I’m under no illusion that Mr. Ponnuru or Mr. Beckworth persuaded Ben Bernanke, then the Federal Reserve chairman, to launch a third round of quantitative easing in 2012 or to adopt the Evans Rule, which was a statement of Federal Reserve policy that inflation could rise above 2 percent when unemployment is high. My point is that Mr. Bernanke — a Republican appointed by President George W. Bush — felt free to act notwithstanding strident demands for tight money from conservatives outside the Federal Reserve.

In this way, the fight over monetary policy is rather similar to the fight over Common Core curriculum standards. These reforms, born out of a yearslong bipartisan consensus process and supported by policy wonks on both sides of the aisle, have become the latest object of conservative opposition now that President Obama is taking credit for them. The obvious move for a Republican politician wishing to please the conservative base is to oppose Common Core. For example, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who listed Common Core as a plank of his education reform agenda in 2012, is now an ardent foe.

Yet withdrawing from Common Core has proved surprisingly hard, even in places where Republicans control all branches of government, because the Republicans most involved in education policy — like Jeb Bush — are the least willing to abandon Common Core.

Look at Wisconsin. Gov. Scott Walker has decided he wants out of Common Core. But Common Core opponents have run into a roadblock in the form of the Republican chairmen of the State Assembly and Senate education committees, who have so far managed to prevent repeal legislation from passing. It’s one thing to oppose Common Core when your career is not steeped in education policy; it’s another thing to throw away years of work toward a policy you’ve long thought was good.

On inflation, as on curriculum, the conservatives who matter most have been generally able to resist the demands of their base.