Rather a lot of the republicans who got elected did so on a "NO COMPROMISE" platform, which is kind of scary, short-sighted, and terribly, terribly unrealistic, but it resonated with enough voters to get them elected. (these are the same people who cried foul at having $Liberal_Agenda 'shoved down their throats.' but look so forward to doing the same when it's their agenda.)

The difficulty and dilemma inherent in dealing with that mindset was summed up rather nicely in a Doonesbury strip a while back. There's just no possibility for dialogue when one side refuses to give any ground, ever, or even acknowledge that any other viewpoint is valid. With luck, they'll set a new speed record for shooting themselves in the foot.