Exactly. And for whatever that is worth? Probably nothing. When the nominal opposition of the progressives has accepted, either explicitly or tacitly, most of their premises then what difference does it make (to quote one of our favorite people)?
For my entire lifetime, the best you could hope from the Republicans is that they would drag their feet. There has never been any push back in the other direction. Reagan made a good effort at it, but he had a Democratic Congress the whole time, not to mention mandarins from his own party who couldn't end the Reagan Revolution fast enough after 1988. Sadly the Reagan era appears to have merely been a brief plateau in an otherwise consistent trend line.
Plus at this point we could have the absolute perfect candidate, one who possessed the right critical mind, oratory skills, etc, and this candidate would still lose. Anyone who suggests merely slowing the rate of expenditure on entitlement programs (forget actual cuts) is electoral dead meat. Mathematical reality is our only ace in the hole now.