I think the corner the Republicans painted themselves into is nicely summed up by the analogy with the dog who unexpectedly catches the car. Now what?

Their paint was a tsunami of falsehoods about Obamacare, and after eight years of immersion in it, to put it simply, their brains were scrambled. How could they compose a workable plan to dismantle a fiction? How could the improve a delusion?

I agree with you that, however it turns out, their attack on Obamacare will have results they never intended, and will hate. Say it loud, say it proud: Single Payer! Medicare For All! I have seen the promised land!

But here's perhaps a hopeful thought: You know why history can never (exactly) repeat itself? Because we do remember history, some of us, imperfectly, and that knowledge creates quantum interference, a sort of observer effect, on the present.

Less airily, I'm observing that public discussion in recent months now routinely includes reflection upon the similarities between today and other historical periods.

You can be sure that nobody in Weimar Germany ever thought, "oh shit, not again!".

It's a thin reed, but maybe we can learn from history.