The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.
The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry definition. No matter how carefully a project is planned, something may still go wrong with it. The saying is adapted from a line in “To a Mouse,” by Robert Burns.
Newt Gingrich planned a permanent partisanship whereby republicans and democrats would no longer work together for legislation. That meant no compromise, no negotiation, no watering-down what republicans wanted. It also meant hyper-partisanship whereby a minority within the republican party would dictate the terms of legislation, the choice of justices on the Supreme Court, and distribution of funds by the RNC.
Karl Rove planned for a permanent republican majority in the House, in the Senate, and in state governorships and legislatures. With the assistance of republicans in elected offices, severe and widespread gerrymandering cut out districts that require at least 75% of democratic voting to win elections in districts.
RNC leadership, starting with Haley Barbour in 1993 and continuing to present RNC Leader Ronna Romney McDaniel, have used their muscle to keep moderate republicans from asserting their voices in contrast to conservatives and RW movement conservatives by threatening to withhold campaign money and/or running another candidate during the next primary.
Despite all efforts for a minority, really a handful of rogue republicans, to "reform" American democracy as demonstrated recently by the leadership of the Senate (e.g., not holding hearings on Merrick Garland, secret creation of Trumpcare, hit-and-run voting on Trumpcare), the democratic principles still in effect in Congress have prevented the total coopting of this country.
Now there is whispering about bipartisanship, for certain republicans who want to work with democrats on Trumpcare. The plan was to NEVER go through democrats for future legislation.
Hopefully, Trumpcare will remain rhetoric for the timebeing (as I don't believe it's really going away). The remainder is politics, how each party will use the other party in the 2018 election cycle.
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