GOP always loses these kind of fights

There's a reason.  They accept the premises of their adversary.  The kind of fight I'm referring to is the debt battle, which was discussed in a recent Ace of Spades post.  Consider when Ronald Reagan was President.  Back then, the Senate and the Presidency was controlled by the GOP, and the House was controlled by the Democrats.  This is the reverse of the situation today.

You'd think Reagan won all those fights now wouldn't you?  But he didn't.  He compromised because "he had to".  Yet, Obama doesn't think he has to, and his supposed opponents, the GOP, agree when they let Obama have whatever he wants.  When Obama won't compromise, that's a victory for the Democrats.  Reagan did compromise, which is also a victory for the Democrats.  Then there should be no surprise that the march is continually towards the left when you declare unilateral disarmament before you start your war.

The so-called right is so brainwashed that they fight on the terms that their opponents set for them.  They may not even know that they are doing it.  Their acceptance of the premises of the left is so deeply rooted that they can't step outside of it and see what they are doing.

The offending quote on Ace

Charles is correct that defeating the debt ceiling hike was a losing game for the GOP. That’s why I opposed pretending to use it last fall. --- Drew M.

This is wrong as I have noted for these reasons:

1. They are assuming that they are going to lose the battle even before they start. 
2. They are basing an electoral strategy of winning back the Senate based upon ObamaCare, when there's reason to believe that it won't be the savior of the GOP.
3. The claim that there is no alternative but to cave in to the Democrats because of the threat of a default is also wrong because they could demonstrate that this is not true either.  Default is a weapon that the Democrats are using.  Why should the GOP concede that this is a weapon that only the Democrats can use?  Why must it inevitably lead to conclusion that the GOP can't fight this?

It's all in their heads.  They can't win because they are addicted to losing, I suppose.  Whatever they do, it must always fail.  So why bother trying?  When it does fail, they'll just blame the low information voters.