Boy, you can say that again. The level of discourse around here has jumped dramatically in the last week or two. Where people used to post little other than one line insults, I see far more folks taking time to construct reasoned analysis, others debating it using facts, etc. It reminds me of why I first joined the site 7 years ago.
It's going to take years to build back up again, though. Part of that is due to the prevailing mindset espoused by the GOP going back to Bush senior: party power over anything, including principles.
If we want a GOP that reminds us of Ronald Reagan, we need to get back to principles first. Because it wasn't like that for the past 20 years, we have a lot of Republican citizens who aren't used to using their noodles anymore.
This is what irks me the most about people who try to say Carry_Okie isn't conservative. He doesn't sound like the old GOP, but that's good.