Members of the Squad apparently don’t like the analogy to the House Freedom Caucus, but it is fair; both are small groups of self-righteous ideological extremists who make life miserable for the leadership by creating obstacles to the ordinary day-to-day operation of government. The difference between the two is one of scale; the HFC has more votes, and therefore more clout, than the Squad.
The factional phenomenon is not limited to the US. The Conservative Party has the ERG, which operates largely as a party within a party. The number of factions within Labour is growing, too. What is going on here?
The answer is social media. In the past, if you were a backbencher, the only way to make a name for yourself was to shut up, follow the leadership, and wait your turn. Today, rookies with large followings on Twitter feel entitled to chart their own course. And they do.
So how does this end? When the backbenchers slowly come to realize that retweets are not the same as votes, and that mobilizing the blue base in California doesn’t win you any seats in Montana, where you actually need them.