JOHN HINDERAKER: “Speaker John Boehner’s resignation reflects the fact that virtually every Republican in the United States is disappointed in the Congress. With Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate, it is hard to point to any significant accomplishments in the last eight months. At a minimum, I had expected a Republican Congress to pass a series of popular, conservative measures which the Democrats would be obliged to filibuster (if they had the votes) or veto. Instead, Congress has done little or nothing to put President Obama on the defensive. . . . Let the Democrats try to explain why they have shut down the government in a fit of pique over funding for Planned Parenthood–which is not even a government agency.”

And this, more than anything, explains the Trump phenomenon.