A frequent accusation that has been leveled at Republican politicians is that they did nothing to fight the Obama agenda, even though they had a majority in both houses of Congress. Supposedly the rank and file now see them as useless or unprincipled, and so are going with Donald Trump, or possibly Ted Cruz. One reason for inaction is that when the Republicans did take a stand, in 2013, under the initiative of Ted Cruz and others, the public blamed them for the results. A confrontation with Obama led to a partial shutdown of the government. Polls showed Republicans were blamed by 53% of the public. This echoed the experience of 1995, when led by Newt Gingrich the Republicans shut down President Clinton's government to halt excessive spending. Gingrich felt the brunt of the blame then also. The resulting cautious thinking was demonstrated by Republican Lindsey Graham who said in 2015: "...You want to lose in 2016? Let it be seen that the Republicans in the...(Read Full Article)