Rule and ruin
By 
A government shutdown resulting from Republicans being unable to assemble a majority coalition for their own bills is pretty much all you need to know about how well reactionary nihilism functions as a governing philosophy:
Speaker Kevin McCarthy suffered yet another stinging defeat Thursday, as a handful of conservatives tanked a key vote that was supposed to signal the way out of days of intraparty bickering.
Instead, GOP hardliners again blockaded the floor for the second time in three days — leaving McCarthy unable to call the party’s own defense spending bill to the floor. This time, though, it came as a shock to many GOP leaders, who believed they won over enough holdouts to finally bring up the Pentagon funding bill.
Perhaps more ominously, the ultraconservatives’ gambit proved what many in the GOP had already suspected: That McCarthy is essentially powerless to avert a government closure that could begin Oct. 1.
Across the conference, House Republicans erupted in fury.
“This is painful. It gives me a headache. This is a very difficult series of missteps by our conference,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) told POLITICO. “If you can’t do [the defense bill], what can you do?”
McCarthy is obviously a sub-medcority, but his job is impossible because a critical mass of the Republican conference is philosophically opposed to governing — it’s a perpetual chicken-and-egg loop, like the Bears offense.