GOP: psychological protest or conservative alternative?

I enjoy reading opinion pieces by conservative journalist David Brooks. Recently he wrote, in a piece titled The Mother of All No-Brainers, about how the GOP is getting tremendous concessions from Democrats in the debt limit talks but feels that factions in the GOP will not allow any kind of deal to go through. He describes it this way:

But we can have no confidence that the Republicans will seize this opportunity. That’s because the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative.

He goes on to describe this faction saying that "The members of this movement:"

• do not accept the logic of compromise, no matter how sweet the terms.
• do not accept the legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities.
• talk blandly of default and are willing to stain their nation’s honor.
• have no economic theory worthy of the name.
• have taken a small piece of economic policy and turned it into a sacred fixation.

He ends by observing that "Democrats have stopped making concessions" and are "coming to the conclusion that if the Republicans are fanatics then they better be fanatics, too."
I believe in compromise but feel that idea has sadly lost steam in congress as both parties seem to be controlled by fanatics that are not interested in addressing serious problems.