From an analysis on cnn.com by Zachary B. Wolf headlined “The House speaker crisis is part of the GOP’s identity crisis”:

The immediate, unanswered question facing the US government is which Republican lawmaker can untie this knot, unite their party and reopen the House of Representatives.

The larger issue that may be even more difficult for Republicans to solve is figuring out what they even stand for at this point. Is it the party of limited government or the party that can’t figure out how to govern?