At both the presidential-campaign and congressional levels, the problems with the Republican Party are self-induced. The party fostered unrealistic expectations, and the failure to meet them emboldened a nihilistic streak in a core of House Republicans and with the likes of Donald Trump. There is little agenda, lots of lashing out.
This is what led some Republicans in the House, encouraged by presidential candidates, to threaten to shut down the government if funding for Planned Parenthood wasn't ended.
A shutdown was avoided last week, but there already are threats to try again in December.
Much of the bluster of this minority can be traced to the Republicans' successes in the 2010 and 2014 non-presidential elections. These victories largely were based on running against the then-unpopular President Barack Obama and over-promising.
At the federal level, the battle cry was: Elect Republicans and we'll defund the Affordable Care Act, slash federal spending, reform the wretched tax system and lower taxes, and restrain Obama. The party won both houses of Congress but hasn't been able to deliver on politically unrealistic commitments.
That has alienated the rank and file. A recent Bloomberg Politics poll showed that Republicans, more than two-to-one, have an unfavorable view of House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. One-third have negative views about their own party.
Reflecting these views, hard-core right-wing members in the House, many elected in those last two off-year elections, forced Boehner to resign.
At the presidential level, the same forces are on display with the three front-runners Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, who, combined, have less governing or political experience than any president of the past century.
Some Republicans acknowledge these problems, but insist the party is in good shape. They point out that, in addition to both Houses of Congress, they hold 31 of the 50 governorships and that in most of these states, they also control the legislature. But not much of this success had to do with any Republican initiatives; it was more linked to the party's ability to ride the anti-Obama wave.
Moreover, as the Democrats learned a generation ago, after years of controlling everything but the presidency, agenda-setting and power flows from the White House.
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Albert Hunt is a columnists for Bloomberg View.
Editorial on 10/06/2015