Policy and the Republican Civil War

Late last week, as the G.O.P. descended ever-deeper into civil war, Matt Yglesias and Jonathan Chait both had pieces up marveling at the absence of any actual policy disagreement between the populists driving the shutdown and the establishment/leadership/Senate Republicans trying to find a way out. “Intra-party schisms … are usually rooted in policy,” Chait wrote, but “mainstream Republicans and the tea party have fallen out almost entirely over political tactics.” Yglesias agreed, contrasting the party’s split on foreign policy, where there’s a big substantive gap between the Rand Paul/Justin Amash/Mike Lee libertarian wing and the more hawkish old guard, with the purely tactical split on economic policy:

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/10/16/policy_and_the_republican_civil_war_317953.html
Related Topics: Teyana Taylor   9/11 Memorial   joe flacco   us open   ryan braun