From Jonathan Bernstein:
The Trump era has changed a lot of things in Washington, but House Republicans have behaved in a remarkably familiar way, given their split between mainstream conservatives and radical ones which dates back even before the Tea Party’s rise at the beginning of the Obama administration. The Freedom Caucus took things several steps further, helping to convince House Speaker John Boehner to retire in 2015. Here’s how he described those lawmakers in Vanity Fair last year:
They can’t tell you what they’re for. They can tell you everything they’re against. They’re anarchists. They want total chaos. Tear it all down and start over. That’s where their mindset is.
In an era when the Republican Party has almost universally adopted very conservative positions, it’s difficult to establish oneself as a True Conservative on policy grounds alone. Style becomes crucial.