The right bemoans the fact that the American default position is no longer as disciples of traditional values and practices, while the left whines about the fact that we're too willful as individuals and not self-loathing enough as a species to concede the ideological high road to their largely communitarian ideals. It's like two boxers who have retreated to their corners; neither has the real strength to continue the fight, so they just come out each round, clinch each other and inflict meaningless body punches until the bell. Rinse and repeat! And we spectators don't have a lot of recourse; between gerrymandered districts and the great urban/rural/sociopolitical/socioeconomic divides, a situation of cynical stasis has been attained. The results of this past election shows that the practice of setting foxes loose in every public-sector henhouse simply exacerbates the problems rather than either fixing them or forcing a completely new set of viewpoints. Regardless of who won last November's election, the arena containing the nation's transportation issues would still be in a holding pattern -- no one has figured out how to address the runaway inflation regarding both the materials and labor required to effect progress. It's a dysfunctional illustration of Kingdon's principle of the effective policy "garbage can"; a series of partisan solutions in search of problems that can be "massaged" or reframed to make a fit. At this juncture, there's no practical way out of the quagmire.
All this could be discussed and dissected ad infinitum; but the funny thing is that by the time this was even close to being hashed out by current and future posters (likely to no particular conclusion), the CA 58/Centennial Extension would be open to traffic! And I agree that road development efforts proceeded much more smoothly when earmarks and reciprocal favors could be negotiated and traded freely -- and that process gave the Congressional critters something to do besides pontificating about ideals that none of them will ever achieve much less impress upon their constituents!