What tactic should they have used to get those big things passed? Shutting down the government is pretty much the only thing they weren’t willing to do.

Again incremental change is the only thing that could get done with the power they were given. They still support major change but they don’t have enough power to get it done. Yes it sucks that one party is trying to improve things and they can’t get more done. But what else would you have them do with the amount of power they were given?