The New York Times's Nobel-prize-winning economics columnist, Paul Krugman, writes, "it's becoming ever more apparent that real power within the G.O.P. rests with the ranting talk-show hosts." Then Mr. Krugman himself rants, "the new Maine platform is if anything a bit milder than the Texas Republican platform of 2000, which called not just for eliminating the Federal Reserve but also for returning to the gold standard, for killing not just the Department of Education but also the Environmental Protection Agency, and more. Somehow, though, the radicalism of Texas Republicans wasn't a story in 2000, an election year in which George W. Bush of Texas, soon to become president, was widely portrayed as a moderate."
The country managed to get along without an EPA until the 1970s, when the agency was created by President Nixon. Often, the definition of a ranting radical is in the eye of the beholder.