How should the US fix partisan gridlock?

‘Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem.’ Thomas E. Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Norman J. Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute penned this opinion piece in the April 27th Washington Post.

It’s a scathing review of the extremism that has subsumed the Republican Party since notables such as Newt Gingrich and Lee Atwater first steered the GOP toward the far right. If you haven’t already read it, please do so before answering.

Mann and Ornstein make the point that the US today faces problems of almost overwhelming magnitude, yet partisan gridlock has us unable to act on even the least controversial of legislative proposals. Facing a GOP that’s increasingly rigidly and ideologically driven, what do we do? Do we just turn the keys over to them and let them drive the economy straight off the cliff as they came so near to doing in 2007? This year’s GOP Presidential Platform is shaping up to be George W. Bush on steroids. Do we vote them all out and risk the horrors of long-term, single-party rule? Can we invent a new and viable third party or parties? Can we return the GOP to it’s former sane, center-right self? Or do we just leave things as they are and let the debt finally bankrupt the nation?

Those seem to be the options from my perspective. Perhaps you have a better idea. How should we fix partisan gridlock in Washington, DC?