Would reward the instinct to compromise. The lack of which is the single greatest threat to our future. Nobody can do anything of consequence on their own in a 50/50 country.

A big part of repub talking points are that this dysfunction is really all the dems’ fault. After all, McCarthy would definitely have rescued Pelosi in those circumstances (sure - if one completely reinvents the history of the bitterness of the republican conference to her as Speaker, but hey, I can’t PROVE he wouldn’t have). It was all those dems joining with 8 rwnjs.

Well, I think for that idea to hold any water at all, repubs should be a bit less committed to “discussion with dems” as political suicide. If our primaries generally gave power to more than just the extremes, I think the opposite of your prediction would be true. Voters would reward compromise.

Question is “how do we keep our fringe thinkers on the fringe instead of letting them choose our candidates?”