http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/18/david-keene-put-up-or-shut-up-time/print/‘Put up or shut up time’: America expects the Republicans to match big talk with action
By David Keene - The Washington Times - Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Phil Gramm, an avid waterfowler, and I were sitting in a duck blind on Maryland's Eastern Shore waiting for the birds to fly and discussing conservatism, politics and the Senate. After analyzing a few of his colleagues, the senator from Texas asked me, "What are the four most dangerous words a senator can utter on the Senate floor?"
I had no idea. He smiled and answered his own question. They are, he declared, "I have an idea." They are dangerous, he claimed, because "half of your colleagues will dive under their desks, and some will simply flee and could, in their headlong rush for the doors, knock you over." The Senate — or the House, for that matter — haven't changed since the Texan left, but it is high time they do.
Effective and successful political movements, as Harvard's Daniel Yergin observes in his "Commanding Heights," begin, win and (more importantly) hold power based not on organizational prowess or attacks on their adversaries, but on their ideas. When they lose faith in or replace those ideas with empty rhetoric, their hold on power atrophies.
It is high time congressional Republicans let the ideas that attract voters to their cause guide their actions in power. If they actually believe what they say on the campaign trail about free markets, lower taxes, out-of-control spending and limited government, those within their ranks who can turn those fundamental concepts into workable legislation should do so.
The American people have rejected the alternative. President Obama's dream of a Europeanized United States went down in flames on Nov. 4, not because too few voters went to the polls or because the Koch brothers bought the election or even because Republicans are definitionally racist and anti-women, but because the public glimpsed his dream and wants no part of it.
It is true that voters are fed up with a government that cannot solve the problems besetting them, but also that the message was to get along and compromise is a falsehood. Voters do want a Congress that works — and the first thing they want is a reversal of the Obama agenda. That's what Americans told Gallup's pollsters after the election when a majority of voters said they would prefer that the Republican Congress lead. Among voters and nonvoters alike, the Democratic Party is held in lower regard today than at any time anyone can remember.
When Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was first elected four years ago, Republicans also seized control of both houses of the Wisconsin legislature. In what was and still is regarded as a "blue" state, Republicans had power they had not enjoyed in 40 years. The governor-elect called his party's legislative leadership together to tell them it was "put up or shut up time." He told them his state's voters had "hired us" because the liberals who were running the place had been doing a terrible job. But, he warned them, if they didn't follow through on their promises, "the voters will and should fire us."
Mr. Walker's troops did what they were hired to do and have since survived everything their opponents have been able to throw at them. House Speaker John A. Boehner and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are now in control of Congress. They have their majorities not just because their party ran good candidates or because the "out party" always does well in midterm elections, but because the American people want them to do what they've promised.
That's going to take courage because they still have to contend with a president who doesn't play by the rules, but voters will remember Mr. McConnell's constant refrain of the past few years. He said over and over that Republicans couldn't do much without a majority in the Senate. Voters gave them that majority and are watching to see what they will do with it.
To argue that they still cannot do much because there's still a Democrat in the White House won't wash. Go along and get along for two years after such a clear message to lead will launch a backlash that could lead to a disastrous 2016.
It's the national GOP's "put up or shut up time." Voters are looking to the congressional Republicans to set the agenda and to put policies the American people want on the president's desk so that he will be forced to compromise, sign or veto them. Allowing the president to set the agenda, to believe that success lies in going along with what he wants simply because it will make Washington a more congenial place is not what the voters hired Republicans to do. What Congress does now will set the stage for the 2016 election. The future of the GOP and the direction of the country are now in the Republicans' hands, and people will be watching to see if their action will match their rhetoric.
