system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: The current fracturing of the Republican Party.

The Speaker of the House is stepping down and needs to be replaced. The Tea Party.  A different subset even more conservative than the Tea Party?  Government shutdowns.  The upcoming election.  

I know something is happening but I'm lost.
gpt
The GOP currently has two main factions: the Tea Party and the Establishment. The Tea Party is a minority, but also represents a fairly large and well-funded faction. And they are large enough that the establishment Republicans can't simply ignore them.

There's also a lot of Establishment Republicans who are sympathetic to the Tea Party (or, more likely, their constituents are), and there are a lot of Tea Party members whose constituents are starting to get weary of the more extreme positions. So it's not all black and white.

Chances are, this is all bluster for their own constituents, and some compromise candidate who is generally moderate but has a few positions important to the Tea Party will win. Which is how it's supposed to work.

For the record, this is hardly unusual. The Democrats had their own fracturing in the late-80s early 90s; a *lot* of Democrats weren't happy with Bill Clinton because he was too *moderate* (he was pro-death penalty, tough on crime, and wasn't averse to welfare reform, all things that at the time were anathema to "establishment" Democrats). In fact, both parties tend to have their own fracturing every 20 years or so.