GOP Nihilism Fully Revealed in Current Paralysis

Yet even Douthat’s definition of a faction may not fit, because what could be a more highly prized “constituent service” for the GOP than lowering corporate taxes? No, it wasn’t the farm bill that showed Republicans as irrevocably oppositional. It wasn’t even immigration reform, where promises of benefits to Republicans are often airy and abstract and thus justifiably dismissed. It’s wasn’t either of these high-profile legislative fails, but the damned grand bargain — yet again — that made clear the mess of U.S. government.