Tactics.
Compromising first and depending on rational thought from people waking up to the fact that their world has changed. The country we all read about in History and Government classes doesn't exist and we are on the fast track to Tyranny and exploitation. Populism seethes throughout our body politic.
Rational thought and compromise is not the basket to put all of one's eggs in during a populist moment.
The Republican party understand this and have been delivering a strong message of NO! Principled and strong, even Angry, "No!" Like it or not, it's not a bad political tack during tumultuous times.
Republican Saboteurs
Democrats do not understand messaging and have actually branded the Republicans 'The Party of No', leaving the message of principle opposition intact and missing the greater point:
Republicans are Saboteurs. They are acting in bad faith and are attempting to sabotage our future to serve their ideology. They don't want a functional government. Their job is to destroy government. Period.
Once we've successfully articulated the Saboteur frame, we are then free to attack their formerly principled "No!" stance as the petty political argument it is and get down to the brass tacks of the not so public message of sabotaging government to make it easier to dismantle public protections and privatize vital public functions like water management, public safety, public health, transportation, military, etc. Privatize everything.
We can then paint them into corner after corner.
"You don't care about quality healthcare. All you care about is public sector failure. It must drive you crazy that Medicare and social security are still around. Why don't you tell us again why we shouldn't leverage the collective might of the American People to get cheaper drugs? Just own up to it and tell us how a government should not help it's Citizens."
"You don't care about Issue X. All you care about is public sector failure. It must drive you crazy that Program X and Program Y are still around and successful. Just own up to the fact that you don't believe in working for citizens.."
The Saboteur frame is extremely powerful, IMHO, and quite apt. It puts them on defense and calls into question the motivation for all action. It is dark and nefarious and full of distrust.
Used often enough and harsh enough and we might be able to make them own up to it. If they own up to their ideology they lose. If they back away from their ideology, they lose. If they start to second guess their political actions out of fear of playing into the Saboteur frame, they lose.
This puts the good guys on offense and makes the bad guys reluctant to speak.
Perhaps we could make this happen: