Jon Chait advances a somewhat different take on the GOP Civil War unfolding in the House. His argument is that, perversely, the House GOP seems to think it has MORE power during divided government than when it has full control. During Democratic administrations, the House GOP routinely tries to force crises, government shutdowns and even debt defaults to try and force Democratic presidents to do exactly the opposite of what they want.
I hadn't really thought of it in those terms, but he's right. Jon Jordan and Matt Gaetz weren't asking for Trump to do anything radically crazy, aside from repealing the Affordable Care Act. When it failed in the Senate, the Freedom Caucus just shut up and did nothing. We did not see the sort of manic nonsense that we are seeing from the 20 opponents to McCarthy's speakership.
McCarthy might still become Speaker, but if he does, the Chaos Caucus is going to force him to shutdown the government and default on our sovereign debt to repeal...I dunno, Critical Race Theory in kindergartens or some crazy shit. They would never do this to a Republican president.
Reagan's so-called 11th Commandment was "Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of Another Republican." The "Conservative" movement has been largely hierarchical and obedient to its leadership. What's happening now is a direct violation of a basic tenet of the post 1976 Republican Party, but their goals are in keeping with the post 1994 GOP.
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