On the surface, the major battle in Washington over the past three years has been between President Obama and his party on one side and, on the other, a disciplined, unified Republican Party that has moved in lockstep to try to thwart his policies. But behind the scenes, another battle has been taking place within the Republican Party: a struggle between establishment Republicans like Mitt Romney and true-believing movement conservatives for whom Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, is a sainted figure.
For most of Obama’s term, the conservative faction has been ascendent, most visibly during the 2010 midterm elections, when Tea Party activists rose up and swept Republicans into power in the House. This grassroots energy, and the large, activist class of freshman House members it produced, effectively gelded John Boehner, the old-guard Republican speaker. Many of the defining fights in Congress during the past two years—over whether to shut down the government, default on the national debt, allow the payroll tax cuts to expire—were forced by this radical element within the Republican Party.
