The Dogmatic Political Minds-Set

I was watching a Bill Mahler political satyre last night.He had two Repubilcans as his guests.At one point the relevancy of the Kennedy Administration was raised.Both Republicans said he was irrelevant.If Kennedy had been a Republican, it is certain their opinions would have been reversed.
So who or what is controlling Democracy?Are we all still in lock-step with Party dogma? Or is independent opinion ever to surface?
Thank god the latter is gradually being realizedOne can see why Obama is doing so well