Tom Tancredo

When William F. Buckley, Jr. ran for mayor of New York City in 1965, he was asked, “What will you do if you win?” His reply: “Demand a recount.” He, of course, was being flippant. But if I had heard Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell utter those words prior to the last election, I would have believed they were serious: They did not want Trump to win.

What else save the abject fear of governing can explain the reluctance of Republican leaders to carry out a Republican agenda after the history-making political events of 2016? Republicans have maintained a majority in both the Senate and House, also in governorships and state legislatures, and elected Donald Trump as president. The Republican Party now controls 69 of 99 state legislative chambers and 33 governorships, the most it has held since 1922. Republicans will have total control of government (legislative chambers and governorship) in 25 states, the most since 1952. Democrats control only five.

These amazing statistics send one message: it is now time to govern! But apparently, the GOP can’t handle success and is working hard to surrender the reins of power.

I’ve heard McConnell and Ryan say they don’t think they have the votes for repealing Obamacare, reforming the tax code and securing the borders. My 10 years in the Congress tells me this is hogwash. When you have both houses of Congress and the White House, there is no excuse for failure – even when you don’t have 60 votes in the Senate. Besides the various parliamentary rules that can be employed, the sausage factory model of legislation is always available. Take for example, the Medicare Prescription Drug Act of 2003. It was a horrible bill and every Republican knew it. But President Bush wanted it and the Republicans held both Houses, albeit by only one vote in the Senate. The bill came to the floor late in the evening and when the vote was called, what was supposed to be a 15-minute vote turned into an all-nighter because they did not have 218 “Yeas.” Democrats didn’t want to give Bush the win, and half the Republicans saw the bill for what it was – the single biggest increase in government since Medicare. It stunk.

Then the real lobbying started. The president was calling members about 5 a.m. and badgering them. Every Cabinet member was dispatched to the House to lobby members with whom they had influence. The leadership team was actually calling the largest donors to the “No” voting members and asking them to call their reluctant representatives and urge them to change their vote. A colleague of mine who was a subcommittee chair had his chairmanship threatened. Promises and threats were made, and by 6:30 a.m., they had the 218th vote. I was a “No” vote, but I still wanted to throw up.

Eli Bremer

A few years ago, my wife and I were driving through the mountains when we rounded a blind corner and collided with a deer. We limped back to a repair shop with smoke billowing out from under the hood. Our insurance company decided to repair instead of total the SUV, insisting that the car would be as good as new after the repairs were complete. Foolishly, we did not contest this assessment. For months afterward, we noticed strange sounds and performance issues with the car. On numerous occasions, we returned the car to the repair shop to fix more problems.

Eventually, in complete frustration, we traded in the car for a new vehicle, realizing that our car would never truly be the same again. Needless to say, we were very upset with our insurance company for refusing to total the car and to the repair shop for not being more forthcoming about the difficulty in repairing a vehicle with so much damage.

As the era of Obama came to a close, I realized that the Obama presidency was similar to a car accident. From Obamacare to inept international relations, to increased regulations and the worst race relations in 50 years, to utilizing the military for social objectives while gutting their lethality, Obama effectively “crashed” the United States.

Unfortunately, during the lead-up to the 2016 elections, many Republicans promised to “uncrash” the country. In doing so, they were less than honest or realistic about how to fix the country’s problems. Some Republicans said they would “rip up Obamacare on day one.” Others said they would immediately end abortion. Others promised changes to the military. The conservative news conglomerates stoked the fire and never questioned politicians’ ability to deliver on the promise to “uncrash” the Obama era monstrosities.

Because of this, many people have unrealistic expectations about how quickly Obama’s legacy can be undone. Understandably, they now look to Congress and wonder why they are not delivering on the campaign promises that were made. In the same way that my insurance company and repair shop made irresponsible promises leading to improper expectations for my crashed car, Republicans made promises that have led to unrealistic expectations by their voters.

Our Founding Fathers put together a system that was built to be inefficient. They did not trust the government, so they designed it to be difficult to manage, even if you control most of the levers of power. This is a feature, not a bug, of the system. And the system is functioning as designed.

Republicans are now engaged in the difficult process of coming together with winnable coalitions and real solutions. Furthermore, despite the promises of Republicans in 2016, our country will never fully recover from the Obama era.

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Tom Tancredo represented Colorado’s sixth congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He lives in Lakewood. Eli Bremer is a three-time Pan American gold medalist in pentathlon and a former chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party. He lives in Colorado Springs.