In a republic such as ours, while the interests of the minority are supposed to be protected from extreme trampling, the minority is not supposed to rule outright. The Republican Party holds a minority position. They have dominance over but one chamber of Congress. They lost the Presidential election. Although they officially retained the House majority, they got fewer total votes in the elections for the House than Democrats did (which hints at their having retained that technical majority only by way of gerrymandering).
As such, nobody should expect the GOP to be getting their fondest desires in a big way, re-writing standing law to eliminate major legal accomplishments of the other party. The GOP lost in 2012! They LOST! One does not lose an election season and come out of that loss with a mandate for one's platform ... the platform that lost ... the platform that the electorate by and large rejected.
Yet despite that loss, they've managed to push significant reductions in spending, overwhelming the voices of economists pointing out that reduced government spending is the last thing our economy needs right now. And the Democrats, whether just seeking to get something done or perhaps also not listening to economists, have compromised quite frequently. Much to the displeasure of the Democrat's base. Those who're writing apologetics for the Republican Party today had to work very hard to spin this one as anything other than the GOP overreach that it was.
