It’s the quintessential ending to the fractious eight-year House GOP majority, which was dominated by knife fights between GOP leaders and conservatives. Since Republicans took power on a tea party wave in 2010, hard-liners have tried to force their more pragmatic-minded leaders further right — ultimately driving one speaker, John Boehner, out of town and threatening to do the same to his replacement, Ryan.
When Trump came to Washington, these conservatives found a more willing partner in a powerful position. And over the past two years, they’ve perfected a strategy of circumventing GOP leadership by appealing to Trump and his instincts to please the base.
They squashed Ryan’s initial Obamacare repeal bill because it wasn’t conservative enough. They trampled the speaker’s attempt to craft a moderate GOP immigration proposal with a fix for Dreamers. And now, they’re ending two years of Republican hegemony over Washington by cheering Trump to shutter a quarter of the federal government just days before Christmas if he doesn’t get his wall.
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