WASHINGTON — Sting once sang, “If you love somebody set them free.” But when it comes to the Republican Party’s internal battle with its Tea Party faction, the GOP should take a lyric from Ray Charles and tell Ted Cruz and his crew, “Hit the road, Jack!” If they want a party, let them go out and form their own.

It’s hard not to feel sorry for the GOP. The ridiculous and needless federal government shutdown lasted as long as it did in part because the Republican party’s long simmering identity crises burst into a full-scale civil war. While the party’s leadership quickly realized that using the federal appropriations process as a means to attack Obamacare was a losing battle, they couldn’t call it off wholesale because Cruz and other Tea Party loyalists were prepared to carry on the attack indefinitely. When GOP leaders ultimately agreed to end the fight, the Tea Party was incensed. Now, there is no chance that the fractured party will come together and play nice for the sake of mid-term elections and the 2016 presidential race.

Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of room for differing views within a party. But when a faction is fundamentally at odds with a party’s establishment, it becomes like a flesh-eating bacteria. You have to cut it out before it becomes fatal.

Consider where we are after the shutdown: Tea Party members are pretty pleased with themselves, and have no inclination to change their views or tactics. To say that the rest of the GOP is unhappy with the Tea Party is an understatement. Cruz’s gang is also hemorrhaging support from the American public, if polls are to be believed. Business groups — the bread and butter of the GOP for many years — are at odds with the faction and its anti-corporate message. Meanwhile, the Republican Party as a whole took a major hit in the polls after the shutdown, meaning many Americans don’t know or care who within the party is to blame for its role in the Washington gridlock. And many Republicans have had enough.

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Republicans like those found in the Bay State should be first in line to cut the Tea Partiers loose. Massachusetts is a place that, despite its reputation as a liberal bastion, is full of folks who happily support candidates with moderate social views and conservative fiscal ideals. But the increasing pressure on Republican candidates to appeal to the party’s conservative base, including the Tea Party, has produced weird results, such as Mitt Romney’s inexplicably sharp ideological right turn and Scott Brown’s decision to first distance himself from the national GOP, and then flee the Bay State in search of a place where his type of Republican would be welcomed and not derided.

The GOP needs to break up with Teddy and the Cruzers now. This isn’t even a party issue — another shutdown will hurt everyone.