Why a Hillary presidency would trigger a golden age of Republican obstructionism

You could also argue that making themselves into an obstructionist party put the Republicans in the situation they are now with Donald Trump as their presumptive presidential nominee. They worked their constituents into a frenzy of rage, promising that they could stop Obama in his tracks, and when despite their efforts Obama continued to occupy the Oval Office, Republican voters concluded that their party’s leaders were ineffectual and weak. So those voters turned to the biggest “outsider” they could find, a candidate who could barely tell you what the three branches of government are and who thinks that economic growth is a function of the president personally “making deals” with various people.

But congressional Republicans will probably put the blame elsewhere for Donald Trump, or nowhere at all, telling themselves he was a political lightning strike no one could have predicted. They’ll look up Pennsylvania Avenue and see Hillary Clinton, someone they’ve loathed for a quarter-century, sitting so smugly in the White House, thinking she can do things like pass legislation and govern the country. And they’ll decide, once again, that their only course of action is to fight her to their dying breaths.