Because of his habit of placing self-interest above the good of the whole, those men felt Burr represented a serious threat to the very ideals for which they had fought the Revolution. Their ideal, as particularly embodied in Washington and Jefferson, was that of "disinterested politics," a government led by educated gentlemen who would fulfill their duties in a spirit of public virtue and without regard to personal interests or pursuits. This was the core of an Enlightenment gentleman, and Burr, his political enemies felt, lacked that essential core. Indeed, it was Hamilton's belief that Burr's self-serving nature made him unfit to hold office—especially the presidency. Jefferson, though one of Hamilton's bitterest enemies, was at least a man of public virtue. This belief led Hamilton to launch his unrelenting campaign in the House of Representatives to prevent Burr's election to the presidency, favoring his erstwhile enemy Jefferson, instead. Later in Burr's life, Jefferson, in turn, would go so far as to push the boundaries of the Constitution in his attempt—in the charging and trying of Burr for treason—to eliminate Burr.

Burr, I would say, was a prototype of the modern Republican tradition, as espoused by Ronald Reagon and the neocons who have followed in the wake of the Reagan era.

As for politicians who genuinely embody the ideals held by Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton...they barely exist at all anymore, and not just in the USA.