… Boehner wasn’t part of the new wave; he was an old-line conservative who believed in blocking the agenda of a Democratic president, but also accepted the need to compromise to keep the federal government running. And that enraged many of the insurgents, who had promised voters they wouldn’t agree to half-measures. …
As radical as the insurgents are, it would be wrong to dismiss them as a fringe group. Even as they antagonized Boehner, they built a national constituency that may be a majority among grass-roots Republicans. …
The GOP’s insurgent impulse, in other words, isn’t merely a result of gerrymandering or conservative microclimates in rural America. It’s a product of the same widespread anger that has made Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina potential presidential nominees. CONT.
Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times