Two recent essays at the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog, here and here, describe the various means through which the Freedom Caucus has turned itself into an effective, unified bloc within the Republican Party.  Until I read these pieces, I had not understood the importance of the Freedom Caucus’ organizational structure.  Maintaining hierarchical control and a disciplined, unified group stance is obviously easier for a smaller group like the Freedom Caucus than for the Republican Party as a whole in the House.  Ironically, it is the ability of the Freedom Caucus to accept hierarchical control and unified decisionmaking that contributes to the political fragmentation of the House Republican Party.