Reply #9: not true.

[Lexingtonian]

I don't like them either, as a group, but they remain the party founded on and defined by crude and blatant selfinterest.

From their Constitutional definitions-
The House will always be plagued with corruption or puritanism.
The Senate will always be plagued with obstructionism or being pushovers.
The Presidency will always be plagued with overreaching or sloth.
The Supreme Court will always be plagued with activism or passivism.
And usually both problems at the same time, in each case.

My own interpretation of the Republican Congress at the moment is that it is worn and tired of what it is doing. Sure, it looks fairly functional on its own terms, but the energy is flagging and the arguments are getting cranky and they don't really believe in their Big Ideas individually anymore.

For another thing, it's not actually much fun being powerful and high status in American society if you can't show yourself in public much, if you can't get any positive media coverage, if people at large are all convinced that you're part of a dysfunctional enterprise that is sinking into criminality without a point. You can run GM into the ground by incompetence or be a ruthless Mafia don or run a stupid but puristic Third Party and still get respect in American society. But you can't be a corrupt Senator of a party in decline and get respect.