The Freedom Caucus is not the problem. The GOP Establishment is unable to learn the lessons the Democrats are teaching for free.
When Buckley endorsed Barry Goldwater for President he understood that Lyndon B Johnson would likely win, but he know Goldwater would push the country and the party to the right. It was not about the candidate who would lose the least (Nelson Rockefeller, then) but the candidate who would be best for America.
It is the duty of the Republican party to message the American People relentlessly: to take Conservative/Libertarian ideas and sell them to the people even if it means losing a few elections now, to win bigger ones later. The Democrats have lost lots of elections for being too Left, but they have also come back to win big. I say that the losses and the wins here are completely related, that the losses set the stage for the wins. Republicans have had no big wins for decades.
Point: a 60% cloture vote in the Senate dates only to the post-Civil War era and was widely supported by the South to protect Jim Crow. It is useless today. If people don’t want huge Democratic spending bills, they can stop voting for so many Democrats.
Point: Since 1944, employer tax breaks for "health care" has been a boondoggle, hurting the aged, children, the unemployed. Obamacare just piles another layer of crap on top of that original 1944 crap. Outlawing employer health insurance in favor of allowing people a tax break for emergency health insurance (what used to be called disability and major medical) and health savings accounts for the rest would be a huge step forward.
Point: the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 gives the Executive the right to pass laws, unless 61% of the Senate disagrees strongly enough to overrule the agency. Eric Cantor sent me a personal fund raising note complaining that Obama was, like, totally abusing all these powers the Congress gave him without once mentioning why they might like to revoke that power.
I could go on, and that is the problem.
