Many people believe that party leaders set the ideological tone of their caucuses. This is not quite accurate. The leaders’ constituents — the caucus members — are the ones who set that tone and choose the caucus’s shared goals by consensus. What the leaders do is choose tactics for achieving the caucus’s goals. They play the role of the football coach or the general.
Every army has disagreements among its leaders, but they must agree on tactics to effect their strategy. Every football team must agree on the next play if it is to work. In the Senate, caucus leaders are chosen precisely to make such decisions. The weekend’s events demonstrate that some Republicans are not playing on the same team. This was not a simple, common occurrence of senatorial independence, but rather open defiance of caucus strategy — a decision by junior officers that their own tactical decisions take precedence over those of generals who were chosen for the job.
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